How to Feed a Pet Bat

Bats are a fascinating flying mammal that, while more common in the wild, may also be found in captivity and even kept as pets. Despite myths about bats being vampires and having rabies, bats are actually quite docile and generally eat insects. If you are caring for a bat in captivity, there's a lot to know about its living environment and other care; but feeding it is fairly simple. Read on to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pasteurized goat milk
• Mealworms
• Tweezers
• Paintbrush
• Plastic lids
• Paper towel

1. Feed infant bats (under 3 weeks old) unpasteurized goat milk, preferably.
2. Set a regular schedule for feedings. Feed the infant bat on an hourly schedule from 6 a.m. to midnight, placing the warm milk in a small plastic lid and dipping it with a tiny art paintbrush to offer to the bat.
3. Leave the lid with milk in the incubator so that the bat may feed itself, but change the milk every 2 hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Continue to hand feed every hour.
4. Feed young bats over 3 weeks old by adding the juice of a chopped mealworm, in addition to the milk.
5. Leave bits of chopped mealworms in the milk in the incubator. Gradually introduce the bat to live mealworms.
6. Prepare mealworms with their heads removed as adult bats' food. Cut the head off and hold the mealworm in tweezers to feed the bat. Offer the bat the cut end of the body. The bat should lick the insides and then take the worm, either eating the insides only and leaving the skin or eating the entire worm.
7. Continue to offer worms until the bat has eaten its fill. Hungry bats may eat eight or more worms at a time.
8. Place a pot of live mealworms in the bat's habitat and continue to hand feed three to four times per day until the bat is eating its fill out of the pot of live worms.
9. Replenish live food late at night and early in the morning, as well as anytime that food runs out throughout the day.
10. Give all bats, regardless of age, a dish of water with a crumpled paper towel in it from which to drink. Bats may drink directly from the dish or prefer to lick the towel. The damp towel also helps to increase the humidity in the bat's habitat.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure that young bats are kept incubated at the proper temperature and fed warm milk. Being too cold or being fed food that is too cold can cause the bats to bloat and die.
• Check with a vet about other aspects of bat care and regulations about owning bats.