Species
Kangaroos are marsupials from the subfamily Macropodinae. They have large powerful hind legs that allow them jump high and run fast. A baby kangaroo (joey) is born at the size of a jellybean and weighs less than a gram.
In Care
Pippin
The smallest joey we have ever successfully raised — 310 grams, found by a truck driver at 2am.
At 310 grams Pippin was on the very edge of what hand-rearing can save. A truck driver checked the pouch of a doe on the Barrier Highway, wrapped him in a beanie and drove him forty minutes to meet our rescuer. He needed two-hourly feeds, humidified warmth and constant weight monitoring for the first month. […]
Released
Harlow
Struck by a car while carrying a joey — both survived, and both went home together.
Harlow was hit near Mount Pleasant and sustained a fractured foot and severe bruising, with a furred joey still in her pouch. Cage rest is dangerous for adult kangaroos, so she recovered in a large, quiet paddock yard with the joey left in place throughout. Eight weeks later she was walking evenly. They were released […]
Permanent Resident
Dusty
Blind in one eye and unable to judge distance in a mob — one of the few we could not send back.
Dusty lost the sight in his left eye to an untreatable injury before he came to us. Releasing a kangaroo who cannot judge the position of a fence, a road or a dominant male is a death sentence, so after a long assessment period we made the difficult call to keep him. He lives on […]
In Care
Willow
Pulled from her mother's pouch on the Sturt Highway at 900 grams, cold and barely responsive.
Willow arrived weighing 900 grams — furless, hypothermic and about four months from the day she would have first put her head out of the pouch. Her carer kept her in a knitted pouch against a heat pad for six weeks, feeding a low-lactose formula every three hours through the night. She is now 4.1 […]
Sponsor the next joey through the night
A hand-raised joey drinks its way through roughly $1,900 of specialist formula before it is weaned. Your support is what keeps the kitchen bench stocked.