Bon Voyage les Enfants

Here's a bad picture of me from about 6 weeks ago, when I was feeding the baby beaver siblings. I was so astonished to see a Beaver for the first time just a week before, and learn that they were held in a blanket cradled in arms and given a baby bottle of milk that wasn't too hot and wasn't too cold but just right. And the little one made contented noises and grasped the bottle just like our human babies too. I am constantly amazed how we are not all that different from our animal friends... even wild ones.

I tired to contain my exuberant delight when within days I was the one feeding them and after that, taking them to the sink for swimming lessons. Two or three weeks later, the babies were able to be moved from the tank they'd called home to the outside in the fresh air in a much bigger crib, so to speak. In it there were lots of nice green things to chew on and their own little pool. But when we'd go over to check on them, they just reached up to us and did that plaintative whine that went right to my substitute, part-time Beaver Mommy's heart.

We began to wean them...  And here's that next step - giving them a pacifier for a minute or two.  But when the still can cry and just want their bottle. Sound familiar parents?


Yet, we must be strong!  It was high time to start to eat reeds, like their moms would get them doing if in the wild.  Below I caught them gnawing on something green and was pleased (I had just put one of them in their little pool to swim so one has a wet face). But when they spotted Uncle Bill and I peering at them, they come over and reach up for us.   You can hear their endearing little calls (though Bill and I are talking)... gee, no imprinting there. 



Heart melters, these two. But as of last week they've gone off to a rehabber's house with lots of nice land and a natural river where they will easily adapt and grow and have their own babies. We humans will be a distant memory, though they may not be very afraid if they see one. Hopefully if they do, it will be a respectful human being. I'm glad they have each other as they embark on this next adventure.

Swimming Lessons

Just yesterday I was at the Wildlife Rehab Center and had a first with The Beavers. I've never even seen one until 2 weeks ago, and in that time I filmed THIS little movie of them drinking from a bottle (You MUST click that link to watch, if you haven't seen it!). To my great delight, a few days later I myself was feeding them. And yesterday I got to "swim" them.... meaning we fill up the large utility sink off the kitchen and put them in so they can get used to swimming. Had I been thinking, I would have gotten THAT on video.

Of the two, there is one who's sensitive (fussy) and very vocal (whiney). Pinktail we call her, because to tell them apart we put a tiny dot of pink nail polish on her tail. Though it's fallen off , by now I can tell who she is by her temperament (I say her, but we don't know who is what sex at this point).

We put a branch or two and a few great smelling leafy boughs and a pine cone in their little tank. I saw one of them instinctually trying to eat a leaf and the other gnawing with those beaver teeth on the wood. Yay, they are learning to be beavers! This movie isn't much because I can't sit around waiting for them to do something great when there are other mouths to feed, but it's a little something...

For their swimming lesson, I got the water temp juuuuuuust right and watched as the woman who runs the center put Pinktail in. I did the same with the other one, who I'll call Biggie, since he's bigger. (I don't try to come up with fabulous names for the sake of the stories!) She then walked away and Pinktail started to reach up to me and cry. It was adorable. I knew it was good for her to keep her in, so I just turned her around and she paddled a little. Biggie wasn't any more skilled, but uttered not a peep. He did grab on to P. They were hanging on each other, even thought they could touch the bottom. So I spent a delightful 10 minutes pulling them apart and resetting Pinktail (she kept trying to crawl out).

Then it was a matter of lifting them out and putting towels around them, with the attendant whimpering from Miss Pink. Made some Esbilac (Powdered "puppy" milk), put 4 oz in each bottle with 1 oz Pedialyte and warmed it up in the microwave. Then, still wrapped in towels, let them nurse.

Biggie is a great eater, though I had to pull the nipple out of his mouth several times so he wouldn't aspirate. THEN I heard him complain. He did not want to let go of it. Pinky was being fussy as usual, but eventually they both were satiated with 3 oz. We dried them off a little more and put them back in the tank, with the heater on. I watched as they promptly went right to sleep!

Who knew Beavers were this cute and... human?

J' Adore, Furry One

Oh, oh OH! In seeing this little movie again as I uploaded it, it's far cuter than when I took it, and when I took it I knew I'd captured something truly special.



Go ahead, press play again. I'll be waiting right here.

The Wildlife Rehab and Education Center was packed with animals since I was there last. I've had to take a week off and boy, do things change fast. Many of the patients I was caring for have grown and are gone or have been given to local rehabbers to care for and release. Baby ducks and birds, once in tanks, have gotten big enough to move to the fabulous wooden pens outside in the fresh air.

The baby opossums have multiplied (you'd think they were bunnies) and grown to be happy and mischevious. And we're fully into bird season. There are incubators with several small kleenex boxes (to mimic nests) filled with eggs and rows and rows of tanks with of sparrows, robins, rock doves, etc... We have a baby heron (all legs), and terns of all sizes. I saw a new screech owl and the baby great horns continue to grow straight and strong.

But everyone is wild for the two newest additions: 2 baby beavers. The one in the movie above is getting fed on his back wrapped in a towel, by bottle just like our own kids. Below is the sibling of the one getting fed, hanging out in a tank with a stuffed Beaver Mommy. See his little flat tail? The two sleep together in the corner on those white flannel sheets. I'm glad they have each other.
I spent all yesterday at the Center getting basic training in cleaning oil spilled birds and animals (so I can be ready to volunteer when the need arises). I'm itching to get back in there, maybe tomorrow, to learn more about how birds hatch and develop-- and what they need to eat. I saw people in there with everything from raw eggs for some, to little dishes with crickets, meal worms, cat food pellets soaked in something to be soft and berries, feeding all those open mouths with the appropriate tidbit, delivered by an official looking tweezer/scissor like device. Hopefully I can get a few pictures, because as you can see from the nursing Beaver, they are worth a thousand words.