Yellow footed antechinus

[silvercloud]

My newest rescues are a litter of yellow footed antechinus, or as we west aussies call them, mardo. They were knocked out of their nest and were luckily found straight away as the lady who gave them to me was not far away when it happened. There was 8 of them but one died today. They are a carnivorous marsupial bigger than a mouse but smaller than a rat.

[judy]

Wow Jules sure have your hands full. Cant wait to see these little fellas grown up.

[pied]

wow..Silvercloud..they look great.. again can't wait to see update's as they grow...
Well done...
Had to google to see what they look like and yes they are great......
especially how they are short footed with a narrow nose...

[silvercloud]

I especially like how the males.....welll......mate themselves to death.

www.wiresnr.org/antechinus.htm

[Liz]

You learn something new every day...I thought I was pretty up on my animals, but I had never heard of these guys before. Great pics, and good luck raising them!

[pied]

Interesting site there Silvercloud,thanks for sharing....

[silvercloud]

Unfortunately I have some sad news. I lost them all over one day. There was one who seemed to have an enlarged liver or some internal bleeding as I could see it through the skin. When I got up to feed them first thing in the morning he was already dead but there were 2 others that weren't looking too good. One of those had died when I went to count them after the morning feed. The other fed but not well at the next feed but I found it dead at the following feed so thinking that maybe they weren't warm enough as these guys need to be kept warmer than most I moved them into an esky with the hot water bottle I'd been using for them. When I took them out for their next feed they were dead but their bodies felt quite warm. I think it was too warm for them. Pinkies are notoriously difficult to raise no matter what kind of animal they are as temperature is soooooo important. I'll never use an esky agan even though some carers swear by them. Unfortunately this is the heartbreaking part of being a carer and I'm still kicking myself for not checking them earlier as I had a feeling that it might have been a bit too hot for them but I had to balance that up with disturbing them too often as too much handling can also kill tiny critters like these.

[Berserka]

Very sorry to see such sad news.
Don't blame yourself Jules, if you couldn't save those little critters then they weren't meant to be saved. You did your best and that's all that matters.

[Liz]

I'm really sorry, silvercloud. Hugs to you! Don't beat yourself up, like Karen said, you did your best.

[Admin]

oh how sad #cry# you did your best to give them a chance jules, they couldnt have asked for more than that

[silvercloud]

Thanks guys.

[telmadee]

aww so sorry to read this, you did all you could, and gave them the best start anyone could ahve xxxx