How to help baby mammals
The advice here varies considerably according to the species. In many cases it is not unusual for mothers to leave their babies unattended for several hours. It is important to remember that mammal parents recognise their babies through scent. So if you handle a baby, Mum may reject or even kill it. So you must always avoid handling the baby other than to remove it from immediate danger. If you must handle it then try to minimise your scent by using gloves or wiping your hands on the grass before hand. Unless the animal is clearly injured or in immediate danger, it is always advisable to seek advice from a wildlife rescue before intervening.
So, when should I rescue a baby mammal?
 | If the animal has been caught by a cat or dog. Cats and, to a lesser extent, dogs have large amount of bacteria on their teeth. This passes into the bloodstream of the animal they bite and can cause serious infection which will often be fatal in a wild animal. |
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| If the baby is obviously injured or appears unwell. |
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| A lone baby (other than a deer or rabbit) away from its nest or den with no sign of any parents for several hours. |
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| A baby squirrel whose tail fur is flat not bushy which is out of its drey which can be picked up (unless you know the location of the drey and can safely return it). If an older baby squirrel follows you and climbs up your leg, this usually means it needs help too. |
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| If the baby is in immediate danger from a cat, cars or any other threat. Try not to leave your scent on the baby though as it may be possible to return it later. |
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| If the mother of nursing babies has been killed. |
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 | A nest of babies with no mother present. It is perfectly normal for the parents to spend time away from the babies. Observe from a distance for several hours and seek further advice if no parents return. If the nest has been disturbed, put back what you can without leaving too much human scent and come away and observe. Mum should hopefully come back and move the babies on to somewhere safe. |
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| A single deer fawn on it's own. Deer leave their babies unattended for most of the day. Again observe and seek further advice if there is no sign of Mum after several hours. Deer are difficult to raise and return to the wild if handreared so please do not touch the baby until an expert has been able to assess the situation. |
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What should I do next?
If you have established that the baby needs your help then please bear in mind that babies are very delicate. It is therefore important that you get baby to a wildlife rescue as soon as possible. In the meantime please follow these guidelines carefully.
Try to minimise the smell of humans on the baby just in case there is any hope of reuniting baby with its parents later. Put on a pair of gloves and wipe your hands in some grass or mud and then pick the baby up and place it in a sturdy cardboard box or cat carrier. The gloves will also serve as protection since any baby with its eyes open can potentially bite you. If you don't have gloves, then a towel will also do the trick.
Any baby with its eyes still shut is unable to regulate its own body temperature. It may be scorching outside but a very young baby will still need supplementary heat. Ideally fill a hot water bottle (not too hot) and wrap it in a towel. Place it in a box twice its size so the baby can crawl off the bottle if it gets too hot. If you have a thermometer check the temperature on the bottle - it should be about 30 degrees celsius. The baby should feel pleasantly warm to the touch. Allowing the baby to get too hot or too cold can be fatal!
Very young babies may need feeding as often as every two hours BUT this is a difficult and specialist job and should not be undertaken by the inexperienced. It is all too easy to get it wrong and drown the baby or make it inhale the milk and develop pneumonia.
NEVER, ever, ever give a baby cow's milk. It is too high in lactose for other species to digest and can cause diarrhoea, dehydration and death. This includes skimmed milk, evaporated milk and watered down cows milk. Cow's milk in any form is a huge no-no! If for some reason you cannot get help for the baby quickly
and you know what you are doing you can feed the baby warmed goats milk or a kitten or puppy formula such as Lactol, Cimicat or Esbilac (available
from pet shops and vets). But please ONLY if you know what you're doing and for some reason can't get the baby to a rescue for several hours.
If the babies eyes are shut it will not be able to toilet for itself. You will need to gently stimulate the genitals with a damp cotton bud until the baby passes urine. This is vital if you feed the baby or have it in your care for more than a few hours! If the baby does not go to the toilet it will get an infection and become very ill.
Remember, these are emergency measures only and should only be to tide you over until you can seek urgent assistance. If you cannot find a wildlife rescue on our directory pages please visit our links page for more ideas.
Ooh it's really cute, can I keep it as a pet?
No, no, no, no, no! If you take only one thing away from this website please let it be this. Wild animals are just that. They are not pets. The animals we keep as pets have been domesticated over centuries. Handrearing these animals is difficult, incredibly time consuming and oh so very easy to get wrong. Many's the time I've been brought emaciated animals with terrible diarrhoea and pneumonia because someone has tried to rear them and got it wrong.
Even if you do get through this stage when the animal grows up the call of the wild will get them and that cute cuddly baby will turn into a manic, frustrated creature who will bite you through fear, anger and frustration at being caged when it should be running free. Wild animals cannot be toilet
trained and cannot be taught the difference between right and wrong. They will mess in your house, they will destroy your furniture, chew through
your doors, bite you and your children etc.
Quite aside from all this it is illegal to take in a wild animal and not release it when fit. If you're reading this website, if you've gone to the trouble
to rescue something then you must really love animals. Please demonstrate this by doing what is best for it. Please take it to an experienced wildlife rescue so that it can have the best possible chance of being rehabilitated and returned to the wild. If you have fallen in love with it why not offer to help at your local wildlife rescue and perhaps get involved with rearing babies for them? Some rescues have foster schemes where helpers take babies home with them either full time or even just an evening a week to help ease the burden on them.
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