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World's largest rodent pet is an internet star - PHOTO

18 February 2010 [15:38] - TODAY.AZ
Lots of people have a pet hamster or guinea pig, but Melanie Typaldos decided to opt for a much larger rodent as a pet. In fact, she went for the largest rodent in the world - a capybara that weighs around a hundred pounds.
Now her pet capybara, named Caplin Rous, has become a bit of an internet star, with his own blog at gianthamster.com, a Facebook page and a Twitter stream with over 3,000 followers.

Caplin lives with Typaldos in her home town of Buda, Texas, where he goes for walks on a lead, swims in her pool, does tricks and even used to accompany her into work. However, she told the LA Times that the work visits stopped when 'someone complained there was a furry, pig-like animal in the building.'

Caplin Rous's name is a reference to the movie The Princess Bride, which featured the fearsome Rodents Of Unusual Size in a key scene.

Caplin, now two-and-a-half years old, has been with Typaldos since he was 11 days old (he was bred in captivity, not taken from the wild, but even captive-bred capybaras need to get used to their owners from a very young age). The idea of getting a pet capybara came from a trip to Venezuela, where Typaldos's daughter Coral got to hold a juvenile capybara and was instantly smitten.

But Caplin warns anybody else thinking of getting a pert capybara that, while they make good pets, there are downsides - she tells people to read the blog, which includes several incidents where Caplin has bitten her.


/Metro.co.uk/

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