14 DAY TRIAL // Staff at a wildlife hospital in Australia have been looking after an orphaned baby echidna for about two months now, and say that, although it does not have a mom, the puggle is pretty much thriving.
Vets estimate that it is about 4 months old, and are quite pleased with the fact that it does not shy away from eating, and is therefore steadily getting plumper around the waist.
“The puggle is now approximately four months old and responding very well under the watchful eye of the vet nurses,” caretaker Jodie Milton explained, as cited by Zoo Borns.
“It’s feeding well and gaining weight steadily, so we’ll be able to wean it in about three to four months’ time and start introducing it to solid food,” she added.
At the time when the baby echidna was found, it was just wondering along a road. Its rescuers suspect that it was alone because its mom had been hit by a car.
Because it was this young when it lost its mom, the puggle cannot be released back into the wild. Thus, it will eventually be sent to Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and entered into a breeding program.