Bidwell Wildlife Rehabilitation

26/07/2024

Like everyone else in Butte and Tehama counties, we are sick with grief and despair over the Park Fire. It’s overwhelming to think what this is doing to our wildlife friends and their habitat. 💔💔💔

So far, we’ve gotten only one animal from the fire area; this sweet little bunny, pictured. A Cal Fire personnel found this baby in the middle of the road by itself in the evacuation area and took it to our friends at the Chico Animal Shelter, who brought it to us. Baby bunnies are difficult under the best of circumstances, so please send good thoughts to this cute little cutie!

Many of our volunteers and supporters have been affected by this fire. Some of our volunteers are under mandatory evacuation, and others are under an evacuation warning or on the perimeter. BWR volunteers, our thoughts and love are with you!!!

We want to let the public know that even though some of our volunteers had to evacuate, all of the BWR animals in our care are safe and out of harm’s way at the moment. Please everyone, send good thoughts that this fire can get contained quickly, and the suffering out there can be kept to a minimum. 💔🌎

22/07/2024

Oh wow. Supporters, we are....speechless and overwhelmed with gratitude. As of Sunday night, this fundraiser has raised over $1,600 for raptor food and supplies. THANK YOU! Wow!!!

HUGE thank you's to everyone who donated!!! Sandie, Heather, Francesca, Andrea, Melanie, Cyndie, Alexandra, Frank, Laurie, Susan, Shelly, and the anonymous donors...we see your awesome generosity and we appreciate you so much!

To everyone who shared our fundraiser, you helped immensely. 75 shares? That's something amazing! Thank you all!

We may have to ask again before raptor season is over, but we are feeling much much more secure and confident about our raptors' health and safety while they are in our care. From all BWR volunteers and animals....THANK YOU. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

P.S. Still wanna donate? We'd love it!!! Those raptors are hungry critters!

19/07/2024

Hello awesome community!

Once again, we are posting to ask for your help. 🙏🙏 This summer has been the busiest in decades when it comes to birds needing our help! Our aviaries are currently FULL with raptors, including hawks and owls, and we are running low on food and supplies for them. 💔

Can you donate to help? All donations will go directly to helping these beauties get healthy and old enough to be released and live a wild life. ❤️🦉❤️

We can’t say how much we appreciate support from all of you. Rehabbing wildlife is not only a labor of love for Bidwell Wildlife Rehab, but for all who love animals. If you can’t donate, please let other folks know about our need. Thank you all! We couldn’t do this without you. 🐣

10/07/2024

This heat wave is catastrophic. Every living thing is suffering in this heat, and it is sadly impacting birds in a BIG way. As a result, BWR is getting more requests for assistance with injured and/or orphaned birds than ever before. Because of this, we are asking for your help!

We're looking for people in Butte County who HAVE EXPERIENCE rehabbing and raising birds. It can be birds of any type, but we especially need help with songbirds! Maybe rehabbing birds has been a hobby of yours, or you used to volunteer with a wildlife organization elsewhere. Maybe you used to volunteer with BWR but are taking a break!

Does this describe you? If so, the birds need your help! We'd love for you to come on board as a BWR volunteer, even if temporarily! BWR will provide all the needed supplies. You can let us know what bird species you're comfortable working with, and let us know how many birds you're able to take in. Bonus points if you have your own aviary or other similar housing for birds!

Folks, our bird volunteers are beyond overwhelmed. They're tired and burned out, and still doing their best to help the birds. But, WE CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT SOME IMMEDIATE EXTRA HELP. Keeping wildlife healthy is a job that will take the whole community. Can you help? If so, please go to our volunteer information page, found at https://www.bidwellwildliferehab.org/volunteer.html, or you can go right to our online volunteer intake form, found here: https://www.jotform.com/form/201050961690147.

Maybe you want to volunteer, but don't have any experience. Go ahead and fill out that volunteer form, and we'd love to meet you! But, at the moment due to these ridiculously hot circumstances, we need new volunteers who are ready to hit the ground running and take in birds right away.

