Gift of Milk for our little wombats
We can email a printable PDF you can give as a gift, or enclose this in one of our photo cards and post please ask!
Little Patty and Keith have started their 2 year journey with us now in July/August 2023 their stories are wombats in care
Your donation helps us feed little Keith and Patty, as well as all our little wombats, who just love their bottles and a cuddle.
Starman is just one of many orphan’s. His mum was hit by a car on the road, and a kind person moved mum off the road, and found little Starman at just 296 grams, still in his mum’s pouch. We refer to the moving of bodies off the road and checking pouches for living joeys as “drive-by shopping.” There are just so many sometimes. Starman is now a big boy and fully released we see him occasionally as he's made his home locally to Rocklily Wombats.
The little orphans will each drink over 60 litres of milk (thats 16kg of powder) by the time they are around 11 kg and weaned, which is about 12 months. Feedings for little joeys start at 6 times a day, every 4 hours, 24 hours a day.
Sometimes everyone has finished drinking milk and graduated to solid food, but it’s never long before the next little ones arrive. We always freeze milk powder to feed little orphans when they arrive. The supply of marsupial milk powder is variable, so we purchase it in 5 kg Tubs, a. It is dearer than baby milk! Wild wombats drink from their mums until they are around 11 kg. We allow our wombats to wean themselves at anything from 9 kg to 13 kg. They are considered adults at 22 kg.
They would normally leave his mum’s pouch at 3 kg. We have Keith in a small basket with gentle heat until he has fur. Then he will hang in a bag inside a big sleeping box, alongside our other small wombats. After they are around 5 kg they will move together to our nursery shed with a burrow and yard. It is called a wombatorium.
Their long journey to become resilient wild wombats will take 2 years here at Rocklily, until they are about 22 kg. We then start a supported soft release program that lasts 6 to 9 months, allowing them to come and go, easing themselves back into a safe wild place to be a wild wombat. We hope to see them around for the next 15 or so years after release.
Photo's are Keith , Patty then 'pinki' wombat at 260gms is Honey and Checky wanting more of course is starman.
Thank you again for helping little Starman and all our little orphans.
Your donation towards this milk is really a great help. We are not a charity.
Were just a couple of ordinary folk who are trying to do the right thing. We fund all our wildlife work from our online shop and get no government or other funding. We do belong to a wildlife rescue group 'Wildlife Rescue South Coast' NSW The wombats thankyou!