20 MARSUPIALS I N C A P T I V I T Y

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M o m , R. J. (1957): Nitrogen metabolism in ruminant digestion. Aust. vet.3. 33: 287-291.

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SHARMAN, G. B., CALABY, J. H. & POOLE, W. E.

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Hand-rearing a Dama wallaby Protemnodon eugenii

at Auckland Zoo P A T W I L S O N Auckland Zoological Park, Nera Zealand

When a young Dama wallaby Protemnodon eugenii was brought into the zoo after its mother had been shot, it weighed 450 g (I lb) and when sitting upright was about 23 cm (9 in) in height. It was fully developed and furred but not weaned. She was fed with pasteurised cows milk, to which was added 2 drops of ABDEC and + teaspoonful of Glucose D per half cup of milk. A doll’s plastic bottle holding an ounce of liquid was used.

For the first four days the young wallaby was reluctant to accept the teat but on the fifth day she held out her paws for the bottle and held it, with assistance. Thereafter she showed great eagerness to take it. At first she was fed six times in 24 hours but gradually the night feeds were discontinued. On one occasion when the bottle was accidentally left at the office she flatly refused to accept a substitute, fasting until her old one was produced. She was finally weaned after four months.

Once on solid food she was allowed to revert to her natural habit of feeding at night. She had a prodigious appetite for so small a creature and

during the course of a single evening would eat a stick of celery with leaves, a pile of assorted grasses, carrot, cucumber, cold cooked potato, bamboo shoots, bread, dry biscuits, a little fruit and a bowl of milk. She particularly relished watercress and twisted willow.

We provided her with a substitute pouch - a leather shopping bag lined with possum skin and a cotton cloth. If she was taken from the pouch, she could hardly wait to get back to it, somersaulting in head first. At night the pouch was placed in a warm cupboard, until she hopped out and fell several feet. She was very easy to care for since she did not mind where we took her in the pouch, or how rough the journey was. Further- more wallabies have no unpleasant odour.

After seven months when she weighed 2-26 kg (5 lb) she was finally placed in the pen with the other wallabies. So that the change of environ- ment would not be too drastic, a small house was made in which her pouch was hung, but this was removed after a month.