Can you help us with birds right away? We need you!! If you can't, please help us spread the word. Thank you all for your support!

08/07/2024

Our squirrel friends have a favor to ask of everyone today today. 🙏🙏🙏

Will you put some water out in your yard for the wildlife? It is so so hot, and wildlife is suffering. If you can put out a pan or container of clean water, change it daily, and maybe even keep it cool by dropping some ice cubes in, you may be saving wild lives!

Pictured are two squirrels living the good soft-release life in one of our volunteer’s backyards. If you brought a baby squirrel to us in spring 2024, this may be one of your critters! 🐿️❤️

06/07/2024

Hello awesome BWR supporters! Please share this post if you can!

We need your help today! We got a request for help from someone who found this turtle, a red eared slider, in the street on the 900 block of E. 8th St. (a very very busy street!!). Because it is an invasive, non-native species, this person took the turtle home and is hoping to find its owner!

Is anyone missing a pet red eared slider near this area? She is also going to post it on Cody Alert and make a found pet report with our local animal shelter.

We are so appreciative of this person for picking up this turtle. As anyone who is familiar with local wildlife knows, red eared sliders can be a very destructive presence to local native turtles. Thank you to everyone who goes the extra mile to do the right thing for animals! ❤️🐢

if anyone can point us in the direction of this turtle’s owner, please email us at [email protected] and we will connect you with the finder. 🤞🤞🤞

04/07/2024

There’s so much we could say about the Fourth of July 2024. 🇺🇸

It’s a day for get togethers, celebrating our country, and pool parties! Here in Northern California, we are also dealing with long-term record-breaking heat and uncontained fires. 💔

We are dealing with unprecedented levels of requests for help, especially involving birds. Our resources are being pushed to their limits (and by resources we mean our most valuable commodity, our volunteers!).

If you put in a request for help regarding a bird, please be assured that we will get to your request as soon as humanly possible. It may seem like you’re waiting a long time for help, and that may be true in some cases. Our intake volunteers are doing their absolute best, even on this holiday.

Many of the requests for help we are getting are regarding fledglings, which are essentially teenage birds that are pushed out of their nest by their parents who are urging them to be on their own. Fledglings can stay where they are! If they’re in a dangerous situation, such as a nearby cat, pick them up and put them into a nearby tree or bush.

We appreciate everyone’s understanding, especially those of you who know that keeping wildlife in our community healthy is not just the job of BWR, it belongs to all of us!
❤️🐣🦨🐿️🦉❤️

30/06/2024

Yikes! The Fourth of July is approaching fast, which means scary, scary times for wildlife, domestic pets, and some people. Please be aware of what is legal and what is not in your local jurisdiction.

And, just as importantly, please keep in mind that fireworks are loud, scary, and can cause wildlife to be separated from their babies and other consequences just as dire. Please be safe if using fireworks (better yet - go to a community fireworks show and DON’T light them off yourself!!!!) and remember your neighbors, both human and animal. 💔💔💔

Fireworks go on sale today, June 28, in the North State. See the news release to find out where fireworks are allowed in Butte County.

29/06/2024

Every year after Fourth of July celebrations, Bidwell Wildlife Rehab receives an abundance of requests for help regarding abandoned fawns - but are they really abandoned? 💔

It’s very common for a mother deer to leave their fawn somewhere they think is fairly safe. It could be in a grassy area, a woodsy area, and it might even be in your backyard!

Fireworks can startle a mother deer and her baby fawn. She could leave it someplace she feels it’s safe or they could possibly be separated. The fawn will bed down in a place it feels safe until mother comes back.

If you see a fawn by itself, wildlife rehabbers urge you - please leave it alone! Momma will come looking for the baby she was separated from.

