Did you find a wild animal
that needs help?
How to know if a wild baby needs rescuing --- download this pdf to use as a guideline:
What should you do if you find wildlife you think are in need of assistance?
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•First, make sure the animal really needs help. See: http://www.wildliferescueleague.org/rescue.html to determine this. Some animals are accidentally “kidnapped” from the wild by well-meaning people. Also, download this pdf file for more information: Wildlife Rescue Guide.pdf
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•Make sure you are not putting yourself in danger by helping the animal. If the situation is too dangerous,
call animal control to help. Check your phone book or the internet to locate your local animal control officers. -
•Take precautions to avoid being bitten and to avoid direct contact with the animal: If you have gloves, wear them; or use a towel as a barrier between you and the animal.
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•If you’ve determined the animal DOES need help:
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•Place the animal in a box with a tight-fitting lid (but make sure they can breathe!) with some old fleece or shredded newspaper or even an old towel, so the animal can hide and feel safe. Don’t worry about bringing the nesting materials, if you have them. We won’t use them, and sometimes the nest contains fleas (yuck).
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•Keep the animal warm if it’s a baby. You can make a simple warming device by filling an old, clean sock about 3/4 full with regular store-bought rice (tie it off at the end) and microwave it until warm. Wrap in an old towel. Lay the baby next to it, but be sure it’s not too hot. Or, if at home, place a heating pad ON LOW ONLY under HALF of the box (this gives the animal a cool place to move to if it gets too warm).
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•Do NOT offer the animal food or water! Why? Because the animal is in a state of distress and first of all, it probably won’t eat or drink (if you were in an ambulance on your way to the hospital, would you want a cheeseburger?). Secondly, if it is dehydrated, it needs an ISOTONIC re-hydration solution, which water is NOT (water is good if you are ALREADY hydrated). Thirdly, if you are not VERY careful, the animal could inhale food/water into it’s lungs and end up with pneumonia - ESPECIALLY baby animals. --DON’T EVER GIVE COW’S MILK! Cow’s milk causes infant wildlife to have diarrhea, which can kill it.--
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•Keep the animal in a quiet, safe place and resist the temptation to peek at it. Do NOT “show and tell” with children, neighbors, etc! This stresses the animal – and stress KILLS!
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•Call a rehabber for help ASAP. Keep in mind, that rehabbers usually specialize in certain animals. They may need to give you another number to call for the species you are trying to help. Check the internet to find rehabbers closest to you (we are available to help you if you are in the northern Shenandoah Valley of VA if you have a small mammal that needs help. You can reach us at (540) 869-9524 in Middletown, VA or (540) 465-5315 in Star Tannery, VA. We may need you to bring the animal to us, but will TRY to meet you somewhere, if we are not knee-deep in feeding babies.
Here are a couple of links to find rehabbers in other areas:
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/injured/rehabilitators.asp
http://wildliferehabber.com/modules/xoopsmembers
Wildlife Hotline for Northern VA: (703) 440-0800
Newborn baby gray squirrel
It’s illegal
to keep wildlife unless you are a licensed wildlife rehabber.
Another excellent link to pdf downloads to learn more about when and how to help injured or orphaned wildlife:
Did you mow over a bunny’s nest?
Mama cottontail WANTS her babies. Doesn’t matter if you’ve touched them. She feeds at dusk and dawn and sometimes in the middle of the night. You won’t see her during the bright day time. She leaves the babies so as not to attract attention to them during the day.
Here’s what to try: If the babies are uninjured (AND THERE’S NO BLOOD), gather up the nesting materials and put everything back, including the babies. Put as much mother’s fur and dried grasses over the babies as you can. Take regular flour and make a circle around the perimeter of the nest, about 4-inches wide. LEAVE the babies alone overnight. Next morning, go out and see if there are prints in the flour, indicating the mama has come back in the night to feed her babies. If so, viola! You’ve reunited mama and babies.
Note: you can also put small sticks over the nest in a tic tac toe pattern; or use string to make a tic tac toe pattern if you don’t have flour.
Did you knock down a squirrel’s nest with babies in it?
Mama squirrel WANTS her babies. Doesn’t matter if you’ve touched them. She feeds throughout the daytime and nests with them at night, coming out a dawn.
Here’s what to try: If the babies are uninjured, you can make a temporary nest for them. Take a cardboard box, put old fleece and shredded newspaper in it about 8” deep, so the babies can stay warm.
If you have some hand warmers, crack them to get them heating and put in the box (at the bottom). Or make a rice sock and heat it in the microwave, wrap in an old dish towel and put that in the homemade nest.
Put the babies in the box, nestled in the bedding.
Tape the lid shut and make an approx 3” diameter hole on the SIDE, up towards the top, so the babies can’t fall out.
Mount the box as close as you can to the original nest site (on the side of a tree; or if found in a chimney, on the roof) using twine or bungie cords.
Leave it alone during the day, but NOT overnight. If necessary, keep the babies inside for the night and put them out first thing in the morning. Don’t try to feed them. They’ll be fine overnight. If they are eyes open, though, you can put some apple cubes in with them to nibble on.
Mama SHOULD come back and take her babies to an alternate nest site (she usually has other nest sites already staked out).
If she does NOT get the babies, call a rehabber. She may have gotten spooked and moved on; or something else could have happened to her.