Mother of Coyotes

02/08/2022

Little ringtail is doing great! She’s gained 40 grams since coming in and we are looking for a match to raise her with. Enjoy her eating a piece of grape! 💙

26/07/2022

Every once in a while we get a bald eagle! Did you know that a bald eagle only has their solid pearly white head when they’re 5 years old? Each year it gets a little more white so you can tell youngsters’ general age. This baby is probably around a year or so 💙
Though she’s a young bird, she is absolutely MASSIVE

25/07/2022

Little ringtail cat is doing absolutely wonderful and melting my heart with that face every day. As she’s feeling better, she’s also getting a bit sassy. Remember as cute as that face is, she’s still a wild animal and is treated as such. These guys can have a nasty bite so I’m always wearing leather gloves while handling her 💙

22/07/2022

If you thought things couldn’t get any cuter, we just got a young ringtail! I’ve NEVER seen one of these in my entire life, my heart is melting 😭
This little guy was orphaned and is a bit dehydrated but overall healthy

16/07/2022

This owl we have been calling Big Bertha, though we should call her Karen. Now we don’t normally name our animals, because they are not pets. But sometimes a special one gets a little nickname. This girl is MEAN, and she’s the one who attacked my face recently. And yes, her face is always like this 😏😂

14/07/2022

*sound up*

White-throated swifts are a secretive bird that we very rarely get! They are similar to swallows but also quite unique themselves. They have tiny beaks but HUGE mouths. They have sort of X shaped feet with little feather patches on them, and short stumpy legs because they are built for flying and not walking. These are one of the few birds who do not fledge out onto the ground. If you find a fledgling swift on the ground (same with swallows), it needs help! These cuties also sound like frogs off in a distant pond, and I adore listening to them chatter. We get swifts so rarely that some years we don’t even get any, and the years that we do get them, it’s only one for the whole year. These are one of my favorite birds (though I say that about all but two of our birds, which are my “least favorite birds”) and they are such a joy to raise 💙

07/07/2022

Baby ground squirrel I’m babysitting for our squirrel team leader. As another rescue said, these guys are the chihuahuas of the rehab world! Even the babies are full of sass and honestly frighten me a little 😂

29/06/2022

When baby birds are in the brooder, we have multiple species together but as soon as they come out, they’re strictly with their own kind. This tiny bushtit is just sitting right on top of his black phoebe buddies and absolutely melting my heart

25/06/2022

Got this little cutie a couple days, after getting the call of someone bringing a baby peacock with a broken leg. I was skeptical, as peachicks look very similar to baby turkeys, but this guy actually is a peachick! The leg had already started to heal so the splint will only do so much, but it should heal well enough that he’s still functional. Once he’s healed, I’ll either try to slip him under my first mamma of the year who brought home two babies a few days ago, or I’ll get some chicks to raise this guy with since they really shouldn’t be raised alone. Lucky little fella!

24/06/2022

Here’s a few of our awesome critters that have come in the last day or two. First is an adult Turkey vulture who has a broken radius, and I wrapped his wing with orange to make him look extra fashionable. The location of the break is a great place to be for good healing and is helped kept stable by the ulna. As you’ve possibly seen me post before, vultures’ main defense is regurgitating rotten foul smelling food, which makes me horribly gag (and this guy certainly did that) so it’s tricky taking the time to wrap a wing on such a nasty fellow 😂
That being said, I still adore vultures ❣️
Next is an adult red-tailed hawk who was brought this morning, found laying in the road after being hit by a car. Sometimes car hit animals are just stunned, and this guy snapped out of it as I examined him. Hopefully just a week of meds for pain and inflammation and he can go on his way back home. Last is a fluffy white baby Turkey vulture which we hardly ever get 💙

23/06/2022

That one time we were on tv showing the raptors, I’ve been looking for this video and a friend found it! Tri County Wildlife Care

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fr7d0CrX408&feature=youtu.be

HD Tammy's Window on Calaveras #189 with Tri County Wildlife Care 2/5/2020

20/06/2022

These two birds were both questionable on if they’d be able to fly properly, but they’ve both shown that they can adapt well enough with their disabilities to be released! In the back is a Eurasian collared dove, which technically is considered an invasive species, but also so established in the ecosystem that fish and wildlife allows rescues to release them. This guy was brought in with a blood filled eye, possibly hit a window. Sometimes that can recover, but this eye ended up becoming blind. In the front is our native pigeon, the band-tailed pigeon. This bird was viciously attacked by scrub jays, and was brought in with major head trauma. He couldn’t even stand the first day, and didn’t eat for 3 days. I was so excited to see him eat for the first time, literally as I was about to start tube feeding him. Weeks later he still has a head tic and sometimes turns in circles, meaning he has minor permanent brain damage, but not enough to cause him to be unable to function well enough for release 💙

