WIRES advise:
Under normal circumstances the feeding of native animals would not be encouraged because it is normally best to ‘let nature feed itself’. However, given the recent events, providing food and water for our wildlife over the coming few months will support our native animals until their natural food sources become available.
There has been a fantastic community response with people keen to care for our wildlife and wanting to know what they can do to help.
Please do
- Provide water, preferably in dishes no deeper than 15cm on the ground and in hanging containers in the trees. Put rocks or a brick in the bottom and sticks poking out to ensure a safe escape for creatures.
- Provide pellets (kangaroo or alpaca blend) for ground dwelling plant eaters (eg wallabies,
kangaroos and wombats).
- Provide bird seed mix, but avoid black sunflower seeds because the high oil content is harmful to birds.
- Provide cut up fruit and vegetables either on the ground or in hanging baskets; sweet potato, corn on the cob, celery, pumpkin, apple, orange, watermelon and pear.
- Provide a nectar liquid; it is made up mixing a commercially bought lorikeet/honeyeater powder with warm boiled water as per the instructions on the packet.
Please don’t
- Place food or water close to road sides.
- No meat, mince, left overs, food scraps, bread, sugar syrups or honey as these can be harmful to native animals.
- Please do not put out carrot as this may encourage animals to eat carrot baits used for rabbit control.
Thank you for looking after our native animals.
