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Sometimes that just happens... sorry
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This forum is for advice about initial treatment given to your injured/sick bird until a qualified avian veterinarian is available.
THIS IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE VET CARE
Urgent Sparrow chicks
- Thread starter Inu11
- Start date
Garet
Rollerblading along the road
These things sometimes happen, don't blame yourself. My friend's basically been looking after a family of cardinals in a bush near her door. Even with the parents there, two of the three babies didn't make it.
Wild birds will often have more babies than they can realistically care for and the weakest ones will unfortunately die off. He was probably sick or injured and would have died in the wild as it is. It really sounds like you gave him the best care that you could and made sure he was comfortable and full before he passed away.
It's not your fault.
Well who knows but lets hope the others are ok...
Thank you all for your words of support.
The other two are doing great, and I think I will release them soon. They have eaten food alone already, and seem to fly pretty well. Feeding them is becoming harder as they tend to fly around the house when I open the cage! Cuties.
The other two are doing great, and I think I will release them soon. They have eaten food alone already, and seem to fly pretty well. Feeding them is becoming harder as they tend to fly around the house when I open the cage! Cuties.
Another one died today. Once again, just like that - but for this one I have an idea of what caused it. Just the night before, it flew out of the cage, as they usually do just before I feed them, and crashed full speed into a wall. This probably caused some pretty nasty trauma to the bird. It seemed fine that evening - but was dead by morning.
This made me decide that it was time to let the remaining bird go. I planned on doing it anyway, but I wanted to wait a little bit longer - that was obviously a mistake. So today I took out the survivor and he/she flew away without any issues.
I will leave the cage and some food outside, in case it decides to come back for some food, but I think that is it. I'm hopeful that this one will survive.
Video:
This pretty much ends this little saga. On a more sour note than I initially hoped, but it is something I was kind of prepared for. I would like to thank everyone in this tread for their contributions - you are all amazing!
---
I have a little final request, could the mods please change the title of the thread to "Sparrow chicks", and add this text as an edit to my original post (below the original text)? That way people searching for something like this could easily access all the accumulated information in this thread.
Here goes the edit part:
Hello future viewer, here is a short summary of how I handled raising wild bird hatchilngs. Mind you, I am not a professional when it comes to animals - but if you are not in the vicinity of an animal rehab center or shelter, and find yourself in a situation such as me, hopefully you will find this information useful.
Before taking in any wild animal young MAKE SURE that they are actually abandoned. Most hatchlings are fed nearly every 20 minutes by their parents in the wild, so It's not really that hard looking for it. If you observe the nest from a distance and notice that no bird is coming to feed the young, then it is safe to assume that they are abandoned.
Also, know that taking care of really young birds is a full time commitment. Be ready to toil a lot around them if you want to help them. If you have a job that requires you to be away from home, it is pretty much impossible to raise them.
Taking care of them and feeding them:
- Personal protection:
Make sure to wear gloves when dealing with wild animals. It goes without saying that they might carry parasites or diseases, which could affect you or your pets. Also, as the birds grow, they will bite your fingers - not hard mind you, but depending on the species I read that it can be quite uncomfortable. They will consider you their parent, and will treat you as such in demanding food. Since you feed them with your hands - regardless how you do it - they might nib on you. Kitchen or semi disposable gloves do the job just fine.
-Accommodation:
Hatchlings need to stay warm, clean, and be kept in a low noise environment. Don't keep them in rooms with a lot of traffic.
Feel free to keep the original nest (if you have it) for a couple of days, or if you don't have one you can easily fashion one yourself. I recommend any warm cloth item that can be fashioned into a bowl like shape, and to make your life easier, put some toilet paper down inside it as well - this will make cleaning really quick and easy. They poop a lot, so be prepared to clean their nest at least 2 times per day.
I was lucky that the weather here was really warm, so I did not need to worry about keeping the hatchlings warm - but that might not be the case for you. Make sure they are warm at all times. You can achieve this in any way you like, but from what Ive read a heating pad or a lamp does the job.
At first you will be fine keeping them (or it), in a simple basket, and covering them with a towel or anything similar overnight, to preserve their body heat. Make sure they can breathe by leaving a small part of your nest uncovered. As they start to grow feathers, they will become rowdy and try flying around - unsuccessfully. At this point in time it is a good idea to get a large cardboard box, and keep them there. I also found it a good idea to make them a small hiding place - in my case I fashioned them a small box they could hide in.
Once they start flying consider releasing them - I'll get to this in a bit.
