Have you been kissed by a Raccoon today yet?

I have! Annie is such a sweetheart:

Annie's Introduction, 6 orphaned Raccoons growing up

We have a newbie at the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue! Annie is a 10 weeks old raccoon that has been living with a family in a house since she was found at the age of 1 week. She has never seen another raccoon or even was outside for long.

It is my job now to get her used to her own kind and more independent of humans, so they all can be eventually released back into the wild.



Here a couple of funny snapshots I took yesterday. This is where most of the raccoons sleep at night. It's too hot up there during the day hours:

Orphaned Raccoons learn how to fish

I added some live minnows to the pool yesterday afternoon and watched them having fun:

Emergency Baby Songbird Food

I have received many baby birds this year that have been fed the wrong stuff in the wrong way and as a result, the bird died.

In order to prevent that, I have made a short video on how to mix up the right baby bird food from dry kitten chow.

There are variations to it, for example you can use dog food too if you don't have kittenfood handy, or use calcium powder instead of cuttle bone, and it's ok to leave out the bird vitamins if you don't have any at the moment.

If you have questions, please join our Pets and Wildlife Forum and ask them there.

Raccoon Feeding Time

Abi cracks her first egg; Ian invents the self-feeding station deluxe, and Sara gets hooked on grapes! You've seen it here first!

The SELF-FEEDING STATION DELUXE:

Doves, Opossums and a Bunny

To continue from the previous post, here are pictures of the doves that are growing up at the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue. The 3 white-winged doves and one mourning dove are sharing the enclosure with 3 baby opossums and my bunny Max.

All critters are co-existing just fine:

Here is Mary, the oldest dove that keeps coming back to help care of the little ones:

(click on the picture to see a larger version of it!)






The mourning dove and her buddy, another white-winged dove:


And the smallest baby:


Down in the corner you can see Max, who has a way with birds!


Above him you see this squirrel house:


If you look inside, you won't see squirrels, but these 3 critters:


Ohoh, they saw us and think we are bringing them some food!




This is what they looked like when I got them with their eyes still closed. One didn't make it:

Raccoons, Birds and Squirrels

After successfully releasing Pumkin and Sandra, I put the Abilenians, Sara and Rocky in to the smaller enclosure and got to work on a drainage system that hooks into the sewer.

Thanks to Kelli, her husband and stepson as well as my husband, we got it all done! It was more work than I expected it to be, but it was sooooooooo worth it! It cut down the fly population by 90%!

Here is the drain before we put concrete around it:



The 5 coons are back in the enclosure now:



The 3 Abilenians playing with ice cubes:


And Rocky yawning and chillin':




A storm also brought me the first fall squirrel baby. Her name is Marsha and she was 17 grams when I got her. 3 days later she weighs 22 grams. This little lady has quite an appetite:



The storm also brought a few birds that needed help. This is Mary, she is a white winged dove and was released 2 weeks ago. But she hangs around and helps me feed the other baby doves:

Raccoon Release

Pumkin and Sandra Released!



I'm going to miss those 2 girls! But I couldn't have found a better place!

Judy, the property owner, had found Sandra when she was a baby and brought her to me to raise. She and Pumkin became sisters. Pumkin and Sandra are both 5 months old now and more than ready to move out into the big world.

So Judy offered her property right by a river in midst a heavily wooded area for a release place. She will continue to put food out for them and offer them a safe place to come to, if the world gets too scary out there, until they are ready to be on their own.

Thank you Judy, you are a doll! And thank you, Jackie, for driving me...again!