Over the last few years Northumberland Bat Group bat care trainers have been providing training for Volunteer Bat Roost Visitors and bat carers. At the bat care meeting, lead by Tina, held on April 2022, it was noted that there is no easily accessed repository for bat care information, forms, videos etc. Information that gets posted on Facebook gets lost in the feed, and messages in WhatsApp go missing. So this page aims to be the one stop shop for information.
If you notice anything missing from this page, or have a link to something useful that you would like added, please use the contact us page, and let us know!
Useful Information
The Bat Conservation Trust has created quite a bit of content that is useful for bat carers. The main page of information is called Bat Rehabilitation. The page provides basic information about bat care, then provides onward links to topics such as next steps and the bat care network.
As a bat carer, you will need a Rabies vaccination. To find out more information about this please have a look at the BCT’s Rabies pre-exposure vaccinations page.
Critical care food – a good critical care food that can be fed to bats is Emeraid carnivore. It costs around £10-15 pounds for 100g.
Its great to have a stock of this product, which can be kept in the fridge once opened. To prepare, mix a small amount with hot water, then allow to cool before feeding to the bat via pipette. Tip from Tina is to use a larger bowl with hot water in and have the mixed emeraid in a smaller bowl within this, to keep it warm enough to feed (a bit like melting chocolate over hot water). Emeraid is not a long term solution, but if you don’t have mealworms this is a great starter food, one which bats usually take really well. Its also good for very weak bats that don’t want to eat.
Rehydration Support
Tina’s advice is to use the Royal Canin Electrolyte Instant Rehydration Support for dogs. A few crystals in the water works wonders. It comes in sachets which can be kept once opened in a sealed jar/lock box.
Pipettes – Tina recommends the 4ml micro pipettes, she finds them much easier to use with small bats. You can find them online, link to an amazon site, but other places sell them too.
Reference book – a very useful reference book is:
Bats of Britain and Europe, Dietz and Kiefer, 2018
This is a great field guide (available at may different shops!) with lots of photos of bits of bats (legs, willies, noses) to compare, a really useful book and small enough to go in the rucksack/car too.
Useful groups: there are many groups around on Facebook and WhatsApp, but one which NBG members have found to be very useful is the Bat Rehabilitators Group.
Bat Care Manual/Bat Care News – Maggie Brown, West Yorkshire Bat Hospital
This is the bat care bible, the New comes out sporadically, but is great for sharing what is going on and keeping up to date. Maggie runs the West Yorkshire Bat Hospital and is often very busy so do be patient if you email her!
batcarenews@phonecoop.coop
Documents for Download
