OT - Need Baby Bird Help

[hrhofmann]

I just found a baby bird in our driveway under a couple of trees that have nests in them. Bird can walk - sort of - and tries to fly but can't. What should I do? Any ideas on food to set out or water???

[Tony Hwang]

We just leave her alone. Right now we have two active nests in our yard.

[Colbyt]

Any water you put out should be in a very shallow container like a saucer so the little guy won't drown in it. He doesn't know how to drink anyway.

Touching the bird is the last thing you want to do. Your smell may cause his mother to desert him.

More than likely you are just going to have to learn to allow nature to take its course.

Should you choose to ignore that advice there is an bird cereal that you can buy in powered form. Mixes up a lot like baby oatmeal. We tried more than once for the sake of the kids when they were little. Never saved a single one.

Robins like pre-chewed worms. Make a video of that one for me.

[hrhofmann]

A bird-knowledgeable neighbor picked the bird up using a plastic bag and moved it away from the edge lf the lawn, it was only 2 feet from the stree, having hopped about 20 feet toward the street since it is downllhill in that direction. We'll see what happens next. I think the parents are robins.

[Stormin Mormon]

Might be good with batter, deep fried?

[aemeijers]

Mostly what he said- just keep your distance. If you have indoor-outdoor cats, keep them inside till bird is gone, one way or the other. Cats can't help being cats, in situations like that.

[handyman]

I used to work for the humane society and we often got wild birds brought to us. The best thing is to put them back in the nest if you can do it safely. Sometimes the parents kick out the weak birds if there are too many in the nest, or that one happens to be weak. It's just nature.

It's a wivestale aboput touching them. You CAN touch them (gently of course).

Yea, keep cats away. Get your cats and neighbors to put cats in the house.

Birds eat worms, you can buy them at pet supply stores. (Meal worms). Some birds will eat grains, and even small bits of grapes. It depends on the type of bird. Again, the pet store should have cereals and stuff for them as well as seed. This one is probably too young for seed. And they need water too, place water in an eye dropper, hold it against the tip of the beak and they should drink it. (dont get it in their nostrils or you'll drown em). You need to feed about every 2 hours.

They also need to be kept warm, but not overheated. This can be tricky. A small glass aquarium with a 25W bulb works, but if it's hot outdoors, you may not need this. And you can overheat them too. I recall we used to place a thermometer in the aquarium, but I can not remember the temperature. It's many years since I did this.

Your best bet might be to call your local humane society and ask them what to do. Be sure to know the type of bird if you can. A local veterinarian will usually give some free advice over the phone too.

Good luck, it's not easy to care for them, but it can be done. I think I'd first try to put them in the nest and remove cats from the area. If it falls out again, then resort to the other methods. You can even put a bedsheet across some blocks of wood and tack it. Works like a trampoline and makes the landing softer.

[Tony Hwang]

Hmm, Some birds eat grain, some bugs/worms. For water I just turn on sprinkler for couple minutes. And if any neighbor lets their cat out, then watch that. Else just leave it alone. Tha's what I do.

[norminn]

When we found a baby bird, our vet told me to put some fish cat food in a blender with a little water. Feed the soupy stuff to the bird with an eye dropper. This was a tiny bird, just beginning to get feathers. Didn't survive. Another time, we had two ducklings. Fed same stuff, one survived, one didn't. The survivor was not accepted by other ducks in large flock, and he thought my husband and I were his parents.

[Twayne]

Call the nearest humane center or SPCA. They can refer you to the proper authority which will pick up the baby bird and have it placed with experienced, recognized experts whose job it is to get the animal healthy, back on its feet and be releaed back into the wild. Never try to do it yourself unless you've been schooled in such things. The biggest problem is having a youngster imprint on you as a "parent" and when (not IF, even if you successfully make a pet of it) it's gotten back to the wild it will have a very short life indeed. IMproperly raised youngsters do not imprint properly, often don't have any way to learn how to find food and some experience very painful, terrible deaths because someone tried to help them. Honest; if you doubt me, there are lots of internet sites you can find about this subject. Just make sure they were written by authorized, recognized organizations, that's all. In our area both the dog warden and SPCA can take such things and find fostering for them. We have no local Humane Society, unfortunately; very rural here. It works well; they even invite you to the event of letting the animal go in the end if you wish it.

