Marnie wrote:i have saved a few baby possums. i always check the dead ones on the road as they have babies on them in april and june. nothing sadder than seeing a baby sitting on top of his dead mother wondering what to do now.
yes the game commission came and took my first one, (it was taken to a wildlife rehabilitator)
so the second time i had them i wasn't stupid enough to call them and ask for a permit.
they are as easy to raise as a kitten. they will eat most anything.
i know, they have a face only a mother could love! lol
I volunteered at the Wildlife Rehab Center at the NC Zoo while I was still able to leave the house.
We took in injured or young for rehab but got the info of where they came from so they could be released where nature had intended for them to be. The rehab centers have vets on sight and on call for any that need extra care.
The dead possum on the road was one of the things we were told to check. Good work.
I raised 8 baby rabbits that had no hair and their eyes were closed. That was 40 years ago. I knew not to give them milk but did not know about milk replacer. All I could think of is what I would feed the mother. I put every grain I had in the house in a pot and turned it into soup. I kept them until the fat little furry guys could no longer be contained no matter how big the box then released them on a friends farm.
My biggest challenge was a September squirrel (Rocky) knocked out of a tree during a huricane. People seem to bring me things they find. His eyes were closed and he had no fur. By then I knew about milk replacer and fed him that. By the time he was a trouble maker it was too cold to put him out. He lacked the knowledge from his parents to build a nest so I wintered him. It was April before I could get him out of my house. Every time I walked away from the house he would jump off and go back. Finally I enticed another little squirrel in with black walnuts. Before going to work I put him by the walnuts so he could scent the other one. He looked back at me and I told him to go. He followed the trail to the woods and I went to work. When I came home he was hanging on my garage door waiting for me to et him in. I did and he went right to his make shift cage, ate and climbed into his toboggan for the night. The next morning I put him back out to play. He was not waiting for me when I got home so I went in the woods to call him. He came to me and jumped on my shoulder but jumped off when I walked out of the woods. I left my balcony door open a little that night in case he changed his mind. The next morning he was a my bird feeder on the balcony wth his new friend both covered in pine sap. I was going to wipe him off but he pushed my hand away. That was the last time I touched him but for the next 5 years they came to the feeder. When I sold the house I made the new owners promise to keep the feeder full and they kept their promise.
When hurricane Fran knocked a little girl (Frannie) out of a tree she was brought to me. I know how overwhelmed rehabbers get so I kept her until she no longer wanted her bottle. She was so beautiful with silky fur and a sweet personality but did not want to get stuck with another that would not leave home so then I took her to a rehabber. She was put in an enclosure outside with a bunch of other little girls that were a little rough and tumble since they were raised together. The woman told me the personality of each of the others so I knew she would be cared for. She was accepted instantly and played with them. Within 15 minutes I could not tell her apart from the others.
There have been many including reptiles but the last one was a baby Starling. 2 years ago I took it from my daughters cat and named it Friskies. He must have fallen from the nest but I could not find the parents and tried for hours. He could not fly or feed himself so it was up to me. As I learned at the zoo, I used moistened high quality cat food (that's what I give my cats anyway) as the base of it's food but added a variety of berries and softened raisens and anything else I could come up with. He was flying around the house and enjoying himself too much so I decided it was time. Starlings nest in the red tip bushes in my back yard so I kept bread out to entice the flock down and put Friskies in the open window. He flew down and begged for food and they took turns feeding him. When they flew home for the night Friskies came back. This went on a few days and then the flock did not come back. All he could see in the yard was Chick Chick so he went to her. She acted like a mother hen and called him and taught him how to peck for food. When she came in for the night he did too. Finally I closed the window. He came back every morning. I would go out during the day and feed Friskies and Chick Chick moist raisens (my son came over and saw what I was doing and called his friends to tell while he was watching me). A week later the flock came back for a few day and when they flew away he went too. He came back this year fully grown and beautiful. He called to me through the screen so I gave him soft raisens. He was a happy healthy bird.
Okay - I rambled on again but what do you expect from an old lady housebound with her mother and aunt.