Just like any other animal, wildlife rehabilitators take care of bats. It could be a baby bat, an injured one or an orphaned. One question that many home owners who have experienced bats in their houses ask is what wildlife rehabilitators do with birds. Some of the most important things is housing them, treating and feeding them.

Wildlife Rehabilitators House the Bats

For the initial intensive care of the bats, an aquarium or small boxes are used before they are moved to a flexarium when they are stronger. Before being released, the rehabilitators put them in an outdoor flight cage. They ensure the bats are not disturbed while housing them.

Baby Bats Are Fed with Formula

Feeding is important just like for every other animal. The one thing that a wildlife rehabilitator will do to a baby bat is rehydrate them and then use formula feeding. Depending on the bat’s species since there are several of them and the size, it is fed every one to three hours. Goat milk is highly preferred since it is compared to that of the mother bat.

Wildlife Rehabilitators Feed the Bats

After three weeks of taking formula, wildlife rehabilitators introduce other types of food such as wax worms, mealworms, and maggots. They, in fact, use tweezers to feed them. Internal body contents of mealworms are first used before they baby bats can feed on whole worms.

They Teach Skills

Interestingly, wildlife rehabilitators teach the captured bats some skills. Although they can only perfect these skills when together with others, rehabilitators do their best to teach them. The skills include roosting and hunting. With such skills, they will learn how to catch insects before they are set free.

They Capture the Needy Bats

A bat could be injured, or it’s still a pup. Capturing them requires the right equipment thus it is not wise to use bare hands. Wildlife rehabilitators capture bats when they come across one, or they are called to rescue. They always have the right equipment such as long handled fine mesh, leather gloves or cardboard boxes.

Wildlife Rehabilitators Save Bats Found in Houses

If a homeowner has bats that are stranded or stuck somewhere in their homes, wildlife rehabilitators rescue them. If they are not stable to continue with their normal lives, the rehabilitators will take them to a sanctuary.

Wildlife rehabilitators are trained professionals with experience in caring for the needy bats. Some homeowners struggling with bats in their houses call the rehabilitators and if there are injured or little bats discovered, they take care of them. Once they have taken care of the bats and are satisfied they can be set free, they set them free.

Some bats can be taught to catch insects while flying in a large enclosure, which makes release back into the wild feasible. Rehabilitators have found some limited success in creating bat colonies out of the bats in their own rehabilitation centers and then releasing them all together.

Read the How to get rid of bats page for helpful information and to learn more about What Do Wildlife Rehabilitators Do with Bats?