Orphan skunks are raised and released
Orphan skunks are raised and released
By: Jon Hammond, Tehachapi News Columnist
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Posted by editor Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:23:44 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Several months ago, I wrote a column about a litter of baby skunks that had experienced a tragic mishap: all five babies had become entangled by their necks in a mesh dip net in Golden Hills. They spent a day and a half trapped and when a friend and I arrived, one had already died and the remaining four were near death.
I took them home and fed them puppy formula milk replacer for newborn puppies. The weakest one died in the night but the three others survived and thrived on feedings of warm formula every four hours or so. A space heater kept them warm in the office of our old blacksmith shop, even during a three-day cold spell with bitter winds that we experienced right after their rescue.
And the good news is: they grew up into healthy young skunks and last week I released them in the mountains far from human habitation.
The most common question I’ve been asked about them is “Have you gotten sprayed?” I’m happy to report that neither I nor my brother George, who also tended to the ‘lil stinkers on a daily basis, were ever sprayed by the trio. We didn’t alarm them, and they didn’t spray us, even though they were fully capable of doing so.
Even when they are very young, skunks produce and can release the overpowering scent that is their main defense mechanism, even though they can’t aim and squirt it very far until they’re older. But it is a defense response used when they feel threatened, and the three black-and-white “forest kittens” that inhabited the blacksmith shop these past months never felt threatened enough to release.
When they were still on formula they had to have their faces and front feet washed after every feeding, because skunks are like little piglets who dive into a food dish and try to monopolize it, and end up wearing part of their meal as a result.
You can’t leave the formula on them to dry and get stiff or sticky, and they had no mother to clean them off, so I would warm a damp washcloth in the microwave and clean them up after each meal. They weren’t too thrilled to have their faces and noses washed up (neither is my seven-month-old daughter Kiya) but they put up with it.
As they got older I started giving them dry pet food moistened with water, and gradually used less and less water. It was so cute to see them grab a bite of kibble and then hear them crunching up one piece at a time.
Skunks are omnivores and so we gave them a varied diet, with an assortment of fruit. Their favorite was apples (they must be Tehachapi skunks!) and all three would peek their heads over the top of their box, grab an apple slice from my hand and retreat to a different corner to devour the sweet fruit. They also love eggs, which is a natural food for them.
Even though they were around humans, we didn’t handle them after they got older and they are fully aware that they are skunks, not house pets. Having three of them together all the time means that they are well-socialized as skunks and they behave accordingly.
I’m glad they’re free again to experience life in the wild and hopefully they will live to reproduce next year. Skunks are not everyone’s favorite animal, of course, but they are part of our ecosystem and deserve their place in our mountains.
The three orphans grew up to be beautiful animals with glossy black fur and shiny white markings. They are also tidy animals, preferring to use the same portion of their cage as their latrine all the time. People who have kept skunks as pets report them using a litter box with no problem.
I’ll miss their three eager little faces and their comical behavior, but it was always hoped that they could be released one day and now they have been. Good luck, little ones . . . .
Have a good week.
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