| Recently one Sunday, I was out mowing the lawn. On the second pass around, I spotted this little furball, right where I had just previously mowed. It could not have been there before or I would have run over it! So I stopped the mower for a look. The furball turned out to be a baby woodchuck (or groundhog, depending on where you live). It was alive - I had not run over it - but it wasn't moving around and its eyes were still greyish, like they had just opened. So, I put it in bucket (to keep it out of harms way) and went on mowing the lawn. | ||
| After I finished mowing I took another look at the baby woodchuck. I put him under the bushes at the edge of the yard figuring that was the only place he could have come out of. When I found him, he was 10 feet from those bushes. Quite a distance for this guy with his |  |
eyes barely open and all. Well, he headed back out on the lawn. After trying this three or four times I decided that he wasn't going to stay under those bushes and I figured he probably wasn't fully weaned yet, either. |
| So, a quick trip to the store for some woodchip bedding and a feeder bottle and formula and the baby woodchuck had a new home (in an old aquarium) for a week or so. The first couple of feedings were not spectacular - he wasn't eating much and didn't seem too sure of the bottle. But, he got the hang of it quickly and within a few days he was pretty lively. I figure that he is just barely four weeks old. He should be weaned and just about on his own by seven weeks, according to what I've read. We'll give him a week or two and then take him to the local wildlife preserve. | ||
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Not much bigger than the palm of my hand. He wasn't moving around much, either. |
| Dinner time.. The glove was for just in case he wanted to bite. He's been pretty good, so far. |
| He quickly learned to stand right up. And, he hangs right onto the bottle! |
| In a day or two he was quite used to bottle feeding. |
| Day 4. A trip to the clover patch. We wanted to see if he was ready to start eating solid foods. |
| He did nibble on a few plants. He is just about ready to be on his own. I've also been trying to feed him fresh greens - mostly clover - but just a little bit. |
| He was scurrying right around. Every time I moved away to get a picture he ran right towards me. |
| After all that exercise, the little guy was thirsty! |
| One fat little woodchuck, ready for a nap. Actually, he has improved considerably over the past few days, and has got a bit plumper. |
Links to other woodchuck sites | |
| Woodchucks! |  |
| Good information from the Missouri Conservation Commission | |
| The Groundhogs at Hog Haven | |