Things I Wish the Public Knew Before Encountering Injured/Orphaned Wildlife

From my experiences working and volunteering in wildlife rehabilitation, here are some things I wish the public knew before encountering injured or orphaned wildlife.

I'll probably continuously update this as I think of things.

NOTE: I am not a full fledged rehabilitator, nor am I a veterinarian or any kind of authority on this matter, I'm just some guy with big feelings.

Don’t try to raise wild animals, I’m serious.
Don’t try to give water or food to injured or orphaned wildlife, you could easily cause aspiration or refeeding syndrome.
NEVER handle wild animals PARTICULARLY rabies vector species bare handed, bare handed contact counts as an exposure so that could result in euthanasia of the animal. (also no kissing skunks on the snout!)
Yes, Virginia opossums can get rabies, it’s rare, but still.
Keep your cats indoors! Or give supervised outdoor time!
ANY wildlife that has been in the mouth of a cat or dog needs to go to a rehabilitator, bacteria from the mouth, especially pasteurella in cats, will kill birds and small mammals. Even if you don’t see wounds, there may be tiny punctures in the skin.
ALL birds that have hit a window need to see a rehabilitator, even if they seem fine.
Leave fledglings alone, please.
Most bats can and do take off into flight from the ground, if you find a bat grounded, don’t just put them up in a tree–call a rehabilitator (also any grounded bat in the winter needs help!).
DO NOT relocate wild animals off of your property, it’s been shown that this has a high mortality rate.
Don’t interfere in normal predator/prey interactions, saving the prey could cost the predator.
Don’t try to use oil to remove wildlife from glue traps yourself, you’ll end up with an oily animal that can’t thermoregulate and that will ingest the oil from trying to groom it off.