anon6789

Not a “job job” per say as the vast majority of us aren’t paid, but this is my second year volunteering at a wildlife rehab center, which is a 90+% female job.

I think it’s great! I was primarily raised by both my grandmothers who both seemed to be the boss in their households, and were both very confident and assertive in different ways, and were very positive role models to me growing up, so I never had any issues with women in charge of things.

So now besides getting to spend the weekend with amazing animals, I also get to spend it with some amazing ladies! There are 2 other guys on my shift right now, and they’re both good as well. I think this being something we do without it being a breadwinning activity really cuts out a lot of ego, as there’s nothing to really get ahead of anyone else in.

Everyone likes me because I’m reliable and friendly and I’m there to try and make things run better and to make the public events more fun, so I take on extra activities as well. They’re all super positive and supportive, which being relatively shy and with bad self esteem, I appreciate it immensely.

Everyone is just so badass in a good way, it’s one of the best things I’ve done, and I don’t feel any staff, volunteers, or the public has treated me any different than anyone else. I’ve heard the senior people talk about other guys that have worked there and nothing sounded anti-male either.

The only thing they single me out for is to grab high up items, which I’m ok with ☺️

No, it’s the formula. We don’t want to introduce air, as that can give them bloat.

I felt it was pretty obvious when it was in the right spot. They seemed to calm down once the tube passed where it could go to the lungs.

They’d have the same reaction as we would when we swallow wrong, so just a tiny squirt would show the tube wasn’t in right.

I was nervous to tube feed, but the bunnies were pretty calm considering what was going on. There are ways they can get hurt during this, but testing equipment properly and using your eyes and common sense really minimized any potential trouble. I was surprised how relatively uncomplicated it was, though I did only do less than ten bunnies. I’m sure I will see some crazy stuff and encounter issues at some point. Our patients come in all states of damage.

I enjoy sharing the stories with you all. I get apprehensive about some things, but I want to show you all that getting involved with this isn’t all that bad and can be very rewarding. Holding a happy, full tummy bunny as it goes back to sleep is just as satisfying as it sounds.

Always a pleasure sharing! ☺️

Aww least is even worse than lesser! 😀

Portable anteater sounds like a mark in the positive attributes column.

Yup, momma has to stimulate them. You can really feel how swole they are, but they’re stuck like that. We tickle them with a tissue to get them going and you can feel their belly muscles start squeezing so they can relieve themselves. It looks like a ton for how tiny they are!

Once they’re a bit bigger, they figure it out and can go when they want to, but when they’re tiny, its super important we help them out when momma isn’t in the picture.

Less scary than I thought. Bunnies die of stress absurdly easily, so I kinda avoided them before.

The biggest part of it is making them go to the bathroom, since they can’t do it on their own, which I can go into in great detail, should you desire to hear it. There were some really crazy things to learn about, but I understand most people may not care to hear it! 😁

I got to release 3 into the back yard so we could make room for a bunch of new patients. That is always fun. First 2 were ready to go and jumped out on their own, last one needed some encouragement.

After peeing and weighing the itty bitty babies (around 30-40g, eyes still closed), I needed to tube feed them 13% of their body weight and track of their weights went up or down since their last feeding.

Peeing them first is crucial so we get the correct body weight. Rabbits pee a ton and can’t relieve themselves without stimulation, so we typically get close to 6% body weight of pee out of them! For a 150lb person, that would be almost 10 pounds of pee, or just over a gallon! Those poor bunny bladders! 😧. It can really distend their bellies and can make it look like they have bloat, but they just need to tinkle really bad.

The feeding tubes are soaking in boiling water to get them clean and make them pliable. I fill up a syringe with bunny milk, burp the feeding tube and make sure all the water and air is out. I grab a bunny baby and check how much formula it needs.

To get the tube in, you grab bunny in a way you can keep the front feet from knocking out the tube, and use your finger to fix the head in place so it doesn’t wiggle around. This isn’t me, I need all my hands to do all this. I didn’t use a towel, just one of my fingers to keep the paws down.

I put some surgical lube on the tube, and then start inserting it at either side of the mouth; gotta get past those incisors! If bunny is cooperating and I had good aim, the tube will start going down. We make marks on the tube so we can get a visual reference. The tube will bottom out in the stomach, which you can feel, but a reference mark also lets you see if bunny is pushing out the tube while working the syringe. If it backs out, you can get it into the lungs, which, no good. So if I see it backing out, I can push it back in. Here they used tape, but we sharpie mark the tube.

After a small squirt to make sure the tube got to the tummy and not the lung, I slowly dose to the determined amount, and then slowly remove the tube.

It was kind of scary since I never tube fed anything, but it was really simple once the tube finds the right spot. Most bunnies didn’t fuss. You can really feel the full belly afterwards and then they go back to sleep full, happy, and healthy.

I learned to tube feed the baby bunnies today and now I’m going to always think of anteater tongues when handling the feeding tubes. 😄

Ooo I’d love to work with this guy!

I’d never call it lesser 🥰

I didn’t realize Pyramid was gone. My ex used to drink the apricot ale.

Sours can be really fun too. There is so much creativity in brewing, there’s always tons of great new things to try.

I’ve had a few of their other varieties as well and all have been good too!

Same here! I always felt like the odd one out for not liking any beer. One day I was at a friend’s house and they had a random assortment in their fridge and I saw one with a really cool label and it claimed to be from “the world’s oldest brewery” which sounded promising.

It was Weihenstephaner Hefe Weißbier, which was of course the easiest thing in the world for me to remember and to request at the time 😆

After that, a local brewpub restaurant had a wheat beer with a hint of raspberry flavor that I liked, and eventually I learned to drink most any beer, but I still love a Weihenstephaner when I come across it.

I came to vote for cooked cabbage. Love it in lots of things, but hate the cabbage stink and that keeps me from making it more often.

Cannot confirm nor deny it smelling like pig slop. 😁