Badger Cub Care Sheet.
Initial assessment
Approach the area where the cub is, check it is safe enough before getting too close, watch the cubs reactions and body language. If necessary call for help. Prepare and put on all PPE and equipment needed, approach the badger cub calmly quietly and slowly as top not scare the cub. Check that the cub is alive by watching for chest movements or twitching. If the cub is alive begin to capture and restrain them using a dog grasper, you can use a stick as a distraction for something they can bite on instead of going for your arm or leg. Once captured, place the cub into a crush cage or carry crate and put it into your vehicle, cover the crate/cage with a towel to minimise stress during the journey. Take the cub to the rescue/care centre.
Accommodation
For short term accommodation you can use a strong wire mesh cape, preferably with a crush cage facility. Make sure you have plenty of bedding in the accommodation for the cub for comfort and for somewhere to hide in. Cover the cage with a towel again to minimise stress and so that the enclosure isn’t too bright for the cub. Most importantly make sure it is warm by using heat mats, heat lamps or a filled hot water bottle wrapped in towels.
For mid-term accommodation a dim quiet pen is needed, this should be made from concrete or metal, but not wood! Hygiene is key. Shelter should be provided as a place to sleep and hide, a box on its side will do nicely, use straw or blankets as bedding material, note that blankets are best in monitoring urine or faeces.
Feeding
Badgers are mainly found weak and in need of help, they are usually found around 0-10 weeks of age when they can walk around and may get lost from the nest. At this age they have very long fur, teeth are beginning to come through and eyes and ears are open. Cubs will still be suckling around this age so they will need to be fed on milk replacement such as;
• Complain (one part powder to three parts warm water)
• Lactol
• Esbilac
• Puppy or kitten milk replacer
• 50% diluted cow’s milk
Change food over slowly to avoid diarrhoea or sickness in the cub. Supplements such as multivitamin drops and mineral supplements can be given also. If you think the cub is constipated a small amount of sugar in their feed will help. Dilute the milk formula if diarrhoea is present, sever diarrhoea requires electrolyte (rehydration) solution, it is to be given for 24 hours and slowly replaced back to milk over a course of 24 hours after.
Hypothermia and malnutrition
If you have a cub suffering with hypothermia you need to warm them up slowly using a heat mat or a hot water bottle wrapped in towels, if the cub will let you – holding them on your lap for body heat works well too as well as the use of a hot water bottle. You need to warm them up slowly, if you warm them up too fast you can cause shock to the cub and this is just as bad as not doing anything at all to help! If you have a cub with malnutrition you need to feed them, on feeds which are easily digestible, you will need to feed little amounts of food but often.
Rehabilitation
When rehabilitating a badger cub, human contact needs to be as minimal as possible as badgers – especially young cubs can tame very easily. You don’t want the badger to become tame or totally rely on humans as this will make things difficult when releasing to the wild again. A tame badger wouldn’t fare well in the wild as they may not have natural behaviours needed to survive on their own. They need their enclosures to be as natural as possible and any treatment or medicines should be given to help bring the cub back to health and ready to be re introduced to the wild. Feds should be fed according to body weight and any health problems, too much feed will cause obesity or too little feed can cause anorexia, both of which are not good for the development of the cub and will impact on the time until they can be released, they need to be a good weight before they leave.
Ethics
Rehabilitating wildlife is important for the country, wildlife has been around as long as humans, if not even longer and we should help where and when we can as we have the knowledge and understanding to help other species. It is due to humans that wildlife is rapidly decreasing because of light pollution, other pollution, cars killing animals crossing the roads, the list goes on. Humans are very intelligent and can help animals, unlike squirrels, a squirrel couldn’t help humans if we were declining in numbers because they haven’t developed like humans have/ or how we were made, but humans CAN help, is it our duty to help? The first thing to take into consideration is not to harm the animals if we do help the aim is to help and then release when back to full health and fit. But as a stronger species should the term “survival of the fittest” come into play? We are living and winning against wildlife in a survival situation, we grow and make our own food we can live and get around happily, we are the survivors, and the wildlife are the ones who haven’t developed to compete with us. We can help them to breed and bring their numbers back up, but it does cost a lot of money which could be sent on humans. Some animals need help like the hedgehog, their numbers have decreased drastically over the past few years and it is our duty to help bring their numbers back up before they go extinct, there is lots we can and are doing to help wildlife, not just hedgehogs we help the native red squirrels, Scottish wild cats, wren’s and so much more! Although money plays a big role in what we do, as caring people we take joy in helping wildlife and seeing slight improvements in the numbers of certain species.
Tue Jun 04, 2013 7:34 pm
