I am nursing a wild baby bird that fell out of it's nest

[Scairp]

I did want to and tried to put it back, but there was just no way. So I've decided to try and raise it by hand. Anyone out there have any experience raising a wild baby bird? Any advise anyone has, I would be grateful.

[Malva Zebrina]

1. I have in two occasions found baby birds on the ground

I came to the conclusion that, these babies, and both times were robins, are resting after a fledgling flight, and the mother is off nearby watching, because I could hear her chirping to them. If left alone, they will seek shelter in some high grass. This does not take long. Maybe less than an hour.

It seems to me that Robins are very stupid about the location of their nests. I have watched tragedy occur when cats are able to invade the nests,

[Scairp]

4. This is not the same

This bird is not more than a few days hatched, has no feathers and it's eyes are not even open. I know where the nest is, and could even hear the other birds making a racket, but no way a person could get their hand in there to put it back. Unless you wanna risk squashing the bird, and then what would be the point?

[Beaverhausen]

2. I nursed a baby robin to freedom

the vet suggested these things:

white bread soaked in water...give little pieces of it.

also...since I had a cat...I gave him a little cat food. I assume it was because it was protein- mostly. A "meat" baby food might work too.

I think I fed him 3 times a day - this was many years ago.

I kept him- "Chucky" inside in a box until his wings got stronger then I took him outside in his box. For a few days he sort of wandered off around the neighborhood but actually came back when I called him- I'm not kidding!!!

When his wings got strong enough he was gone. yeah!

[Spinzonner]

3. Try This

http://www.ornithology.com/rehab.html

(no personal experience)

[Scairp]

5. Thank you n/t

[thecrow]

6. Keep him warm! and other tips

A baby bird MUST be kept warm.
After you have examined him and determined whether or not he is injured, you need to go about feeding him.
Naked hatchlings with eyes closed will need to be fed every 20 minutes morning till night!!! DO NOT GIVE THE BABY WATER!
As night approaches, stop feeding and put the babies to bed.

In most pet stores, there are formulae to hand feed baby birds.
The baby needs to be fed regularly, like any baby.
Give him the formula with and eyedropper (best) or spoon.
Place the food behing his windpipe.
An older baby might be able to drink the formula right off the spoon.
Mother birds feed their babies by regurgitating up digested food and then the baby bird dives in her throat for the food.

The best news is that baby birds will grow exceptionally fast.
They will only require the "nursing" for a few weeks, if that long.
I raise doves and it is truly amazing how fast they grow!
They go from hatchlings to fuly feathered baby birds within two weeks. Their size also multiplies fast.

There is alot on baby bird rescue at:
http://www.wildbirds.com/Babybird_babybird.htm
http://petplace.netscape.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=3185
http://www.rivernet.net/~nbiggs/#basics

(a whole list of googled websites): http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=baby+bird+feeding

Good luck to you in your endeavors.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions, and I will try to help you.
Oh! and try www.petdoves.com they have a forum where everyone is VERY helpful!

[Scairp]

8. Wow BIG Thanks!

I have the bird on a heating pad, on low with throws in between the bowl I have it and the pad. I don't want to roast the poor thing. I also got the formula, and it has been eating it. But it's not taking food as often as you recommend that it be fed. I keep checking on it every half hour and when it reacts to movement and opens it's mouth for food, then I feed it. About every two hours. It seems to be doing well so far, but I am not getting my hopes up yet for it's survival. Thanks again for the advise, and now I gotta go feed my bird!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. He need to be eating much more than that..

my sister does this for a living -- I'll pm you her number.

[Scairp]

11. One of those websites said the same thing

But it won't take any more food than every couple of hours. It is pooping and eats heartily when it does eat. I cannot tell if it's "crop" is full or not. I do try to see if it will eat more frequently but it just won't.

[Lisa]

13. pooping is good!

If they aren't green or runny-looking, that's an excellent sign. One wildlife rehabber I used to work with would keep the baby birds in a cardboard or plastic berry-box (the kind you get strawberries etc. in) lined with paper towels. Apparently this keeps the bird safe without cramping it (or encouraging its legs to sprawl out).