19/06/2022

If you thought things couldn’t get anymore precious, I just got a coyote pup into care. This little fella was found on someone’s porch covered in burrs and parasites. Very dehydrated and lethargic, but looks well enough to recover. Living up to my name for the first time this year as mother of coyotes 💙

17/06/2022

Mamma pallid finally got a little break from her babies last night (of course trying to escape the enclosure lolol) which means I got to get video of the babies! Their eyes are open and they’re already much bigger 😍

08/06/2022

Off they go! This is our second batch of house finches to be released this year 💙

31/05/2022

Yesterday I got a first, not only is this my favorite bat species (pallid bat) which I hardly ever get in care, but this little gal is also heavily pregnant. She was cat caught so is on antibiotics and also needs to heal for weeks in captivity due to a torn wing. Fortunately wings can heal up just fine, though she will be giving birth at my home and caring for her young while she heals. Most bats only have one pup, though pallid bats commonly have twins. I was alerted that she may miscarry due to stress, so she is in a quiet room in hopes that she will be comfortable. Pallid bats give birth in early June, so she should be having her young in the next week or so 💙
Caring for bats is the reason I originally got the rabies vaccine, because we didn’t have anyone who did the bats so we would always send them to NorCal bat rescue. Bats must be released within 3 miles of where they came from, so having our bats go there was quite a drive there and back for release. Now the founder of NorCal bats has been my mentor for the last several years, always answering my questions when I have them ❣️

30/05/2022

I found out recently that I had a whole page in our newsletter about my snake moving for Tri County Wildlife Care! Always excited when people call me to come move them rather than harming them 🥰
And of course thankful to Save The Snakes for providing the course for me to further learn safe handling practices of venomous snakes 💙

25/05/2022

Just got in a tiny baby opossum that dislodged from a mamma who was hit. You’d think that a baby this small has to just be a couple days old, but marsupials do all of their “womb” development in the pouch. A baby opossum is born weighing .13 grams, this baby weighs 2 grams. This is by far the smallest baby opossum I’ve ever seen

17/05/2022

Tri County Wildlife Care has the first rattlesnake ever in care, a tiny baby who was found in a parking lot. Originally I was just going to move the little guy to a safer location until I realized he had a bad wound. I called our reptile vet and asked if he would be willing to clean and treat the wound, if I got the snake in a tube and held it for his safety. I love that he was so willing to do so! He put this cutie under so he could clean and assess the situation, and mentioned that there looked to be slight exposed organs, though everything looked intact. So the outcome is iffy, but the options were try, or euthanize. So we went ahead and tried, and the wound was cleaned and sutured and the snake was given an antibiotic shot. Hoping this guy will be alright so he can be released back to the wild. Thank you Dr. Kyle at upper ridge veterinary clinic for being so awesome!

13/05/2022

This little guy is one reason you should always bring in wildlife to a professional as soon as possible. This boy was found with his long dead mother, and he was really not looking the best. I figured typical dehydration, but was horrified to find a pocket of maggots under the skin of his belly. After trying to flush out as many as I could, which were hundreds, he was seen by our vet and put under to have the rest of the wound cleaned up because I just couldn’t get to the rest of the maggots. I was so nervous that I was going to get a call, saying he had internal damage and had to be euthanized. But this lucky little fella had minimal damage! He was given a long lasting antibiotic shot and sent home with me, where he will also receive a medicated bath every few days for three weeks to kill the lice that are infesting him. If he wouldn’t have been brought in right away, he would have been slowly eaten alive. Thanks to Dr. Allison Pillsbury at acorn hills animal center and Tri County Wildlife Care, this cutie has a second chance at life back out in the wild 💙

04/05/2022

As much as I adore grey fox kits, I’m happy to have passed these fellas on to another rehabber. Tri County Wildlife Care was called by animal control, saying someone had four possible coyote pups that came out of a culvert and came up to some kids. They said they’d call us back when they knew if they were coyote pups or domestic puppies. Turned out they were neither! If a wild baby is coming up to you, SOMETHING IS WRONG. A baby should never come up to a person unless they are orphaned. Grey fox kits are feisty little babies, snarling and growling even at this age. They will be in our care for 7 days to make sure they’re not ill, then will be passed on to Sierra wildlife in el dorado county to match up with their single baby 💙

