Baby Sloth No. 4 Arrives at Local Pet Shop

A longtime Dunedin pet shop is again the proud home of a healthy, bouncing baby sloth.

Mother and baby are doing fine, owner Larry Lipke said Friday.

The two-toed baby sloth, born shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, June 15, becomes the fourth captive-born at . It is considered rare for the animals to breed in captivity.

Only one other sloth has been born in captivity in the Tampa Bay area in the past 10 years, Lipke said Friday.

The baby has already been sold to a zoo in Ohio, Lipke said. It will be released within eight weeks to its new home, where Lipke said it will continue to be bottle and hand-fed. He said the zoo is likely going to incorporate the animal into its educational and public relation activities. 

"We wouldn't give it up if we didn't know they were educated," said George Talmadge, of Pet Safari.

Lipke's 27-year Main Street pet shop is home to three adult sloths: one male named Scarface and two females, Blondie and Baby.

The new mother, Baby, had . She . Blondie has also borne two sloths. Her first was born about four years ago. She .  

The pet shop and its owners and sloths have been featured and Animal Planet, Talmadge said.

Sloths are herbivores native to Central and South America’s rain forests. The slow-moving creatures live in treetops and eat a diet of leaves, twigs and fruits, according to the National Zoo. 

The gestation of a two-toed sloth is between 6 months to 11 and a half months, according to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Watch live inside the sloth house from Pet Safari's sloth cam. Also, you can track the sloth's progress on Pet Safari's Facebook page.