Mole keeping

[uwe]

Hi guys.
I've recently acquired a mole and I wanna know how often they are kept. In short , is it a stupid idea.

[cynicman]

They need a large area to move around in, under soft soil. You can supply them with crickets, worms and beetles. You will also need to put plants in with tasty roots though from my knowledge they are more into meat.

They are very cute, but you will hardly ever see them, so the reward of getting to hold them and play with them is not as great an influence.

I've always decided to put them back into the wild, after playing with them for a little while.

Cute buggers

[Bernice]

Hi there Uwe...

Just a note...what you have there is NOT a mole... it is a mole-RAT, Keeping them is a bad idea as they are protected by law... also you cant just keep one, they are colony animals, that live in a type of 'hive' dominated by a single breeding queen, with all the members being her sons and daughters. if you keep it it will pine away and die very soon from the stress of being separated from its family. also you MUST release it back EXACTLY where you found it! they are VERY territorial and will kill an unknown individual, it can ONLY go back to its own territory and hope to live...

sorry for the bad news, but that is unfortunately an animal with no pet-potential... do the kindest thing and let it go home... will save it dying slowly pining away in fear and stress, and save you the heartache of getting attached only to have it die on you despite its best efforts...

Again... sry...

[cynicman]

Did some digging on that... and Mole Rats are better known as Blesmols.

==SNIP==
Blesmols live in elaborate burrow systems and different species exhibit varying degrees of sociality. Most species are solitary, but two species, the damaraland blesmol (Fukomys damarensis) and the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) are considered to be the only two eusocial mammals. These species are characterized by having a single reproductively active male and female in a colony where the remaining animals are sterile.
==END SNIP==
sauce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blesmol