Any ideas what species it is? That might give an idea how long you've got to do this (and which food mixture might be the best).

p.s. An avian vet once gave me her recipe for emergency baby bird formula -- apparently a lot of pet stores sell a mixture but it's generally meant for parrots. Anyway, I don't have my notebook with me, but I managed to find a webpage with some feeding tips. As long as the baby is eating and its crop (lower neck area) isn't staying swollen, that's good (don't want the crop to become filled with food and impacted). Better that than to try to push in extra food the bird can't handle. Ideally, try to keep track of how much the bird eats before it wants to stop -- the amount should be increasing daily, if only by a small volume.

http://www.csubak.edu/fact/baby_bird_care.htm



Good luck!

--another note -- I had to stock up on equipment for raising baby chicks, and noticed that the local pet store had small heat lamps meant for reptiles -- they'll also work on young birds, and with a lower wattage than most units (40-100 watts, red bulbs) the "nest" won't get super-hot. I got one for the ducklings and it worked just fine, even overnight. Check for a solid ceramic holder, for safety.

[Scairp]

16. I think it's a sparrow

Or some other small species. It's very tiny. I have it in a round plastic, Tupperware-type bowl, and I tore up an old cotton shirt and layered pieces of that in there. I tried to make it nest-like so that it it comfortable. I want it to live, but it is a lot of work. We were going to go to the San Diego Zoo today, but I decided that since I had taken on this responsibility, I just couldn't leave it all day long. It would have been dead. The girls didn't want to get up that early anyway, so I dropped them off at the local water park instead.

[Lisa]

17. if there are a lot of them living in a hole in the wall ...

... they sure sound like sparrows. Are they noisy? I guess swallows are another possibility, but they're a bit bigger and they look pretty distinctive (plus they like making mud nests).

A biologist friend told me that you may be able to tell if the bird needs feeding, by the color of the lining inside its mouth -- the brighter it is, the hungrier the bird. Is there a yellow rim around the beak? I seem to remember that some sparrow species have that.

The bird poops may start building up, if your success holds ... paper towels or tissues might be easier to replace, just throw them out and put in new ones?

[thecrow]

19. The crop...

is on the front of its breast.. just under its throat.
When it is full, you should be able to see it through the skin.
If it's only eating every two hours, that is okay.
Just let him eat til he won't take anymore, maybe a teaspoon more or or less. (Maybe less as I imagine a sparrow is much smaller than my doves) As he grows he will want more.
My doves feed their babies all day long and then sit on them all night. They take turns of 12 hour shifts! Very democratic!

[Unperson 309]

23. Yes, the Baby Needs to Eat More Often.

If it is featherless with eyes closed, the baby may not have its reflexes in yet. You may have to be a bit more... firm... in feeding it. Tap the side of its beak with the dropper at the yellow place in the corner. The beak should pop open. If not, press gently at the corner with the dropper tip. There is a feeding reflex that the parent bird triggers by doing the same thing. The yellow on Baby's beak triggers the feeding behavior in Mom and Dad.

The problem with very young baby birds is that they are honed by millennia of survival traits to keep quiet and lie still in the nest. They appear to be "asleep" until something directly disturbs them, by touch or sound, nearby, and if you don't bother them, they will very quietly starve to death!

A very young bird can lose strength very quickly. On the plus side, as someone said, they also grow FAST and will soon be demanding that food whenever they hear you in the room or catch sight of you (after the eyes are opened.)

Hang in there! You can do it! Oh, and as for feeding at night... we fed the jay round the clock, taking shifts. I think we did take a couple of hours to sleep, but IIRC, we were just RAGS by the time Junior could sleep through the night.

But yes, it is definitely worth it!

309

[InkAddict]

7. Hop-a-long passed though I did my best

Did you ever try to find worms in a drought? Baby Hop-a-long hurt his foot. He could fly short distances but could not hold onto branches. We kept him warm which wasn't hard because it was in the upper 90s for weeks straight. A long time ago...when children and times were more innocent - You're a good soul, but don't get too attached. Nature has it's ways!

[puerco-bellies]

9. I cared for and returned one..

He was a fledgling. He sported feathers but didn't have the flight thing down. I fed him chopped meal-worms from the pet store with tweezers. We housed him in a bird cage (me and my ex had MANY cats)and brought him in during the nights. During the day I hung the cage near where I found him, under shade and off the ground. Immediately the parents came when the baby chirped.

