Wednesday 31 October 2012

New addition!

So a new VERY tiny addition has arrived into Sleepy Burrows. A little male wombat, around 140g I would say. The reason why he has such a strong chance is that he was found not long after his mother was killed thankfully. Not far from where we live so we were able to get him quick smart. Its never good to start your morning off with having a large dead female delivered but if she has a joey, the joey deserves a chance at life. 
 
You can see him on Youtube Sleepy Burrows
Will he survive? Good question. It is up to mother nature. Some this tiny do, some don't. Only the fittest will survive from this age. As humans we can never match what a mother wombat does to raise a joey, we can only try our best. This means 2 hourly feeds around the clock, constant temp of 28-30 degrees and he needs to be lubricated regularly so that his skin does not dry out as in his mothers pouch it is constantly moist. He had to be cut out of the pouch so that you do not injure them when removing them. 

Tuesday 16 October 2012

You give a male freedom....

Forgot again to update on Moses. He was severely beaten up when we collected him almost a  year ago now. He is now a healthy strong male wombat.

Men, you cannot please them *lol* - yes yes, that is a joke. We released Moses 2 nights ago, thinking he would revel in his freedom and find a nearby burrow and start excavating....but no......oh he had a wonderful time but ultimately did a huge loop around and in the morning - sound asleep in his enclosure, he had come back:). That is absolutely fine. They are not always ready when us humans 'think' they are. We will just give him the opportunity again in the future and eventually he will decide the bush is where he belongs.

Snow on the ranges - literally

I've put up a photograph of what the enclosure area looked like at 6:30am last Friday morning. We knew we had a cold front coming but never did we think we would wake up in October to so much snow. The most we have had here. It was just beautiful. And really not cold either. It was freezing by 9am when it started to rain and melt the snow.

The other one is of Miss J and Bella - both looking outside of the fence, wanting to go for a run *lol*.  Madam J has been sick and we spent almost the entire Sunday at the hospital and doctors. Its horrible when they are ill and you cannot make it go away. Thankfully her antibiotics are now kicking in and she is at least eating a bit and getting noisier again - which must mean she is starting to feel better.

Oh and If you have a home loan in Australia, you will want to be part of  https://www.onebigswitch.com.au/ 
I keep forgetting, and another thing. Be careful with what the big banks are advertising - that you can pause your home loan - no such thing. They in fact continue to take payments and at no point pause your repayments.  In fact it means they take repayments out of your savings or redraw. 
I discovered today that with not being passed on the full interest rate cuts in the last 12 months, it has cost our home loan an extra $12,000 in interest. So get on One Big Switch and let them know consumers are not happy anymore with this. 

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Bee careful - I told you so!

I'm learning that as a mother, you can say things over and over but eventually you just have to let 'nature' take its course:). One said toddler experienced her first bee sting today - and as much as I don't want to sound like my own mother - I said it *aarrgghhhh* - I told you so *lol*. Oh what a drama, truly. She has been bitten by a wombat (another I told you so lesson) and cried for 20 seconds, if that. This time round, oh my word, I reckon the birds are deaf! I was showing her the gorgeous tree with its spring blossoms, clearly this outing missed the point for her. Maybe tomorrow......

And why do we feed baby's formula? Truly. What you put in with a bottle, just comes out both ends! The formula companies must be laughing:). Have also made a mental note to not buy any new furniture or carpets until said daughters are at least 21 *lol*. And people think wombats are destructive - they have competition apparently.

Miss G - she is doing my head in. I have never seen a wombat react the way she has after being attacked. She took a claw off last night and when this happens to a wombat, the amount of blood which flows is just amazing. It looked like she had lost so much but on seeing the claw gone, it all made perfect sense.

Veg - she is doing okay. Her little one in the pouch continues to grow and kick so its doing well. Veg's wound will still be a long time in healing. All up she took about 5 stitches (10cm) out but the wound is looking good and the vet is pleased with her progress. With the warmer weather it will be not so much fun as we have to keep her out of the reach of flies so it will be night time walks with her until the wound is completely sealed over.

The other attacked males here are doing much better. Harry met (no not Sally) but Moses the other afternoon. Moses won, he got the burrow:). Soldier does not even bother with the younger males now. He knows that he can put them out of action by just sitting on them with his size.

Right, off to do enclosures.
PS: have you bought a wombat calendar for 2013 from NARG yet? If not, please do so:)

Thursday 4 October 2012

The mind is playing tricks...

I thought I was seeing things today when driving home. I saw something moving on the side of the road. I automatically expected to see an echidna but no, I saw a moving cow pat (cow dung)!!!!! After looking twice I realised it was a turtle who had come out of hibernation *lol*, still with the cow pat attached to its shell. No hard guess where this particular turtle hibernated during the winter:).

Well Veg spent her first time outside last night since her surgery and she did really really well. She slept brilliantly as a result. It did her the world of good. Her joey is still doing very well so holding thumbs that it survives all of this. Now off outside. Hope everybody is enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather.