Savaged By Hamsters

[den]

I always think it's amusing to consider being attacked by a very small animal.

I can tell you now it bloody hurts. I picked up a bat this morning who had spent the night clinging to a swimming pool skimmer box. He's another young broadnosed bat, like Florence, except he thought he was a carnivore like Vampyrum Spectrum and went the fang. I'm not exaggerating when I say he savaged my hand: he bit me 7 times, drawing blood each time. That's like having 14 sewing pins stabbed into the side of my index finger and palm.

I've had the rabies shots so I'm happy that I won't get lyssavirus, but I soaked my hand in undiluted laundry bleach just to make sure. It stung a bit.

He's another young learner-flyer, weighs 5 grams and has a wingspan of 13cm.

When I weighed him the display on the scales showed "5g" then flickered and showed "bat." I wondered how it knew.

Then the battery went flat. heh.

Comments

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with him, apart from being pissed off at the world in general and me in particular. I'll be letting him go tonight as soon as dusk goes from "can see" to "can't see."

The two bats I have in care are both the same age and species, yet so totally different in temperament. The female is quiet and likes being held while I feed her but the male is an utter bastard.

It's not a sex-thing in case you're wondering. I've had happy males and females I wouldn't trust. One female hated me for 5 weeks simply because I gave her a bath. (she'd been caught by a cat and I had to wash the cat spit off.)

Bat-bathing 101?

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm game; how do you bathe a bat?

Re: Bat-bathing 101?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

This is how I bathed Xena:

I held her down on a linen pad and used a wet cotton bud to rub her down while she growled and bit at me.

Then, after I'd soaked her fur thoroughly, I used a dry cotton bud and tissues to dry her off while she growled and bit at me.

Then I fed her and for the next 5 weeks she growled and bit at me.

Re: Bat-bathing 101?

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

heheheh. The growling and biting part...sure makes her sound like her namesake software project I worked on. *grin*

Mind you, we didn't wash the software with a cotton bud, but there was much growling and biting going on, and not the pleasant sort.