I found myself a foster parent again this summer. July is baby bat time and a few found their way to me this year. I love to share the nursery with anyone wanting to look. My hope is for you to see these sweet little creatures through my eyes. They fall in love with their foster parent easily and purr like cats are impossibly small and dependent. I believe I may be getting a little to old for feedings through the night, but always game and groggy, I get through it. 
These two little guys had just come in and they are getting warmed up in their comfy clean roost before we start the first feeding. I use a jewelers magnifier to find their little mouths. They need to be stimulated to pee and poop after the feeding just to make certain their plumbing is working, and weigh less than a packet of sugar with little eyes still closed. Their current blindness means they don't know how impossibly large I am but know I am loud and smell bad and, more importantly, I have the PUPPY MILK FORMULA!
It takes patience to get them to understand the new feeding process. Mamma's nurturing breast is gone but they will soon get accustomed to the pupy milk I present. They like it hot...over 100 degrees...and if it isn't the temperature they like they won't take it.
This little one is dehydrated and hungry...his belly is empty and I am getting ready to remedy that situation. In the last image on the right you find him done nursing and full of formula.
Even from the back you can see the bulge the formula makes on his left side. I have to watch carefully how much he is taking in as overfeeding a bat pup will result in death.
He ate, he peed, and now it is time to go hang out and sleep in his warm roost I have prepared.
Here is a link to more baby pictures from the past http://www.pbase.com/medoras/north_american_micro_bats_juvenile
I love the photos and the stories, Mom. They are so sweet.
Posted by: Kelly Belly | July 30, 2006 at 01:13 PM