Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre - Newsletters

Minton Farm Newsletter: August 2012
Our aim is to assist the conservation of the natural diversity of life on Earth.
Download this Newsletter as a pdf click here

Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre...

... is a not for profit, native animal rescue centre in Cherry Gardens, South Australia. The Aim of the centre is to rescue, rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned native animals and birds, as a free community service. It is operated by the involvement of volunteers who assist with the maintenance of the Centre and Animal Rescue Hospital, and with caring for the animals. There is no formal funding for the work, which has rescued over 8,600 creatures in the on-site Intensive Care Unit, with equally as many off-site through rescue advice throughout Australasia and beyond via our website, email and phone.
 
There are 300 animals housed within 6 acres of fox and cat proofed fencing, in species specific enclosures. Species assisted include kangaroos, possums, wombats, koalas, emu, eagles, kookaburras, tawny frogmouths, wombats and a myriad of parrots and lorikeets. In addition to this, there are the farm animals ranging from ducks, geese and peacocks through to donkey, ponies, pigs and deer. 

See Minton Farm on Totally Wild
Tuesday 18th September 2012 at 4:00pm on Network Ten

We're excited to let you know that Minto Farm is featured in a Totally Wild story about "Animal Non Release".  It will be going to air on Tuesday 18th September 2012 at 4:00pm on Network Ten, Australia. 

270 gram Koala joey

Shamus the rescued Koala and Bev

Shamus with elderly citizens

Shamus the Koala now 2kgs

Koala News

We have been fortunate to secure a Grant from SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund US, for our  Koala rescue, rehabilitation and release program. The funds will be used to purchase equipment, medical  supplies, housing facilities and revegetation work at the Centre. We are very grateful and humbled to be honoured with their support, amongst world-wide conservation programs from sea turtle rehab to gorilla protection.

We have now obtained our koala rescue permit, and had our koala release
management plan approved by DENR.  We have also completed our outdoor enclosure
and our  large outdoor holding facility. 


We receive many tiny koalas as small as
270 grams, and need to build a “koala nursery” room, where the babies will be
close to us 24/7 and will be kept at optimum room temperature.


The City of Onkaparinga have recently approved a grant to establish and maintain indigenous eucalypt species from local providence for local wildlife populations as a food source, to improve urban biodiversity as a community led project, to increase community participation and improve local knowledge of koala habitat. 


We are constantly planting suitable eucalypt species as future food sources for koalas with the help of Coromandel  Native Nursery and Growing Bush providing koala fodder species. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to you. 


Little Shamus koala has grown from 380 grams to 2000 grams, but is suffering with kidney failure. He is receiving two medications daily and is once again thriving, weighing in at just over 2 kgs now, we are giving him the best quality of life for as long as he can survive.

Shamus is still in our dining room and constantly pulls books down from my shelves each night when he becomes very active. Being so very cold over the past few months we have been unable to force him into the outdoor enclosure, even though we installed a wall heater and café blinds within it for him!! We concreted the floor of our verandah so it doesn’t flood, and Glenn has been enclosing the walls. We need insulation, windows, doors ceiling yet, but we are getting there!

Donate today and help Shamus and Miru!
Click on the Donate button to donate via PayPal

Wedge Tailed Eagle Escapes

Miru our wedge tail eagle escaped once again!!! The $4,500 spent on netting from Advanced Nets and Ropes has been a dismal failure, as Miru chewed through the
netting immediately. We lined the complete enclosure with 6’ high shadecloth which kept her in until a windy day lifted the sides and off she went!

I was lying on the ground on my back “connecting to Country” and photographing  the two  wild eagles overhead when I saw a flash of a massive brown wingspan rise up into our pine trees. My heart sank as I thought “That looks like Miru!” And sure enough, there was a dead duck and hen with its bones picked clean by my own eagle!

She landed in our bottom paddock and was throwing balls of donkey poo into the air and playing with sticks and chatting away, looking up very nervously at the two wild eagles menacing her. I walked down the paddock, talking to her and she came ‘running’ up to me.

We discussed what the best thing to do was, and I decided that she wouldn’t survive too long on the ground. I held her by her shoulders then pulled my jacket over her head to stop her being able to bite me, and  grasped  her talons before they grabbed me! She wrapped her massive 3’ wing around my body as I carried her up the hill, saying
‘Thank you God, Thank you God” all the way!!! It was another  miracle to save her again from certain death.

Eagle flight enclosure repair project

We are now rebuilding her enclosure with panels of iron and wire mesh!

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Help Save an Injured Animal Today

Injured Animals need your help to survive!  Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre is a not for profit animal welfare organisation that relies on donations, sponsorship and volunteers to provide rescued and injured animals with food, medical treatment and shelter.  Without help from caring and kind people like you, it's extremely difficult to provide the level fo care and support that many of these injured animals need to survive.

