Some people do not believe that pet monkeys are capable of loving their owners, but do you know what? But is that is just an old wives’ tale? are monkeys really incapable of loving their owners?
Let’s start by answering the main question:
Do Pet Monkeys love their owners? Monkeys do love their owners if they have been with them since a young age. Monkeys can love each other and love humans as well, and your monkey will love you if you show strength, dominance, and care for them. Monkeys show affection by grooming, holding, cuddling, and lip-smacking.
This sums up the main answer, but to understand how can you make sure your pet monkey will love you, how to know who is your monkey’s favorite person, and what are the signs your monkey actually loves you, we’ll need to take a deeper dive into the complex emotions of your monkey.
Contents
Do Pet Monkeys love their owners, really?
Monkeys have been shown to be capable of complex emotions including love. Monkeys will love the dominant one in the pack, be it human or another primate. This means that your monkey is definitely capable of loving you.
They’re like us in that regard. They experience complex sentiments such as loyalty and jealousy.
The qualities and emotions that we associate with humanity are found in apes. They may be overcome by melancholy or loneliness, for example, when a parent or youngster has died. It’s devastating to witness.
They can also be overjoyed. I’ve seen their pure delight after the birth of a child, as they come together to inspect and praise it.
I’ve seen them furious, sulking, mischievous, bored, engrossed, determined, affectionate, passionate, cheerful, calm, thoughtful and jealous — attitudes that they clearly demonstrate without the need of words.
There’s a wealth of evidence that chimps are extremely clever — perhaps even more so than humans at certain things. Researchers in Japan conducted memory tests on five-year-old chimpanzees and adult humans, displaying random digits on a computer screen before blanking them out.
The chimps were able to quickly point to the locations where the figures had been, in the proper numerical sequence. They utterly dominated humans.
Humans and chimpanzees have lots of physical similarities, such as emotive faces and opposable thumbs. The connections go much further, though, because they share a lot of behavior that was previously thought to be uniquely human.
Of course it will depend on what type of monkey exactly you have, but if you have no experience owning a monkey, you can get the same benefits still if you opt for a beginner-friendly monkey.
You can learn what is the best pet monkey for beginners here and learn where to get it, how much it will cost you, and how to take good care of it.
Do Pet Monkeys get attached to humans?
Pet Monkeys will get attached to humans, but they will usually get attached to one person more than anyone else and it will not be even close or comparable how much they’re attached to this person than others.
This is something the owner should keep in mind and do not take advantage of this. You do not want to be that person who will get their monkey so attached but you do nothing about it, if anything just walk away because there’s no chance for your relationship to last between you two.
But once again do understand how smart these animals are and do not think they do not notice the difference between someone who is just acting out of pity and another person who actually cares about them.
It would be a good idea to keep your distance from their cages, so that if you do need to clean it up or feed them or something like that, you can do all this without getting too close.
This way you do not get too attached to your pet monkey and they do not attach themselves so much to you that it will be hard for both of you when the time comes to separate, which might happen if things do not work out between yourself and this person who is giving their love out more than anyone else and taking more care of your monkey than you do.
How do Monkeys show affection?
Monkeys show affection in different ways, so do not get surprised if your monkey does something you do not expect.
The most common ways monkeys show affection is by holding hands, cuddling, smacking lips, and grooming.
They might just stare at you from a distance and wave their arms in the air to show how happy they are of seeing you again after a certain amount of time that for some reason or another was shorter than usual which usually happens when someone is busy or just got caught up with something else.
They do also show affection in many other ways, some more complex than others depending on the type of monkey you have and how smart it is or even if they are a baby or an adult.
Can Monkeys understand emotion?
Monkeys are very expressive animals, and they can not only communicate certain emotions with body language and facial expressions, they can also understand them as well quite easily.
Monkeys can even communicate and understand complicated emotions such as empathy and loyalty.
How to make your pet monkey love you?
The best way to make your monkey love you is to treat it as well as you would treat any other pet, this means:
- Get them young, and start training and socializing them as early as possible
- Give them time and effort. Training a monkey requires patience and determination
- Take good care of them. Food, shelter, and medication are the basics, but you should also give them time and attention.
- Show them who is the alpha; set clear boundaries, make it clear what is okay and what is not, but never punish them physically by hitting or yelling.
- Give it time and be consistent. Monkeys can be stubborn and act despite their training. Consistency is key to not confuse them, and it will win at the end.
Of course do not expect your pet monkey to just love you out of the blue, do understand that this will take time and effort on both parts.
This does not mean you have to do everything possible for them or they will start loving you more than anyone else as mentioned before, if anything do practically nothing but give them basic care and they do not really need to do anything for you in order to show their affection.
There are many different things that can make a monkey feel loved, there is no specific way of doing this as it will be something your pet monkey might like or dislike and just do the opposite.
Conclusion: Pet Monkeys can love their owners?
Pet Monkeys can indeed love their owners.
Monkeys do express their love in different ways, it might be hard to understand this at first and get surprised when your monkey does something you do not expect.
The best way to make your pet monkey love you is by taking good care of them and showing who the alpha is while being consistent with training and socializing. Monkeys do understand emotion and do express them quite easily.
Monkey do not love unconditionally like humans do, they also do need time to get used to their new owners when you buy one from a pet store or breeder for example which means it will take some time before your monkey starts showing any kind of affection towards you even if the only thing you do is just give it food and shelter.
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