You never stop learning

When I first started this blog back in August last year I was a new carer. The blog was, and still is, intended as a sort of diary about our experiences as new carers. It's a way of letting other new carers see what we've been through.

One thing I've never meant it to be is a resource for people to learn how to be carers. That's why it concerns me a bit when I look through the visitor stats and I see common search terms like how to look after a baby possum (especially when it's someone in New Zealand), or what to feed a possum. Those kind of queries suggest to me that people are trying to look after baby animals themselves with only the internet to help them. The poor animal is doomed from the start, especially if they're taking as gospel something I wrote a year ago.

Take this post for example. I wrote that entry back in November last year after we'd had a really bad run with ringtails dying on us. Two had died from dog attacks within a day of us getting them, one died from bloat and three died from the stress of being in care. One of those last three we suspect died in sympathy because the one that died of bloat was its companion.

We were recently on the phone to an experienced carer from our organisation and she mentioned that particular blog entry. Someone else had told her about it and we got the impression that, the person that told her about it thought all six possums had died of bloat. There was also the feeling that we were saying there is nothing you can do for bloat, which is not true. Reading back through that entry I can see where someone assume that they'd all died from bloat though.

That's where you need to take whatever you read on the internet with a grain of salt. What you read may be perfectly true, but not tell you all you need to know, or it might be complete rubbish.

We care for a lot more animals than we blog about. If we blogged about every animal we got in, it'd bore the tits off you. There's also the fact that people can read things the wrong way and you get unfounded critiscism for that. A good example of that is the lorikeets we have that we've never written about and I'll tell you why.

Because so many people like to feed wildlife, especially birds, and because so many people feed them rubbish like bread and honey, birds like lorikeets often end up in care because their feathers haven't developed properly. The young ones that come in like this usually don't have their primary flight feathers or tail feathers. We call them runners, because that's what they do. All they need is time in captivity with plenty of the right food and the company of other lorikeets and they'll eventually grow those feathers.

Now, if you google lorikeet runners you'll find plenty of forums that will tell you that these birds probably have beak and feather disease and should be euthenased. Our birds don't have beak and feather I can tell you that for a fact, but I thought it was easier to just not mention that we had runners than to chance the ire of those that think they know better. Interestingly, the people that seem to shout "beak and feather" the most are the ones that like to keep birds as pets, locked up all their lives and usually with their wings clipped.

The title of this post is you never stop learning and it's very true. Every time we get a new animal in we learn something different. What we knew a year ago about caring for wildlife is nothing compared to what we know now and what we'll know in a year's time will be massive by comparison to today.

So if you're reading this blog to help you become a carer don't, it might be wrong or you might misunderstand it. That goes for this entry too.

The animals are too important to not get proper help for them if they need it.

Up close and personal

One of the good things about being a wildlife carer, especially if you're part of a network, is that you get to see a lot of animals that other people don't get to see up close and personal, even if they visit a zoo.


I've mentioned the tawny frogmouths before. These two aren't actually the same ones as in my previous entry. Moe and Curly have gone to another carer who has more room for them and we got these two in exchange. I'm in the process of building a 3m x 2m x 2m aviary, so hopefully the tawnies we now have will stay with us for a while.


There used to be this perception of Australia that it had kangaroos hopping down the middle of the street and everyone had one as a pet. Well this little fellar isn't a pet, but you wouldn't think so to look at him. In fact the bag hanging up next to him contains another joey.


These are probably one of Australia's most recognisable birds, especially their call. What? You can't tell what they are? They're young kookaburras.


Now I can fully understand if you don't know what these are. My first thought when I saw their noses was that they reminded me of the weasels from Wind in the Willows (the David Jason version). They're bandicoots a kind of marsupial (related to possums and kangaroos) that feeds on the ground. They use those long noses and front claws to dig and have a backwards facing pouch (unlike possums and roos) so that it doesn't fill up with dirt when they dig.

The roo, the kookas and the bandicoots were all photographed at Natasja's place (our co-ordinator) when we went to exchange the tawnies and pick up some lorikeets on the weekend. The pictures below were taken at Alf and Liz's place yesterday. Alf and Liz are raptor carers and live on about half an acre. Some of the aviaries on their property are huge, and they need to be because of the size of the birds they're caring for.


This is a boobook owl. They're also known as a mopoke because of the sound they make. Tawnies are sometimes referred to as mopokes as well, mainly because people don't know the difference. I reckon they're just as cute as the tawnies.


Last but not least, a one winged wedgetail eagle. She can't fly obviously (if she tried it'd probably be in circles), but other than the amputated wing she's a perfectly healthy bird and so will be used for breeding. You can tell from the size of that ladder just how big a bird she is.

While on the subject of eagles, Liz was telling us about another eagle she had a few years ago that had one eye and so couldn't be released. That particular bird used to follow her everywhere around the yard during the day and was a pretty accomplished flyer. Even though she couldn't hunt properly because of the missing eye, she still had the hunting instincts. She used to fly off and steal tennis balls from the kids up the road while they were playing. The kids were regular visitors and thought it was pretty cool having their ball stolen by something other than a dog.