A baby wombat lives two years with its mother before being ready to go solo. They suckle for at least 12 months. Gaining weight & size, learning to eat native grasses, sedges & roots and developing life skills such as tunneling burrows. When in care, young wombats are typically released two years after being rescued. During the final year, contact is kept to a minimum, so they develop independence & a natural wariness of humans.

Mother’s milk naturally changes depending on the developmental stage of their young. Caregivers must emulate these varying needs & require an extensive range of milk products & bottle teats to cater for the variety of animals & their developmental stages. The very young need to be fed every 2 hours.

Young marsupials (Joeys) are born without fur & are unable to regulate their own body temperature. They must be kept constantly warm. In nature, they are kept inside their mother’s pouch for up to a year in some species. Caregivers must provide warmth using artificial sources such heat pads or a humidicrib. During rescues, the carers own body heat may be the only option.

Mothers protect their young by training them to survive in the wild. This includes showing them how to find food and water, how to avoid predators and how to navigate their environment. As surrogates, Wildlife Carers must support maturing animals with stimulating learning environments, such as a range of natural food sources & relevant real-world habitat experiences.