In almost all cases admitted to the Pacific Wildlife Care Rehabilitation Center, large birds such as pelicans and raptors are severely malnourished as well as suffering from some type of injury. This is due to the fact that when an animal is injured, it almost always compromises their ability to feed themselves. In the case of pelicans, juveniles who have not yet perfected the skill of feeding are merely malnourished and are doomed without assistance. The deterioration of their health continues until they happen across a kindly human who will (usually) pick them up and call the PWC Hotline at 805-543-WILD (9453).

Recently, PWC Staff have been testing a product named "Emeraid" from lafebervet.com which seems to hold great promise. This product consists of ingredients that are almost all basic protein in nature. This means that very little energy is required to digest food supplemented with Emeraid with almost all of the protein being directly absorbed into the blood stream to provide nourishment to the animal. From the product description it contains "balanced omega 3 and 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, all essential amino acids making protein more easily absorbable, and dietary nucleotides to provide DNA and RNA precursors."

Early successes has lead PWC staff to be very optimistic about the use of this product. Routine blood test of some newly admitted pelicans, for example, have shown zero or near zero protein levels. After feeding with Emeraid most all cases have moved from being critical into non-critical status and in a couple of cases, eventually placed into the big flight cage where they regain flight strength for eventual release.