We got a call late yesterday to pick up some noisy miner chicks from a local vet. Donna went to pick them up while I was, you guessed it, feeding the animals. She was amazed at how small they were. I'm amazed at how much they can eat and how much they poo. Those white dots on the cloth under them are about half the size of the poos these little guys do each time they get fed.
There's a knack to feeding them too. I get a piece of their food in the tweezers, then I gently tap the side of their basket. The movement makes them think Mum or Dad has just returned with some food and they open their mouths. Then I just shovel it in and repeat until the bowl is empty.
As you can see from the pics, they aren't even old enough to stand up yet.
Then we have the ringtails. That's Pinky on the left and Yoda on the right. Perky is of exploring somewhere, probably on Donna's back.
The ringtails are about the easiest to look after now. All we have to do is put their food in the cage and let them at it. It would be nice if they didn't make so much mess though.
Last but not least, we've got Gollum, the brushtail.
We were bottle feeding him for a while, but it wasn't working out to well as he had to work to hard to get his milk out of the bottle. We've now gone back to using a syringe to feed him which works much better and we also know exactly how much he's having in each feed.
As you can see in this picture he's also having some solids. That's a mix of banana and honey, with a little bit of milk (Divetelact) that Donna's feeding him. He's also starting to lap his milk, which is a relief. The last time I tried him lapping he was so slow it was painful. This morning when I tried him it was much easier.
This is the beginning of the silly season for wildlife carers as we come into spring. Unfortunately, we can't take on too many animals at the moment as I'm off to Armidale for uni next month, for two weeks. With Donna working there won't be anyone able to devote the time to feed baby animals as much as they need, so we need to hold off getting anymore until I get back. The possums will be okay by then and the noisy miners will have been moved to another carer.
7 comments:
Hi Steve. I really enjoy reading your blogs about rescueing and looking after the animals. You are doing good work. Well done both of you. - Dave
Hullo again. I think I've posted on here a long time ago about my NMs and the laws in various states...
We're still having trouble trying to find anyone nearby for emergencies, whose instinctive reaction is not to immediately put down the bird.
Rescued a seagull with a broken wing off the middle of the highway - bloody and broken right at the joint, ran about trying to find an afterhours clinic... found an emergency clinic where they took him, said they'd do what was best with awful finality - and promptly put him down, as I was informed on the phone. Even if he was a pet, they'd do the same thing - and if he was a NM pet, they'd do it instantly regardless of injury.
Is it true that seagulls wings are very, very difficult to pin and fix, and that it's "better" to put them down? I'd think there are still carers who'd like to provide long term homes to an amputee - if humans and famous dogs can live full lives without a limb, so can birds :/
Darn Victoria.
Feel free to not publish that comment publicly, though.
As per NMs - their poop as young ones is exceptionally huge! They hold it in and shuffle backwards for something to lean it out over before doing it, usually. As they get older they actually do smaller ones during the day, but those single morning gloops on wakeup will always about the same size as the ones you're seeing now. :)
I don't have any experience with seagulls, but I do know that some seabirds can lock the wing joints when in flight, so they can glide for long distances without using energy. Perhaps seagulls are the same.
As far as keeping animals that can't be released, here in QLD you can apply for a 'permit to keep' which allows you to keep an animal if it will help the rehabilitation of younger ones. We're hoping to get a one eyed tawny frogmouth to help with ours once the aviary is finished. I also know of a carer with a one-winged wedgetailed eagle that is going to be used for captive breeding.
You have probably already been informed, but the cute little photo you have of noisy minor babies are in fact non native Indian myna babies.
Actually, no-one else has mentioned that they're Indian mynas, but we did think that was a possibility at the time. Something about the shape of their beaks made me wonder.
Of course it's all academic now as they both died a couple of days after the photo was taken.
Having raised five of them from a bit younger than that stage and having given on a couple to carers, I'm rather sure those are regular Noisy Miners and not Indian Mynas.
Indian Mynas aren't honeyeaters. They don't have the brush-like tongue. These birds do seem to have that tongue - I'd recognize the interior of that beak pretty much a anywhere for having had three of them squeal for food every 15 minutes for weeks...
As per the beak, I think I recall them having them that wide to begin with.
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