Prepared for a Porcupette!
An infant North American Porcupine is in care after rescuers found it orphaned on a roadway in Oil City, PA. Having successfully raised and released another orphaned porcupine in 2024, the team at Tamarack has a solid treatment plan to care for this unique patient.
Young porcupines are called porcupettes, and we estimate that this porcupette was only a few days old when it was rescued. Thankfully, its examination showed it was uninjured, despite being found on the road and weighing just under a pound.
As you can imagine, caring for a rodent with 30,000 barbed quills comes with some unique challenges. Fortunately, porcupines do not throw their quills, as old tales suggest. Instead, quills are loosely attached and act as a detachable defense mechanism. To prevent quills from accidentally detaching during care, our rehabilitators wear vinyl gloves and aprons that do not snag the quills. At birth, porcupines do have all of their quills, but they are soft to protect the mother. The quills harden and sharpen within a few hours after birth.
This porcupette enjoys a species-specific formula every few hours. Since admission, it has put on weight and remains in stable condition.
Porcupines give birth to a single baby roughly every other year, and young porcupettes will stay with their mothers until they are 5 months old. We look forward to sharing updates as this porcupette's journey in care continues.
