Baby animals can be adorable. This may lead you to consider keeping the animals (either indefinitely or temporarily) in order to have the experience of nurturing a baby wild animal. This is ill-advised - even if it’s only for a day or two.

If you are considering keeping an animal, please examine your motives. Are you doing what’s best for the animal, or are you doing this because it’s novel and fun?

Here are some reasons you should take the animal to a qualified wildlife rehabber as soon as possible:

1. Health reasons - Wildlife babies mature quickly. For instance, songbirds mature, from hatch to flight, in about 19 days. Because of this extremely accelerated timeline, each feeding plays an outsize role on the fate of the animal. Even one day of an inappropriate diet can have irreversible effects and lead to the animal’s death. This is true for baby mammals as well. We are very exacting in the diets we choose. Using a diet that you found online will likely lead to vitamin deficiency and possibly irreversible metabolic issues or death.

2. The law - It is unlawful to keep wild animals. These laws are enforced by the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

3. Ethics - Lastly, and most importantly, wild animals are sentient beings. They deserve expert care. Anything less is experimentation on a living creature. You would never consider trying a home remedy after a violent car accident. Therefore, please afford the same consideration to wildlife. Entrust their care to experienced professionals.

4. Freedom - This is for those of you considering adoption. Wild animals are not suitable as pets. Domestication takes place over many generations and intentional selection. Wild animals are nothing like the domestic animals they may resemble. Domestic rabbits, for instance, are descended from the European hair. That aside, in all our decades of experience, wild animals, when given a choice, always choose freedom. Keeping a wild animal is contrary to its interests.