Before you scoop up a young animal and call a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center, take a minute to determine if the animal really is an orphan. Keep in mind that if you do decide to handle a baby animal, wear gloves and use a towel to keep from touching the animal. Even babies can bite.
Songbirds
To determine if a young songbird is orphan, watch him constantly for at least an hour from inside your house or car. Parents will continue to feed a fledgling bird until he learns to fly. If the bird you’re watching is a healthy fledgling, you’ll see a parent fly to him and feed him, then fly away. It only takes a moment for the mother or father to do this, so you might miss it if you simply check on the bird every few minutes.
Ducks, Geese, or Swans
A baby duck, goose, or swan found alone with no family nearby should be considered orphaned. Placing him with a family other than his own is inadvisable, so if there’s no family nearby you should call your local rehabilitator or wildlife center about the situation.
Rabbits
Baby rabbits are fed by their mother only twice a day—at dawn and dusk. Therefore, baby rabbits found alone in a nest are usually not orphans. If the nest has been disturbed, reassemble it and cover the babies with the grass that originally covered them. To check if the mother is coming to care for them, place several lengths of thread in a grid pattern over the nest. If the grid pattern has been disturbed following the next dawn or dusk, you may assume that the mother is still caring for the youngsters.
Squirrels
These youngsters are generally seen with their mothers or not at all. If a squirrel has fallen from a nest but is not injured, place her in a cardboard box lined with a t-shirt in the location where you found her. If she was wandering around the yard, look for a squirrel’s nest (often a large ball of leaves high in the branches of a tree) and place the box below that tree.
If the baby has little or no body fur, she will need some warmth in the box. Fill an empty soda bottle with warm water, tightly cap it, wrap a t-shirt around it, and place it in the box beside the baby squirrel. Watch from inside the house to see if the mother comes. If she’s still around, she should come to get her child within a couple of hours. If the mother has not come by dusk, she won’t come that day. Call your local wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center.
Raccoons
These youngsters are also usually only seen with their mothers. Mother raccoons are very smart and fiercely protective. They will take watchful care of their litter and won’t generally let a baby become separated from the group. If you find a young raccoon alone, he is probably orphaned. Call a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center.
Skunks
It’s unlikely that you will see a baby skunk without his mother, but sometimes you may find a baby skunk stuck in a window well or other nook that may actually be near their nest. To pick up a baby skunk, put on gloves and cover the skunk with a towel. Then scoop up the skunk with a cardboard box. Place the cardboard box, with the baby in it, on its side near where you found him. Skunks are nocturnal, so a baby’s mother may not come to find him until after dark. If that is the case, put the box safely under some bushes. Check on the box in the morning—if the baby’s still there, he needs to go to a rehabilitator.
Opossums
Young opossums stay in their mother’s pouch or on their mother’s back until they’re almost independent. If you find a baby opossum with no mother nearby, he has probably been separated from his family and needs assistance. If you find a female opossum dead, gentle roll her over and check the pouch on her belly to see if she has any young. If she does, and they’re alive, take the litter (mother and all) to a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center. Wearing gloves, move the body into a box for transport. Be advised, however, that very young opossums can’t be raised without their mother. The wildlife rehabilitator will be able to tell you if the litter you’ve found can be saved.
Mice
Mice make their nests in all kinds of places. If you inadvertently disturb a mouse’s nest, gently reassemble it and leave the babies alone. The mother will find that her nest has been disturbed and will move the litter to a safer location. If you come upon a baby mouse in an unlikely place, such as the middle of a shed or barn floor, you may have inadvertently disturbed a mother who was in the midst of moving her litter. Quietly leave the vicinity for at least a half hour, then return and recheck the area where you found the baby. If all goes well, the mother will have returned to retrieve him.
Turtles and Snakes
Turtles and snakes don’t care for their young, so if you find a baby reptile, you can be sure that he is not an orphan. Sometimes people are fortunate enough to find a nest of turtle eggs that are hatching. Don’t disturb the babies; they’ll disperse to their appropriate habitat after they’re done hatching. We’ve occasionally had a well-meaning person remove a turtle from his appropriate habitat because he wasn’t in a pond. Not all turtles are water dwellers, and once they’ve hatched, the turtles will instinctively know where they need to go.