26/04/2022

A lot of people ask Tri County Wildlife Care if we take small rodents such as mice or rats, because they’re often seen as a pest animal. The answer is yes! We understand that these rodents play an extremely important role in the ecosystem, being the main food source for many other animals. This picture is from a few years ago, but definitely one of my favorites ❣️

22/04/2022

💙💙

22/04/2022

6 new baby skunks, assumed to have been flooded out of their den by the crazy rains that came. These babies barely have their eyes open, and should absolutely not be out in the open, though they were found scattered around, laying in puddles very cold and soaking wet. Typically we try to reunite babies with their mothers, but these guys likely wouldn’t have made it being left out in that state for mom to possibly not come back, or have nowhere safe and dry to take them back to. When I had my first tiny skunk as a single baby, I wished for us to get in a match to be her buddy. Well you know what they say, be careful what you wish for because now I have 8 stinky skunks in my home 😂
Remember to please always call your wildlife rescue before interfering with any baby you find! To the untrained eye, lots of babies appear orphaned when they are actually not. If you explain the situation and answer every question the rescue asks, they can determine if the babies actually need help or not 💙

21/04/2022

Sad truth 😞
When a rodent eats poison, they do not die right away. They are able to continue running around living their lives for many hours or sometimes even days before they die, just getting slower and easier for predators to catch. We need to find a better way, please do not ever use rodenticides

19/04/2022

Some of Tri County Wildlife Care babies I have in care at my home right now, a large portion of which I’m babysitting for my coworker and friend while she has much needed and deserved vacation. As of today I have a second skunk, which is great since all of our animals need a buddy to grow up with so they know what they are, as well as how to interact with their own kind. It also greatly helps to keep them as wild as they need to be when it comes time to release. All of our home rehabbers have dedicated baby rooms that no one lives in or goes in, so the animals’ only contact with humans is feeding and cleaning. We do not cuddle babies or treat them as pets, this is very important. A wild animal who has lost its fear of humans will often become a problem animal. I’ve also got two western grey squirrels, one of which is on meds, and a fox squirrel who is also on meds. One of the single babies I currently have which is quite new in care is an eyes closed northern flying squirrel. A lot of people don’t realize we even have them, because they are so tiny, but also nocturnal so it’s quite a treat to ever get to see one in the wild. Lastly I have an adult myotis big brown bat, though I didn’t get any photos of her 💙

19/04/2022

A few of the snakes I’ve moved to a safer location this year from public calls. Yesterday was a tiny neonate (first pictured) hanging out on the back of a bench at a children’s park. It warms my heart that the kids found the snake, and the mother called me asking if I would come and safely move this baby so it didn’t have to be harmed. That snake is just a bit larger than a golf ball when coiled, such a darling little thing. Baby was very cooperative and did not strike even once 💙
Snakes must be moved close to the location that they are found as to not bring disease to an area it wasn’t already in. I just move them far enough that they won’t be in the danger zone for humans ❣️

14/04/2022

The huge dangers of rodenticides, while already well beyond proven, are still unfortunately completely legal for anyone to buy. It’s been proven to move all the way up the food chain and shown to cause severe harm to many different species. Please stop using rodenticides 💙

Remember the mountain lion kittens that were found outside that Thousand Oaks office complex last November?

Sadly, necropsy results showed that P-100 and P-102 both tested positive for rodenticide poisoning AND feline panleukopenia (commonly known as parvo).

P-100 and P-102, who were part of an orphaned litter of four, are the youngest mountain lions to test positive for rat poison. They had residues of three different types of anticoagulant rodenticide compounds in their livers.

The pair died a few days after being discovered late last year. The necropsy report revealed several firsts for the study.

"This is the first time a mountain lion in the park's 20-year study has been affected by parvo, and these two kittens are the youngest mountain lions in the study to have anticoagulant rodenticides in their system," said Jeff Sikich, a biologist who has led the fieldwork for the mountain lion study for two decades.

"Thirty-one of 32 mountain lions have tested positive for exposure to one or more AR's, and seven have died directly from poisoning."

Out of the litter of four kittens, P-101 and P-103 survived their ordeal. They are now in captivity and being cared for by the Orange County Zoo in Irvine.

To read our press release, click on this link: https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/news/mountain-lion-kittens-found-outside-thousand-oaks-office-complex-test-positive-for-rodenticide-poisoning-feline-panleukopenia.htm.

Photo: NPS / Jeff Sikich. Image: P-102, a six-week old mountain lion kitten, was found with three different types of anticoagulant rodenticide (AR) compounds in her liver.