If you come across a baby and have any concerns, please DO NOT pick up the fawn – leave it where it is! Instead, pick up the phone and call the BWR Fawn Line immediately at 530-864-Fawn (3269). You can speak to one of our volunteers who can assess the situation and tell you the best way to proceed. Leave the fawns with their moms! ❤️🦌

28/06/2024

We are so grateful for community members who know that wildlife rehabilitation is not just the job of our organization, it takes all of us! ❤️❤️

This tiny little girl squirrel, pictured, was brought to us on Tuesday by some awesome people who transported her from Oroville to Chico, and also brought some homemade goodies and a donation (our favorite!)! ❤️❤️

Also pictured is a sweet little jackrabbit who came our way yesterday. She was brought to us by two lovely people from Stonyford, who dropped everything to drive her an hour and a half to Chico with no complaints. They also made a donation!

Thank you! And thank you to everyone who supports us, whether it’s financially or otherwise. ❤️🐿️🦨🐣🦅🦉🐇❤️

09/06/2024

Weekend yard work? This is a reminder to WALK FIRST!

Walking the area you're going to cut, whether it be your lawn or pasture, BEFORE you mow can save lives!

08/06/2024

RIP Mike Seely. 💔

I would like to say how grateful I am for having known Mike Seely, DVM. I first met him when he came to practice in Paradise in the early ‘70s. He was practicing in a mobile home while building the dome. He was always there for pets and the people that loved them.

I remember in 1973 when he and some CSU students started Bidwell Nature Center. It was just raptors at first, but evolved into everything wild. He tried for a year to get me involved but it took a year before I was conviced I could do it. This is my 50 year anniversary! Never would have happened if not for Mike.

Even when he became ill, he was still helping animals. Bidwell Nature center evolved into Bidwell Wildlife Rehabilitation, and our average annual animal count is 900+/-

Thank you Mike Seely. It has been an honor to be your friend, and thank you for all my pets and the wilds you have helped , and helped me to help. You will be missed!

- Sandy Doolittle, Bidwell Wildlife Rehab President

08/06/2024

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend! ☀️🕶️☀️

We want to remind everyone that if you find orphaned or injured wildlife that looks like it might be in need of some help, the BEST and FASTEST way to get ahold of us is by filling out an online intake form found at the top of our webpage, www.bidwellwildliferehab.org.

“What! I want to just make a phone call! How come I have to go online and fill out a form?”

In order to determine how best to help these babies, we need some very basic pieces of information to start the process – what kind of animal is it? How many are there? Is it injured? Where is it? Is it a baby or an adult? And believe it or not, sometimes getting this information during a phone call can be a little bit time consuming! Not to mention the inevitable phone tag that sometimes follows…

We get numerous requests for help every day, and if we can cut down on the amount of time that it takes to get this important information, then we are all for that!

But, what about people without Internet access? We are happy to report that in the instances where folks don’t have Internet access, they have been able to call a friend who can then fill out the form on their behalf.

If you see that someone on social media has found injured or orphaned wildlife and isn’t sure what to do, please refer them to this information! 🙏❤️🐿🦨🦝🐣❤️

06/06/2024

WOW - it was an INSANE day for bird intakes here at BWR! We got 11 requests for help today, about a total of 24 birds needing assistance. 🥵

We'd like to give a huge huge thank you and tons of gratitude to our bird intake volunteers - Laurie, Brandy, Lynda, Keen, the bird gurus Dede and Chrystal, and especially to today's bird intake volunteer, Sarah! ❤️❤️❤️ WOW was she busy, and we appreciate her hard work so much!

If you love wildlife like we do, and you'd like to say thank you to the bird intake volunteers, what better way than with a donation! Info on how to donate can be found here: https://www.bidwellwildliferehab.org/donate.html

Pictured is a sweet little hawk nestling that came our way last year, and was released to go live a wild life, thanks to the dedicated BWR bird volunteers. 🦅❤️

05/06/2024

If you care, leave them there!

