The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota provides
quality medical care and rehabilitation for all injured,
sick and orphaned wildlife, and shares its knowledge
with the people who care about them.

Most of our visitors have animal-related questions. If you'd like to learn more about WRC's history, view a staff and Board member list, please visit About Us.

 

 

ANIMAL RELATED QUESTIONS

I've Found An Animal. Do I Need to Call First?

If the animal you've found is obviously injured, please bring it to the Center immediately. If it's an orphan, please call us prior to bringing in the animal: 651-486-9453. Do not email us with animal admit questions, we're not able to respond as quickly as we can via phone.

 

In the event that we are closed, please do not offer the animal any food or water. A vet should examine the animal first to make sure it will not further harm the animal. Place the animal in a pet carrier or secure box with air holes. We recommend keeping the contained animal in your garage (except during the winter months if you have an unheated garage), away from noise, pets and humans. This helps reduce the stress on an already stressed animal. You may place half the container on a heating pad set to low (no higher) if the animal is very young or cold and wet.

 

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How Do I Follow up on an Animal I Brought to WRC?

We're glad you're interested in learning about the welfare of the animal you brought to us. Please wait three days prior to emailing us. This will give us a bit better idea of how the animal is initially responding. When you email us, please include the name under which the animal was admitted, date and species of animal (if known). During our busy season (May-Aug) we may take up to 5 business days to reply.

 

 

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A Bird Hit My Window. What Should I Do?

Bird strikes are startling and traumatic to watch. But, oftentimes the bird is simply stunned and will fly away in as little as 15 minutes to as long as a couple hours. We recommend the following steps, to help you and the bird reduce stress and save time:

1) If the bird is near a low bush, pick the bird up and place it at the base of the bush.

2) If it's cold outside or you're worried about feral cats, you may place the bird in a shoe box and put the shoe box in your garage or unused room. Be sure to close the door and keep the room quiet to help reduce stress on the already stressed bird.

3) After 2 hours, take the shoe box outside and lift the lid. At this point, hopefully the bird will fly away. If not, the bird has either died from extreme internal injuries (which we could not have done anything to reverse) or it's evident that the bird has an injured wing, etc., at which point you should bring it into the Center.

 

We hope these steps will help save you time and stress.

 

For more information on bird strikes, and how to prevent them, we recommend visiting All Seasons' Wild Bird Store's site and their FAQs section.

 

 

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Why Don't You Name Your Patients?

Many times an animal is named by the people who have rescued it. We've had our fair share of "Chirpy," "Chippy," "Nuts" (most often squirrels) and even "Fred" over the years.

 

We understand that people grow attached to animals in their possession quickly and naming the animal is often a suggestion by the children who found the animal.

 

Here at the Center, we treat every wild animal as a wild animal with the goal of releasing it back to its wild home. By naming an animal, you create ownership of it and we feel it's not appropriate for our patients to be named. We're here to provide medical and rehabilitative care and then release the animal; not to bond with it or become even further attached to it.

 

We'll be honest: volunteers who work daily with a swan who is with us for 6 months while battling lead poisoning quickly become attached to it. Whether the swan lives or dies is an emotional experience for our volunteers. The animals in our care receive loving attention from our staff and volunteers even without being given a name.

 

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I Found a Baby Bird. Can I Put it Back in its Nest?

Baby birds leave the nest for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they're pushed out by the other nestlings, sometimes one of the parents will push a bird out, or the baby bird may be ready to leave the nest.

 

A baby bird that is featherless, or still has tiny fluffy downy feathers on it belongs in the nest. Carefully pick the bird up and place it back in the nest. Don't worry about your scent on the bird: birds cannot smell!

 

If the entire nest has fallen, you can try to put it back. If you're having trouble doing so, take a shallow plastic container (like a deli container), punch holes in the bottom of it for drainage, place the nest in the container and then bungee cord the new "nest" to the tree or branch.

 

If you cannot choose the original site, the location must be within 5' or the parents may not care for the birds.

 

When the parents continually push a baby bird from the nest, most likely there is something wrong with that bird and they've chosen not to care for it. You may bring the bird to the Center, no need to call first. We'll have our vets examine the bird and then admit it to our Avian Nursery.

 

A fledgling bird will leave the nest before it can fly. We know it's stressful to watch the baby robins running around in your yard - especially if you have feral cats in the neighborhood, but that's the way Nature works.

 

If you think about the size of the nest, and then the size of the fledglings, you'll realize they just don't have room to develop their flight feathers while staying in the nest.

 

It's typical for fledglings to hop around in the yard for 5-7 days prior to flying. Mom and Dad should be around with them, teaching them to hunt for food. Leave fledgling birds alone - they're healthy and doing quite well on their own.