ATW Newsletter, December 2020

Paws 'N Claws

News from All Things Wild Rehabilitation, Inc.

What's in this issue:

Happy and Healthy Holiday Wishes
Taste on Thursday
What a Difference Proper Nutrition Makes
Screech Owl Nest Boxes
A Holiday Gift Idea for the Animal Lover in Your Life

Donate to Support All Things Wild Rehabilitation!

Taste on Thursday

Teddy digs for treats in a homemade box of PVC rings.

Every Thursday, the ambassador animals at All Things Wild get to taste yummy treats as part of their enrichment program. Enrichment is a vital activity for our ambassador animals who will spend their lives in captivity. The Smithsonian National Zoo says:

Enrichment allows animals to demonstrate their species-typical behavior, gives them the opportunity to exercise control or choice over their environment, and enhances their well-being. Enrichment is just as essential to animal welfare as proper nutrition and veterinary care.

The All Things Wild Enrichment Program begins each week with smell experiences, followed by sound, taste, and tactile experiences throughout the week.

A whiteboard at the center spells out the weekly enrichment activities for our ambassador animals.

Everyone gets a special taste on Thursdays. The tortoises got to sample from leaves of romaine lettuce hanging on the side of their pen.

Gopher got to reach up for lettuce, a new experience from having his food lying flat in a dish.

Ambassador raccoons, Mojang and Cricket, got frozen cubes of peanut butter and of bone broth with cat treats in the middle.

Mojang and Cricket loved the tasty frozen treats.

Penelope and Stevie had the same ice-cube treats. They couldn’t get their noses in the bowl fast enough.

Penelope (l) and Stevie, ambassador opossums, lap up the frozen treats

In the wild, skunks would use their incredible sense of smell and ability to dig to root out insects. Here, Teddy works at getting cat treats and bits of walnut out of the PVC rings.

Teddy was good at getting the treats out of the PVC rings.

Finally, don’t forget, All Things Wild is raising money to build an education center where the ambassador animals will teach everyone about the wonders of wildlife and nature.

To donate, click here and specify that your donation is
for the ATW Wildlife Education Center.

What a Difference Proper Nutrition Makes

Remember our article from last month about the white-winged dove that was raised by a well-meaning woman who fed it all the wrong food? This is what the bird looked like when the woman turned the bird over to the care of an experienced wildlife rehabilitator.

After being fed the correct food for a month, here’s the dove now:

The dove is beginning to look normal and healthy with the right food.

Although the dove, who has been named Snafu, has a way to go before all his feathers have grown in normally, he is remarkably improved from his earlier condition. It just goes to show us how important it is for animals to be fed the correct nutritional food. That goes for us human animals and our pets too!

To read the article about the dove in our November 2020 newsletter, click here.

Please remember that it is illegal in Texas to hold a wild bird or animal in captivity without a permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Injured, orphaned, and sick wild birds and animals should be taken to a wildlife rehabilitator.

Screech Owl Nest Boxes

Screech owls are losing habitat and need nest boxes.

Eastern screech owls will begin nesting in February, so now is the time to put up nest boxes for them. All Things Wild has a limited number of handmade nest boxes for sale. The boxes are purposely not sealed to allow the wood to breathe to keep the interior cool for mom screech owl and babies. It gets quite hot and humid in there with a full nest of babies. Plus, there is a side panel that opens for annual cleaning.

A side panel opens for annual cleaning.

The nest box should be installed on a tree that is at least as wide as the box 10 – 30 feet above the ground. It is helpful if there is a branch nearby for the young owls to climb out on, but the branch should not obstruct the entrance hole. Before nesting season begins in mid-February, put 3-4 inches of wood shavings (not sawdust) in the bottom of the box. Wood shavings can be purchased at most hardware or pet stores. Each box comes with a complete, detailed set of instructions.

If you already have a nest box in your yard, now is the time to clean out last year’s nesting material and replace it with new wood shavings.

New nest boxes at All Things Wild are $50 + tax. Contact the center at 512-897-0806 if you would like to buy one.

Any woodworkers out there interested in building nest boxes for ATW to sell to raise money for the animals, please contact us at allthingswildrehab@gmail.com. We will happily send you the nest box instructions. Please note that all expenses incurred are tax deductible.

A Holiday Gift Idea
for the
Animal Lover in Your Life

All Things Wild has contracted with the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC) to teach their Basic Wildlife Rehabilitation course in February 2021. The course is a great place to start for new aspiring wildlife rehabilitators and a good refresher for more experienced rehabilitators.  Topics include fluid therapy, handling, and physical restraint, physical examination, zoonoses, release criteria, and more.

We had initially hoped that the course could be in-person at the ATW center on February 20-21, 2021; however, IWRC is concerned that not enough people will have received Covid vaccinations at that point and an in-person class would be problematic. As a result, the class will be a live, interactive online experience with an instructor and students participating on their devices

Classes will be a hour or so in the evening during the week of February 15-19 and will be recorded for students who have to miss the live class. The good news is that the hands-on lab segment of the course will be held in shifts the following weekend in-person at the ATW Rehabilitation Center. Arrangements will be made for individuals who are not able to come to the center.

All of this will be explained by IWRC at their registration site. Additionally IWRC will be contacting everyone who has already registered about the revised virtual format.

Click here to learn more and to register for the special online class.

Donate now to save wild animals!