A macropod (kangaroos, wallabies and related groups) joey spends a long time developing in their mother's pouch before they emerge. During that time, their mother may also be feeding a larger sibling that lives out of the pouch and so can produce different formulas of milk for each of her joeys, depending on their age. While this is great for wild joeys who can get the right formula at the right time, in order to ensure that orphaned joeys get the best start in life, this means that carers may have to provide up to four different formulas of milk to a joey depending on when it comes into care.
As a joey might also be in care for over 12 months, the feed bill for carers can be considerable. A single eastern grey kangaroo will consume almost 10kg of milk powder in the final 30% of its life in care, prior to release. That adds up to a lot of bottles!
As our requirements for different formulas of milk powder vary throughout the year, a donation to this cause will go towards help us to subsidise the milk supply to our dedicated macropod carers. Every dollar helps.