Late Spring and Summer are peak time for California’s deer to give birth to fawns. To help protect these animals, CDFW reminds people to not approach or touch fawns they may come across while enjoying the outdoors and to keep dogs on leashes.

Adult female deer (doe) hide their fawns in tall grass or thick vegetation while out foraging for food. Fawns that are found hiding quietly, and do not show signs of distress or visible injury, are simply waiting for their mother to return.

“Doe’s stash their fawns for several hours at a time the first few weeks of their lives. If you come across a fawn, please leave it alone so you don’t unintentionally separate it from its mother. This harms both mother and fawn,” said CDFW Wildlife Rehabilitation Program Coordinator Heather Perry, PhD.

Each year, well-intentioned people accidentally “kidnap” healthy fawns that they think need rescuing and contact CDFW and wildlife rehabilitation facilities for help. Some of these fawns are reunited with their mothers while other fawns must be euthanized due to a lack of placement options for rehabilitation, unintended issues caused by human care, or disease concerns. A fawn’s best chance of survival is staying with its mother in the wild.

Chronic Wasting Disease was recently confirmed in California and is deadly to deer and elk with unknown potential risk to humans.

To report an injured or suspected orphaned fawn, contact a permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility (https://wildlife.ca.gov/ Rehab) or CDFW regional office in your local area (https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions).

Any person who takes and temporarily confines an injured or orphaned animal from the wild must notify the nearest CDFW regional office within 48 hours of finding or confining such wildlife.

02/06/2024

100+ degree weather is on the way to the North Valley! 🥵 If you have critters in your neighborhood, whether they’re mammals or birds, they nearly all will benefit if you could put out some water for them! A dish or pan of water, clean and changed daily, can be such a blessing to wildlife on these hot days. If you put out water and you see the critters enjoying it, please let us know here!

Attached is a short video of a juvenile squirrel that came our way as a baby early this year, now enjoying the soft release life in one of our volunteers’ backyards. Thank you to everyone who looks out for the wildlife! ❤️❤️❤️

30/05/2024

Please take this seriously:
Please please understand that when we give instructions/advice, there’s a reason behind every word. If you find injured, orphaned, or sick wildlife, do not handle/pet. Do not feed. Do not give water. If you have the animal contained, put it in a ventilated box/container and keep it in a dark quiet area away from pets and people. Then reach out for help. Don’t do anything else unless instructed to do so by a rehabber…not your neighbor, not Google, or someone who raised a chipmunk once, but a rehabber or wildlife professional.

Today someone who reached out to GWN for help with a rabies vector species was bitten by the animal. It seemed docile so he reached in to place a bowl of water in the crate and it bit him. GWN had to contact environmental health and the animal was picked up by animal control. It will be euthanized and sent off for rabies testing. If it is positive, the person will go through a series of expensive shots. This is protocol for any RVS animal that bites someone, whether it is exhibiting any symptoms or not.

Do NOT touch a rabies vector species without gloves!! The most common animals to carry rabies are bats, raccoons, skunks, & foxes but this doesn’t mean they all have rabies. All animals can carry mites, fleas, & diseases so wear gloves anyway. And unless you are actually Snow White, a wild animal that approaches you needs help. Proceed with caution and follow the advice of wildlife professionals.

Facts: Putting water in a birds mouth can literally cause them to choke to death. Not all birds eat worms. Domesticating a fawn by bringing it in your home to “help it” is a death sentence. If you give a baby squirrel or bunny the wrong kind of milk, you can make it so ill that it will take days for a rehabber to stabilize. Baby opossums do not suckle; they are attached to a feeding tube inside their mom so you can’t feed with a bottle. Some animals require rehydration before they can be fed. Turtles live in a 1 mile radius their entire lives. Baby birds can get food lodged in their throat and suffocate. If you use the wrong kind of syringe/nipple and feed a baby animal too fast or too much, it will aspirate and die. Ducklings can drown. You cannot judge if it’s a venomous snake by its head or pupil shape. The animal that you just found doesn’t “like you”, he’s in shock and afraid to move. Baby animals can’t have breast milk. Everything we tell you is for a reason.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. Today was a scary day. We hope our human friend has a clean bill of health. We ❤️ our wildlife and we ❤️ our wildlife loving humans. Today’s incident was avoidable. This post isn’t to criticize; it’s to teach someone who may not know so we can avoid another incident tomorrow.

xoxo, GWN
The Georgia Wildlife Network

Photo is of another raccoon who also sadly had to be euthanized last week. 😞 This work really sucks some days.