- Food:
Hatchings and young birds need to be feed them every 30min - 1hour. You don't need to feed them overnight - in the wild their parents usually feed them from dusk till dawn - so from around 05:00/06:00 to 20:00/21:00.
Good food chooses are: Moistened cat food (DO NOT give them dry food - it will get stuck in their throats. Cat food needs to be swelled up with water, and spongy), minced up bugs, minced up worms - try to mix up all of these. Fruit is not advised when they are too young - mainly because it is hard to tell what kind of bird you are dealing with. In my case I thought they were blackbids, and fed them berries - which only gave them diarrhea. So play it safe.
Don't give the hatchlings any water. They get what they need from the food you give them.
You can tell if a bird is healthy by observing their feces - for most birds it needs to be brownish in color with a white spot at the end.
As they get older, you can space out their feeding sessions. Before I released my (sole) surviving bird, I was feeding them every 2 - 2.5hrs.
- Feeding method:
There are multiple ways to do this, you pick the one that works the best for you. But generally, young birds can't chew their food, and they can't swallow unless you push the food literally down their throat. What I did was place a small chunk of pre-prepared food in their mouths, and them pushed it down with a dulled toothpick. After a small push they swallowed their food without any problems. I have read that people used dull tweezers, or put a mixture of their food in a syringe (without the needle). All of these are viable.
- Handling and imprinting:
All small animals imprint on their caretakers, but be mindful not to coddle wild animals too much, and limit your interactions with them. This can be hard, as they can, and will become very cute in time - but you need to think of the bigger picture here. An animal that is too used to humans is likely to be killed by their pets, or curious children when released. So you are not doing them a favor by spoiling them - you are essentially giving them a death warrant. Unless you wish to keep the animal as a pet (once again, not something I recommend with wild animals), don't cuddle or spend a lot of time with the animal. Also, it is definitely not a good idea to get them accustomed to your other pets either, especially if they are a predator animal like a cat. They need to see anything as a potential threat to maximize their survival upon release.
- Animal death:
This can totally happen, despite your best efforts. 2 out of 3 of my hatchilgs died. One completely mysteriously, the other likely from blunt trauma. Be ready for this - do not get too attached to any animal you rescue. If you are emotionally unstable and get easily devastated, rescuing a wild animal might not be for you. Do not flush the corpse down the toilet, dispose of the body the best you can. I would recommend disposing of it along with food waste, or if you have access to a yard - simply burring the corpse.
- Releasing the animals:
In my case I think that I waited too long, which caused an unnecessary death of one of the birds. As soon as you are confident that your birds can fly, and can eat on their own - let them go. You can keep some food for them around the area you let them go around - but their instincts are sharp, and they will figure things out on their own. Most small birds are ready for independence approximately 14-20 days after hatching - but this varies depending on the species. Make sure to research which birds inhabit your area and best determine what you might be raising - but to be honest it should become fairly obvious once they start getting bigger!
Good luck and hopefully you fare better than I did!
This made me decide that it was time to let the remaining bird go. I planned on doing it anyway, but I wanted to wait a little bit longer - that was obviously a mistake. So today I took out the survivor and he/she flew away without any issues.
I will leave the cage and some food outside, in case it decides to come back for some food, but I think that is it. I'm hopeful that this one will survive.
Video:
This pretty much ends this little saga. On a more sour note than I initially hoped, but it is something I was kind of prepared for. I would like to thank everyone in this tread for their contributions - you are all amazing!
---
I have a little final request, could the mods please change the title of the thread to "Sparrow chicks", and add this text as an edit to my original post (below the original text)? That way people searching for something like this could easily access all the accumulated information in this thread.
Here goes the edit part:
Hello future viewer, here is a short summary of how I handled raising wild bird hatchilngs. Mind you, I am not a professional when it comes to animals - but if you are not in the vicinity of an animal rehab center or shelter, and find yourself in a situation such as me, hopefully you will find this information useful.
Before taking in any wild animal young MAKE SURE that they are actually abandoned. Most hatchlings are fed nearly every 20 minutes by their parents in the wild, so It's not really that hard looking for it. If you observe the nest from a distance and notice that no bird is coming to feed the young, then it is safe to assume that they are abandoned.
Also, know that taking care of really young birds is a full time commitment. Be ready to toil a lot around them if you want to help them. If you have a job that requires you to be away from home, it is pretty much impossible to raise them.
