Wild Baby Rescue Center: Week 2!

It's been a very busy week taking care of all the orphans and preparing the outside cages that were not cleaned out since last year. Monday started off by teaching a new intern, Kayla, how to feed and clean out the baby squirrel cages. There are only two groups left in the house that still need to be syringe fed formula. All the others are weaned and eating a mixture of peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pecans, and apples. Tuesday was the big "move all the squirrels to the barn" day. Since the outside squirrel cage has about 30 in it, there is no room for more. Most of the weaned squirrels that were inside were moved into larger cages in a room in the barn that also houses the chickens, goat, and fawns. I got to syringe feed the smallest of the three bunnies that are being cared for at WBR. And let me tell you, that is not a job for the impatient. The little thing takes FOREVER to eat. It probably took me an hour to feed a bunny that was only 3 inches long. But my supervisor, Hope, said that they always take long to eat and that I was a good person to feed them since I was so patient with it and that animals, especially bunnies, pick up on that. Wednesday another new intern showed up. Nick and I showed her how to feed and clean out the squirrels. They fed the two groups of squirrels and I got to feed the flying squirrels! Then the three of us went outside and I was in charge of directing the clean out of the groundhog cage. The hay and nesting boxes needed to be taken out, along with the dirt in the dig box. The dig box is a big wooden box that has a hole in the top and filled with dirt so that the groundhogs can dig and borrow in it like they would in the wild. This was not an easy task to begin with, considering how awkwardly shaped the groundhog cage is, but then add the 80 degrees and being in the direct sun. But anyway, we took shovels and put the dirt into a wheelbarrow and dumped it into the woods. We then refilled the box with new dirt. Then we had a not so happy end to our day. One of the fawns would not bottle feed so we tried to tube feed her. We thought it was going well, and even checked before we started that the tube was in her stomach and not her lungs but right after she basically passed out. She ended up aspirating it into her lungs anyway and she died. But on a lighter note, here are some pictures from this week.