[SJF]

Many young birds fall from the nest, or are booted out by their parents to encourage flying. They are then fed on the ground by the parents till they get the feel of their wings. I have seen mocking birds thus on the ground for several days before flying. They try to hide but mama knows where they are. A young sparrow hawk was able to fly up to the roof of the house in one day and flew well the next.

This is a very hazardous time for the young birds but that's the way it is. Best to let mother nature do it her way. But it's OK to move the youngster from a precarious situation. Mama will find her young if not moved far.

SJF

[The Daring Dufas]

Let me guess, the duck walked around screaming AFLAK!

TDD

[Don Phillipson]

Robins are abundant because they are prolific (and a bit stupid: they often nest within 5 ft. of the ground, thus vulnerable to cats etc.; but they lay two or three times a year.) You need do nothing.

[norminn]

No, but it was pretty wierd :o) Raising a duck indoors is not something I recommend. They poop every 4 minutes. Our schnauzer helped supervise the duck...used to round it up if it began wandering. Took schnauzer to be groomed one day and he came home with the usual bandanna around his neck and went straight to his food bowl. Schnauzer standing in the kitchen munching his dog chow and the duck started walking back and forth under the dog's belly. Schnauzer still intent on dinner, duck starts picking chow crumbs from the dog's whiskers. I was too fascinated to stop the silly duck. After cleaning the dog's whiskers, the duck apparently thought he had earned some dog chows, too, so he grabbed one from the dog bowl. Wrong move...the dog barked him away and I grabbed the duck because the dog chow was halfway down his skinny neck (like the birds in Bugs Bunny cartoons)...just squeezed his neck to push the chow back up and out.

As soon as we got the pair of ducks, we put a mirror in their box so they would know they were ducks but that didn't work...the surviving duck followed my husband and I like he was trained to do so :o) When it came time he was almost ready to fly, we took him down to the lake where there were large flocks. Turned him loose, but as soon as he approached any of the groups of ducks, they took off for the water and he ran back to us. Tried that a few times, with same result. When last seen, he was put in his box for the night in the back yard...he either flew away or became a cat snack. Probably the latter, but no signs of his demise were found.

The schnauzer had killed a house mouse when he was only 6 mos old, but never threatened other animals. Kids brought a baby bunny into the house one evening...three kids and a dog in the bedroom, door closed. When it was too quiet for too long...couple of hours?...I went to investigate. They were all playing with the rabbit.

It was pretty funny to watch him with a tiny baby garter snake. He would crouch down and approach and the goofy garter snake coiled up like a cobra ready to strike. Dog barked like mad and backed away. That went on for several minutes until the dog lost interest and the snake crawled away.

[mm]

PBS is showing an hour on Nature about new-borns. It showed storks, I think it was, who were killed by their mother when there wasn't enough food. Although it looked like a harsher environment than most of the US.

Not all animals have their throat connected to their windpipe, is that correct? So they can only breath through their nose and only eat through their mouth.

Is it birds in general that imprint? I only remember hearing this about ducks. And doesn't it have to be the first thing they see after getting out of the egg? Wouldn't this chick have already seen its mother, and imprinted on her?

[mm]

So how did that work out? Does he have his own room?

[Doug Brown]

OK,forgive me for being a callous lout but ----- it's a frigging bird!!! Leave it alone and let nature take its course. Calling the Humane Society, expending money, energy and effort for the sake of one small baby bird is assinine and a sign of one of the many things wrong in our society.

[Jon Danniken]

Not enough meat. Use it as bait to catch a cat, then you can get a meal from it.

Jon

[Metspitzer]

Welcome to Usenet

[mm]

Interesting stories. I used to think that when we could talk to chimpanzees, they would tell us what the other animals were thinking. Oh, well.