Taking care of them and feeding them:
- Personal protection:
Make sure to wear gloves when dealing with wild animals. It goes without saying that they might carry parasites or diseases, which could affect you or your pets. Also, as the birds grow, they will bite your fingers - not hard mind you, but depending on the species I read that it can be quite uncomfortable. They will consider you their parent, and will treat you as such in demanding food. Since you feed them with your hands - regardless how you do it - they might nib on you. Kitchen or semi disposable gloves do the job just fine.
-Accommodation:
Hatchlings need to stay warm, clean, and be kept in a low noise environment. Don't keep them in rooms with a lot of traffic.
Feel free to keep the original nest (if you have it) for a couple of days, or if you don't have one you can easily fashion one yourself. I recommend any warm cloth item that can be fashioned into a bowl like shape, and to make your life easier, put some toilet paper down inside it as well - this will make cleaning really quick and easy. They poop a lot, so be prepared to clean their nest at least 2 times per day.
I was lucky that the weather here was really warm, so I did not need to worry about keeping the hatchlings warm - but that might not be the case for you. Make sure they are warm at all times. You can achieve this in any way you like, but from what Ive read a heating pad or a lamp does the job.
At first you will be fine keeping them (or it), in a simple basket, and covering them with a towel or anything similar overnight, to preserve their body heat. Make sure they can breathe by leaving a small part of your nest uncovered. As they start to grow feathers, they will become rowdy and try flying around - unsuccessfully. At this point in time it is a good idea to get a large cardboard box, and keep them there. I also found it a good idea to make them a small hiding place - in my case I fashioned them a small box they could hide in.
Once they start flying consider releasing them - I'll get to this in a bit.
- Food:
Hatchings and young birds need to be feed them every 30min - 1hour. You don't need to feed them overnight - in the wild their parents usually feed them from dusk till dawn - so from around 05:00/06:00 to 20:00/21:00.
Good food chooses are: Moistened cat food (DO NOT give them dry food - it will get stuck in their throats. Cat food needs to be swelled up with water, and spongy), minced up bugs, minced up worms - try to mix up all of these. Fruit is not advised when they are too young - mainly because it is hard to tell what kind of bird you are dealing with. In my case I thought they were blackbids, and fed them berries - which only gave them diarrhea. So play it safe.
Don't give the hatchlings any water. They get what they need from the food you give them.
You can tell if a bird is healthy by observing their feces - for most birds it needs to be brownish in color with a white spot at the end.
As they get older, you can space out their feeding sessions. Before I released my (sole) surviving bird, I was feeding them every 2 - 2.5hrs.
- Feeding method:
There are multiple ways to do this, you pick the one that works the best for you. But generally, young birds can't chew their food, and they can't swallow unless you push the food literally down their throat. What I did was place a small chunk of pre-prepared food in their mouths, and them pushed it down with a dulled toothpick. After a small push they swallowed their food without any problems. I have read that people used dull tweezers, or put a mixture of their food in a syringe (without the needle). All of these are viable.
- Handling and imprinting:
All small animals imprint on their caretakers, but be mindful not to coddle wild animals too much, and limit your interactions with them. This can be hard, as they can, and will become very cute in time - but you need to think of the bigger picture here. An animal that is too used to humans is likely to be killed by their pets, or curious children when released. So you are not doing them a favor by spoiling them - you are essentially giving them a death warrant. Unless you wish to keep the animal as a pet (once again, not something I recommend with wild animals), don't cuddle or spend a lot of time with the animal. Also, it is definitely not a good idea to get them accustomed to your other pets either, especially if they are a predator animal like a cat. They need to see anything as a potential threat to maximize their survival upon release.
- Animal death:
This can totally happen, despite your best efforts. 2 out of 3 of my hatchilgs died. One completely mysteriously, the other likely from blunt trauma. Be ready for this - do not get too attached to any animal you rescue. If you are emotionally unstable and get easily devastated, rescuing a wild animal might not be for you. Do not flush the corpse down the toilet, dispose of the body the best you can. I would recommend disposing of it along with food waste, or if you have access to a yard - simply burring the corpse.
- Releasing the animals:
In my case I think that I waited too long, which caused an unnecessary death of one of the birds. As soon as you are confident that your birds can fly, and can eat on their own - let them go. You can keep some food for them around the area you let them go around - but their instincts are sharp, and they will figure things out on their own. Most small birds are ready for independence approximately 14-20 days after hatching - but this varies depending on the species. Make sure to research which birds inhabit your area and best determine what you might be raising - but to be honest it should become fairly obvious once they start getting bigger!
Good luck and hopefully you fare better than I did!