For a couple of days the parents (mostly the male) would come around and feed it as well. I would open the cage door but the little guy could not get any altitude and after a while I would catch him and return it to the cage before my cats spotted him. We kept it in our bedroom two nights and on the third day the parents came around has usual and that time when I opened the door he fluttered down to the ground but then flutter into a bush, then a taller bush and finally into a tree with the male flying in the "wing" position the whole time, and both were chirping their heads off. After resting for about ten minutes they flew off towards home. That was my only successful bird rescue.
Best of luck to you and the little guy,
P-B
Edited because I can't proof read for crap

[marzipanni]

18. Enjoyed your story!

and it brought back nice memories of "Boop-Boop", the little Western toad we raised from a tadpole last year. He grew up from spring to summer, and then one night I think he smelled the cool night air coming in through the cat door and window. He made a daring escape from his net covered plastic-bin-house on the table, to the open dishwasher door, and onward down to the floor and out through the cat door.

My cat is very old and lets Scrub Jays eat her kibble, and anyway, toads exude foul tasting stuff so I knew my cat ignored him or slept through his escape.

One evening we were letting a hose run under a bush and I found him luxuriating in a little puddle there. Unfortunately, we don't see toads around here very often.

[amerikat]

12. Sometimes the local Fire Dept. or Utility will help you get it back

in the nest using a bucket truck. Good Luck in any case.

[Scairp]

14. Not the problem

Unless they are willing to put a bigger hole in the garage wall (my landlords would be less than thrilled about that) no way that bird is going back in the nest. They nest in there every year, and one year one got caught half out of the hole and died. We found it like that. It was gross.

[Baclava]

15. Good luck

...anyway - Keep it warm and feed it ground up earthworms every hour, 24 hrs a day for the next month.

[Unperson 309]

20. Go Online For Help.

There are probably numerous resources!

Here are the tips I remember. Feed it *every* 15 to 20 minutes... round the clock!

Don't count on it cheeping to tell you it's hungry. Baby birds remain silent until the parent bird comes to the nest to keep predators from finding them.

Feed it every 15 to 20 minutes Round the clock!

If it has yellow around its beak, it's still being fed by the parent birds.

Set your alarm and feed it every 15 to 20 minutes round the clock!

YOu can use a heating pad or bottles filled with warm water, wrapped in towels to keep the baby warm. Tiny fledglings cannot yet fully regulate their body heat so it is as important to keep them from *overheating* as it is to prevent them chilling.

Feed (yawwwwn, when does this END?!) every 15 (Honey it's YOUR turn!) to 20 (Jesus is that damned thing hungry AGAIN?) minutes around the clock!

We fed a baby bluejay and raised it to maturity. But jays are damned hardy little birds. Do not be surprised if your lil guy doesn't make it... very few handraised wild birds do.

Also, you have to actually FEED it. Plading food in a dish near the baby won't do it. You have to make a dropper, puree baby chick mash with a few worms or insects and squirt the pureed mush into the baby's beak. GENTLY put the dropper back into the baby's throat, maybe 1/3 of an inch and squirt the warmed mixture into the baby's gullet.

Feed the wretched thing every 15 to 20 minutes round the clock. Why ME, lord?!

Raising nestlings is hard, exhausting, demanding round the clock WORK and is worse than raising kittens (which we've done) or even human babies! But the upside of it is that when (if) the baby becomes a fullsized bird, you have a WONDERFUL sense of accomplishment!

And the day you are able to see your baby fly on his or her own... it seems as if your heart flies along with the bird!

Good luck!

309

[Taverner]

21. ouch! that's gotta hurt

Beaks are kinda sharp ya know

[GingerSnaps]

22. Do you have a heating pad?

Put the heating pad on the lowest temperature and make sure you have plenty of covers over it. He needs a little bit of warmth and that's the best way to give it to him.

Good luck with your baby bird.

[Scairp]

24. Birdy update

It's day two and he seems to be holding his own. I still am not getting my hopes up that he will live to be a bird big enough to fly away, but I am going to continue to do my best. People are not meant to raise wild things and I really wish I could give him back to his mommy, but it's just impossible. Thanks everyone for your help and support.

[radwriter0555]

25. PLEASE call your local fire department and ask them if they'll help

you put the kid back in his nest.

His chances of survival will increase greatly.

[Scairp]

26. There is no way

A human is not going to get their hand in that small space. It isn't about the height, it's the access, and unless you're the size of a sparrow, there isn't any. Believe me, we tried.

[The Flaming Red Head]

27. we tried to nurse a baby blue jay

called wild life people and they said to feed it canned dog food and it ate that. We kept it alive for about a week and half and it died and I cried. i had it just long enough to love it. Hope your luck is better than ours.