25/05/2024

We hope this infographic might be of use! Feel free to share it with anyone who might benefit from it.

20/05/2024

Bidwell Wildlife’s very own wonderful volunteer👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Melanie is our lucky winner of the caption this picture contest. With her caption of “Owl be watching you……. “
Thank you all for playing .

19/05/2024

It’s that time of year when you maybe out and see a baby fawn , but does it need help?

When does a fawn actually need help?

Well, there's two times. One is when it’s an orphan and one is if it's injured. But the orphan question is one that comes up a lot.
Most of the time when people see a fawn alone, it's not an orphan and it doesn't need to be rescued. people don't understand that moms leave them alone for hours at a time to avoid attracting predators .So the mom goes off and feeds and leaves the fawn alone. People find them alone and think it's been abandoned, but it’s not .

it's absolutely crucial not to disturb the scene. people should always call a rehabber first, rather than kidnap the fawn. Our web site is bidwellwildliferescue.org you should go on line and fill out the form or call our Fawn line
530 -864-FAWN to speak to a volunteer before removing the fawn .if you have already removed it from the area and then called, chances are we can put it back to reunite mother and Fawn .

How do you determine if a fawn is orphaned?

Healthy young ones will just hunker down in the weeds and hope you go away. However, if the fawn is up, wandering around and crying — ( Bleating )that's a bad sign. The final test that really tells you if it’s an orphan is what we call the dirty butt test. Every time the mom feeds the fawn, she grooms it and that includes cleaning around the a**s because the fawn doesn't know how to do that. So if you lift up the tail and there's p**p material around the a**s, mom hasn’t been there for a long time and that’s a bad sign. Checking for this would be our last resort because we don’t really want to bother the fawn if possible however at this point it may be necessary. If you have already picked up the fawn and taken it from its location PLEASE !! do not feed them. it is crucial not to feed a Baby Fawn .
Anything you may give it could be detrimental to its health. We have a species specific formula that we use and you may easily aspirate the fawn.

If you know for a fact it’s an orphan because it’s sitting by its dead mother .
It’s bleating (Crying ) and wandering around.
You can clearly see its dirty bottom . Contact www.bidwellwildliferehab.org or call our Fawn line 530-864 -Fawn …..BEFORE you leave the area with the fawn .

19/05/2024

Fawns will be here soon. Please CALL 209-283-3245 for advice.

16/05/2024

Amber Hall

16/05/2024

13/05/2024

https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/2YI10P3B11A5Y

HELP !!!!!
We are in need of puppy pads for our bird of prey nursery . If you would like to help / donate click link below to our Amazon wish list and purchase puppy pads we need large ,small .Thank you

10/05/2024

BWR would like to Thank Michael Neade for the new owl box 🦉🦉🦉👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

09/05/2024

Shout out to our Bird of prey team member Tammy Hume 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 excellent rescue of Five baby barn owls in a building to be demolished .

07/05/2024

Join us for World Migratory Bird Day Live!!!

Join a series of engaging discussions on Facebook Live. Connect with educators, experts, and bird lovers worldwide as we discuss the urgent need for conserving migratory birds and their habitats.
Explore the roles of insects in ecosystems and the amazing journeys of migratory birds. Each session will provide insights and inspire conservation.

Don't miss this chance to join a community dedicated to protecting our planet's biodiversity. See you there!

07/05/2024