Fluffy the Echidna Pugge (baby) October 2024 -
Fluffy was found in dirt floored carport by the owner 6 days after removing the contents. He / she was in the small burrow under the roots of bracken fern. He could not stay there for his mum to return as it was being demolished. and it looked like mum had not been back.
At 640gms of Fluffy black Echidna, Puggle (baby) our first puggle and something quite rare to get. We have done echidna' adults before getting them back to the wild.
Flufffy is in a special wooden rescue box box with dirt and leaf mulch to snuggle into. Initially fed daily, were now up to every 3 days in late December now weighing around 950gms before a feed.
January has seen her terrified with huge thunderstors and refuse to eat, we insulated her box as much as possible from the noise/vibrations of the storms the whole house was shaking with gale force winds. It meant we had a struggle over almost 10 days getting in her food, being very aware we did not want to stress fluffy.
We make up her feed in batches and freeze it. It was a little different and has progressed to the final feed mix of 9 egg yolks, 9 heaped scoops diveterlac, 9 heaped scoops skim milk powder 90ml light olive oil and 450ml water makes 1 Liter and bagged up into 200ml feeds and frozen. I have a heap of Frozen egg whites now, got to see what i can make!
1st February were well and truly been powering away with feed every 3 days shes now drinking almost 200ml just leaving a little and collapsing full as a goog as we say.
She now weighs 1.4 kg and its not about size, that determines when she is released but its about her development, spines. Echidna's start breeding between 6 and 12 years, so vary in size and therefore so to their little puggles. We keeping intouch with Dr Peggy a friend who is Australia's leading research scientist on all things echidna (and tTiger snakes and Rosenburg goanna's down on kangaroo island.
Were currently putting in tracks thru the dense impenetrable weed and re-growth on our western front and the area we feel has a number of disused burrows and heaps of different ant's, instects and stuff this only had the escaped backburn so really hot but not as bad as what the firestorms did. Were getting this done to slow a future ground fire and protect a larger area of bush.
Fluffy haveing a rest during her feed, exploring Warwicks shirt for a few minutes. Were not having her out at all unless its a feed. She is quite tricky to get out of her box hunkering down as echidna's do so nice a wild how we like our wildlife to be released.
We will be uploading video's shortly