Caring for Microbats in your home

You will need a SPECIFIC REHABILITATION PERMIT to care for microbats or be a part of a Group Permit. You can discuss this with NQWC.

Microbats are small flying mammals and are considered to be the insect terminators of the bat world. They can potentially eat up to about 61% of their body weight each night! Their diet consists mostly of insects although we do have the Large Footed Myotis (Australia’s only fishing bat) which also feeds on small fish and crustaceans. The larger Ghost bat is known to eat frogs, lizards’ small birds and even other bats

• They can see but tend to use echolocation to navigate and find their prey.
• Microbats have specialised dietary and housing requirements. They often come into care due to illness, injury or as a result of being orphaned. You must have a good understanding of their biology, be able to recognise signs of illness and injury and be able to provide emergency care to them.

• As a member of NQWC, you will need to complete the following training workshops in order to care for microbats

• Wildlife Introduction Training Program – highly recommended for all members
• Rescue for Wildlife (Basic) highly recommended for all members undertaking physical rescues
• Caring for Microbats Theory- required prior to caring
• Caring for Microbats Practical- required prior to caring
• Caring for Baby Microbats (pinkies) – optional for more experienced carers

Australian Bats & Flying Foxes carry diseases that carers need to be vaccinated against

We offer a vaccination subsidy for our members

The form can be found in the members’ area of the website

Although the risk of contracting ABLV is very low (less than 1%), we take our member’s safety very seriously. You will be required to complete a course of vaccinations and have a follow-up blood test to ensure your ABLV titre is above 1.0IU/ml. Only then will you be allowed to care for a microbat. You will also have to agree to abide by our safe bat handling protocols and have yearly checks of your blood titer levels to ensure your ongoing safety

Microbats need to be housed and cared for during rehabilitation to prevent further injury, prevent escape, minimise stress, and to allow them to display their natural behaviour.

A few things we must consider when housing microbats include:

They require to be housed indoors in a quiet environment
They require to be housed in a room free from domestic animals and young children
Enclosures must be made from soft mesh which will not cause damage to tiny feet and thumbs and be secure.
Injured and sick animals must be housed in an incubator where temperature and humidity can be monitored