Be alert for baby animals in the garden

This is the time of year when the questions arrive asking what can be done with a baby bunny, a squirrel, a bird out of the nest or a bird that flew into a window and is alive but stunned.

In all, probably the best thing to do when you find any wild animal, baby or adult, is to leave it alone. It is against the law to keep wild animals in captivity. Many cities have animalcontrol people who do a good job of taking care of injured and out-of-place animals. Wild animals have the potential to bite you, even the squirrel that you hand-feed peanuts out the kitchen door. There is a very slight possibility of getting rabies and other diseases from wild animals. So, unless an animal is obviously injured or too young to care for itself, it should be left alone.

Young animals may not know enough to be afraid of people, but their parents are afraid. Often the parents know where their young are and are watching from the safety of nearby cover until you leave. You can’t just walk a few feet away and watch; you have to be a long way away.

One of the defensive methods that baby animals use to keep from being seen and chased by predators is remaining motionless. You may think that the baby is injured when it is just trying to remain hidden. If you do watch from a distance, be sure that cats and dogs can’t get to the baby.

Baby birds sometimes leave the nest before all of their wing feathers are fully developed, and they may have a hard time maneuvering while flying. They sometimes fly into things and are temporarily stunned.

A few birds are what ornithologists call precocial, meaning the young are covered with down and fully active. Most waterfowl and shorebird young can walk away from their nest within hours or a day or two, never to return. Many can even swim. Most of our songbirds and small mammals are hatched or born altricial. They have no feathers or fur; their eyes and ears are closed; and they lack muscle control.

If you find a very young animal, it will be very difficult to raise successfully. If you can find the nest where the animal belongs, it is best to put it back. It is not true that once a human touches a baby the parents won’t take it back. Few birds even have a sense of smell, so they won’t know how the baby made it back to the nest. If necessary, you can put the baby bird in a basket and tie the basket to the tree.

If you decide to raise the baby yourself, be prepared for a lot of work. Baby birds are fed every 10 to 15 minutes from sun up to sundown. This lasts for a couple of weeks while the bird is in the nest and a couple more after it is capable of leaving the nest but can’t feed itself. After it leaves the nest, the adult bird teaches it how to get food and escape predators, which is a bit difficult for people to teach since they are one of the predators.

Amazingly, no matter what the bird will eat later in life, almost all baby birds eat meat. They need protein to grow. They will be as big as and weigh more than their parents when they leave the nest. If you can’t get up early enough to catch worms and other creepy-crawlies, try feeding the birds a variety of meat products. Canned dog food, raw liver, hamburger, hardboiled egg yolk and a tiny bit of sand can all be mixed together and fed in pieces the bird can handle.

Baby mammals all need milk. A vet can help you determine the proper mixture. As they get older, they will need foods specific to their type of animal. All babies need to be kept warm, dry and out of drafts. Put them in a cardboard box lined with paper towels for easy changing.