In June our Wildlife Hospital admitted this tiny patient, a baby Short-tailed Shrew! These tiny babies can be extremely difficult to raise in a captive setting due to their high metabolisms which require them to be fed almost hourly!
The baby in this video has learned to lap his formula from a dish which makes feeding much easier and less stressful for the baby. Short-tailed Shrews primarily consume earthworms, snails, slugs, insects, as well as small salamanders and mice! This makes shrews great for your yard, keeping “pests” under control! They also consume nuts, seeds, roots, and berries.
Shrews are active both during the day and night foraging for their food. Adults must consume half of their body weight of food in a day! Short-tailed Shrews are venomous, injecting their prey with a neurotoxin and hemotoxin that is found in their saliva and transferred when they chew. The toxins will
paralyze their prey, allowing them to store them for later meals! Stashing food for future times of need is extremely important for this species because missing even a few hours of food in a day could be life or death! Check out the full video of our intake — > Shrew Video
If you have questions regarding native New Jersey wildlife, please call our Wildlife Hospital at 856-983-3329 ext. 107.
