The Bat Diaries

Bat Day 2

Day 2-- March 21st 2012

So now that I've already taken care of introducing the point of this journal, I will continue on to recording some important things

Eating: This morning I fed him several LIVE crickets, and my mom fed him some meal-worms as well. During lunch, at noon, I came home from school and fed him even MORE crickets. I went back to school and later around 4:30 I fed him more crickets again! Overall, he has eating very well, which is a great sign!

Bowels, etc.: There are probably ten little bat turds in his cage, which look pretty normal (from what I can tell), and smell of crickets (which is a rather revolting smell). He has peed at least three times, but I'm still not sure if he's getting enough water. I have not yet seen him drink from his water bowl, but I will wait it out and see.

Activity: Obviously, during the day he's not really doing much. He is doing as he should and he hangs from the side of the cage (just like a bat! Go figure!). He spends most of  his time up there, but during the night he does eventually come down and crawl around a bit. The poor thing can't fly so he's going to have to get used to crawling. He doesn't seem to be in much pain, but what I found strange was that he had ripped off the extra dead skin. Upon further inspection we found that in some of the membrane he had pulled off there contained a small bone. It was a little concerning, because if the bone was an important part of the wing, that may lessen his chances of flying again. But I'm not giving up yet! There's no way in Hell I will let this guy die!

Habits: When feeding him, I use a pair of tweezers to catch a cricket and I hold it in front of the bat's face. When he smells it, he lifts his little head up and opens his mouth, and then snaps it right out of the tweezers. So his reflexes are good too. Again, he tends to hang off the side of the cage, which is perfectly normal. Also, he recognizes the sound of the cage opening and the sound of my voice. If I click my tonque a little bit, he will turn his head to look at me (though his sight is quite poor so I don't believe he actually sees me well, if at all). He most likely associates the sound of my voice with food, since I'm usually around him to feed him. Hopefully he will be accostomed to my scent so he will be more comfortable with me handling him. If not, it will be very difficult trying to clean the cage.

Overall he is doing really well. Of course it's too early in the healing process to report on his condition, other than the fact that he's eating a lot and building up his strength. I am very happy that his second day of staying with me is doing well. I have a few concerns considering the process. First, I worry that even if he does recover a little bit, he may not fly as well as the other bats and then natural selection may take its course, leaving all my hard work in vain. Second, I worry about the amount of bugs he eats. For fifty meal-worms it was a little over two dollars. Fifty meal-worms probably lasts about two or three days. That may become costly. And Thirdly, if the bat IS unable to fly, and I'm forced to keep him, will I be breaking a very important law? The answer is yes. I do not have a wildlife license and that will pose a problem because legally a bat cannot be a pet where I live. But I am setting all those concerns aside so that I can focus on more immediate and important things: Getting the bat better.

Well, that concludes my journal on day two. So far I have been posting every day, but sometimes I may not be as frequent, depending on what I think is important and what I believe can be journaled about later (since I don't want to be repetitive). So, that's it! Day two is a success!