You can help save an injured animal today by donating generously or sponsoring a native animal here. 
Click and help save an injured native animal today!

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new koala nursery construction

adult koala rescued from a fence line

Koala eats 30 entire mature gum trees in a year !

Our tree plantations are quite mature, we planted them about 25 years ago, for the wild
koalas.  Now that we have been approved to rescue, rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned koalas, we need lots and lots fresh gum tips every day to feed koalas.

We have begun to coppice the mature trees to encourage them to produce new growth. In addition to this we are ripping rows for more trees in a paddock with a ripper attachment I bought for our little tractor. It is marvellous, and has enabled volunteers and students to plant more efficiently. We are planning a working bee with 30 students from Scotch College to get a mass planting for koala fodder completed shortly. 
 
If you have access to fresh gum leaf tips (the end 60cm of branches) please collect them and place them immediately into a bucket of fresh water. You can deliver them to Minton Farm 24/7, there is a bin of water placed in front of our letter box for you to place them in.

Your assistance makes such a positive difference to the health and vitality of our rescued koalas. There is no substitute food for them, they rely soley on fresh leaf twice a day to survive. We can’t possibly source enough from our property to keep them going without your help.

Will you help feed Koalas? Please click the Donate button below to make a difference today!

Animal Rescue Fair

Last month we attended the Aberfoyle Park Animal Rescue Fair where we did some face painting and made lots of kids happy with the lucky dips, games and prizes, raising a bit of money for Minton Farm Native Animal Rescue.

We have been fund raising at Fairs, displays, public speaking, and Bunnings BBQ’s to continue our free service to the community

Behind the Scenes

We obtained a burning permit from council to burn up the branches left from animal browse, housing, & fire prevention clearing carried out throughout the year. Every day the koala, possum, and roo chewed branches are removed and replaced with  fresh ones, leaving a large amount of clearing up to do.

I have purchased an electric mulcher and use it every morning to turn these left over branches into lovely fresh mulch, which I place around the gum seedlings planted throughout the property for koala browse, thereby completing the full circle without producing any pollution and fostering new plant growth!

There has been an increase in rabbit numbers again this year similar to 20 years ago. I have been forced to use tree guards and stakes around all new gum seedlings to protect them from rabbits. This has caused another increase in costs to ensure a food source for rescued koalas. If you have any
contacts to obtain tree guards and stakes, or wish to donate some, new or used, we would be happy to hear from you please!

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Wilma Wombat

Wilma wombat has amazed us with her
engineering skills around her enclosure. She has moved tons of soil to build a ‘moat’ around her nest box in a shelter shed. It was flooded out when the heavy rains followed her excavations into the area.  

Ollie the euro has benefited from her warm nest box, sleeping next to her in the entrance to her box, enjoying the eat she radiates from underneath her doona!

Wilma wombat and Ollie dining out

Helping Kangroos Hop Home

This is one of the little kangroos that came into Minton Farm after being rescued from the pouch of it's mother after being hit by a car.

Volunteer Program

We have had a  myriad of students attending to volunteer and learn about wildlife rescue
procedures as part of their education programs from Primary, Secondary and
Tertiary levels.

Many of our volunteers have gone around Australia and overseas at this time of year, and we have had several fresh new faces in the mob that always keeps it interesting and fun!

Our program runs Tuesdays or Thursdays 10am or 2pm.  If you are interested in joining in, give me a call  0422 938439 

Cheeky Foxes

Our Mareema dogs have been keeping foxes out of our poultry enclosures. I found one of the eggs laid by Ernie emu,  that had been carried into a paddock several paddocks away from the emu enclosure, probably by a cheeky fox. The fox had tried to eat it, but the shell was too thick and the teeth could only scratched the surface!

Noooo, not foxes, these are our Mareemas guarding the chooks!

Rascally Rabbits

There has been an increase in rabbit numbers again this year similar to 20 years ago. I have been forced to use tree guards and stakes around all new gum seedlings to protect them from rabbits. This has caused another increase in costs to ensure a food source for rescued koalas. If you have any contacts  to obtain tree guards and stakes, or wish to donate some, new or used, we would
be happy to hear from you please!

An egret we released successfully back to Wittunga Botanical Gardens

Did you see us on Channel 10 news?

Channel 10 did a live broadcast from Minton Farm on 1st August for the news, as we were a part  of the People’s Choice Community lottery to raise funds for our animal rescue centre.

Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference

I attended the Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation conference in Townsville in July, where all sorts of up to the
minute information, displays, research, projects, and knowledge was shared from
around Australia. I spent a day at the James Cook University to attend a Parasitology Course, to learn about microscopes, bacteria, parasites, etc, etc.

At the Parasitology course at James Cook University

I purchased some CSIRO books about wildlife and pathology, these will go a long way to helping koalas with kidney failure, disease, and parasites once we obtain a microscope.

We are very grateful to one of our neighbours who generously  donated a centrifuge to assist with urine analysis.


We are now looking for a microscope. Do you know anyone who may be able assist us, please  let me know on 0422 938439, thanks

Feed an Animal at Minton Farm

If you would like to support our rescue work you can help feed the animals at Minton  Farm by donating food for the animals.

Foods we gratefully accept include:  
- nectar mix (Wombaroo, Harvest etc), 
- dry dog food,
- muesli,
- budgie seed,
- sunflower seed,
- breakfast cereals, inc. weetbix & rolled oats,
- apples,
- carrots,
- celery,
- corn,
- grapes, 
- meal worms.  

These items are essential for our rescued birds, bettongs, kangaroos, possums, gliders, parrots, lorikeets, honey eaters and wombats and can be dropped off at Minton Farm during daylight hours.  Thanks in advance!

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A Bear in Need is a Bear in Deed !

Desperately Needed Daily:
Gum Leaf Shoots

As part of our rehabilitation work we are constantly looking for supplies.

We desperately need freshly picked, juicy green leaf shoots that at the top ends of gum branches daily for koalas firstly, as well as the kangaroos and possums.

Its quality, not quantity that we need - they waste any leaf that’s too dry or mature, and then it needs to be disposed of.

Gum Species that are suitable include:
- Manna Gum,
- River Red Gum, 
- Pink Gum, 
- SA Blue Gum, 
- Brown Stringybark, 
- Cup Gum, 
- Swamp Gum,
- Messmate Stringybark, 
- Tasmanian Blue gum, 
- Moort, 
- Candle Bark, 
- Grey Ironbark, 
- Woolybutt, and
- Yellow and White Stringybark

Energy Efficient Freezer Needed
We currently use inefficient and expensive to run freezers to store food for our animals. We’re calling out for a donation of an energy efficient tucker box sized freezer to replace our clunkers. Collection can be arranged, call us on 0422 938 439 if you can help.

Teddy Bears Needed for Koala Bears!

We also need large teddies/bunnies for the koala joeys to cling to, in various sizes from approx. 20cms up to approx. 50cms.

Koala joeys are kept in cane baskets with a handle over the top so that it can be hung in a tree with their teddy for security, whilst they learn to navigate branches and munch on leaves.

Thank you to those who have donated  teddies, blankets, & baby sleeping bags to use with koala rehab. They have come from as far away as Pt Pirie and have been very useful. We look forward to receiving donations from you, as they are extremely useful and really help us keep running costs down.

If you have any thing that you would like to donate for koala rehabilitation, we would be deeply grateful.

New possum food prep cupboards donated by Traditional Woodworks

Bedding for Bears

Cotton bunny rugs and baby sleeping bags are excellent for koala joeys to sleep in.  If you don’t need yours any more, donate to us, they will be put to good use! 

Shamus Goes to School

Dear little Shamus the orphaned koala is at his happiest when nestled onto my shoulder. But he has been bravely attending  School educational talks much to the delight of the students.  Shamus gratefully devours gum tips the children tempt him with! 

He has been a regular in the volunteer shed here at minton Farm at lunchtimes for the past 6 months, and I think this has given him  confidence with groups of people, causing him no stress as long as “Mum” has
him!

Thanks for Helping!

We have a new webmaster, Mick Shaw, who is building our updated website. Thanks Mick

Thanks so much to Simone Linehan for compiling this newsletter and Joanne Lemmer for printing it. You are invaluable to Minton Farm and very much appreciated.

completion of our new bird suspended aviaries, built by Barry Smale and Ron Dunstan

Donations and Sponsorship Gratefully Accepted

Donations of a energy efficient freezer, animal foods, gum tree branchs, teddy bears, large stuffed toys, cane baskets, and bedding materials
are gratefully accepted at:
  Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre, 
  455 Cherry Gardens  Road,
  Cherry Gardens SA  5157

If the front gate is closed when you deliver them, you can put your donations into the cages on the road in front of Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre. 

If you don't have any gum trees, teddy bears, bedding or baskets, but still want to donate, you can make a cash donations or sponsor an animal.  Click here to find out how you can help today!
Sponsor an animal for as little as $35 annually!

Thank you so very much for your assistance to improve the chances of  survival for the 8,200 creatures rescued at the Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre. 
Cheers, Bev. XX