Hello Everyone,
I'm so so happy to have come across this forum the information and advice received so far from other posts has been amazing. Thank you!!
I recently found a baby Mousebird (I suspect a Red Faced Mousebird) about 7 days ago. He was found early one morning after a 4-day solid rain spell. It seems he had fallen from his nest in the morning after the rain had stopped. He wasn't in too much of a bad way so I suspect he hadn't been there long. He was just cold and shivering. I immediately took him in and gave him a warm water bottle and wrapped him up and begun researching what to feed him as I have never had the privilege of rearing a Mousebird before. My last bird mom duty was a baby Hadeda I rescued after a big storm who also fell out the tree - he has now been successfully released back into the garden and comes everyday for his mince feed.
So far things have been going well (In my mind anyway), baby Mouse (I've named him Mouse) has a very healthy appetite and is permanently calling for food and trying to eat my fingers or persuade me to feed him. When I found him I started him on a mashed up banana diet through a syringe which he seemed to enjoy and then gave him Papaya which he loved and I can't seem to get him off. it to eat anything else. He is not much keen on the banana or grapes anymore (The grapes are lovely sweet grapes from a vine in our back garden). He has a few pieces and then realises it's not the papaya and turns away with a look of absolute disgust on his face - yes he has this much character.
I got a small pot of Premolt from my vet for the Hadeda which I have sprinkled a tiny teaspoon head onto his papaya to add a little supplementation to the diet - not sure if this will help or is the right thing to do but I figured that a papaya only diet is probably not enough to sustain him.
So my worry is this, apart from him being a very lively bird and not wanting to leave me alone - at all. I think it's safe to say that I'm officially bird mom now. He talks all day when he is on me or around me and tries to get to me if I put him in his cage while I'm working as working with him on my shoulder is impossible. He doesn't seem to be growing and I don't know if I'm just being a paranoid mother but he seems to be slowing down a little. With the amount of food he has been eating I would have thought he would have grown quite significantly in this last week. I feed him every time he "shouts" at me which can be every 30 mins.
The other thing I thought of is maybe he is losing his baby fluff and that why he seems to be getting slimmer? I have attached some pictures for you to see (See link to Google Drive here as images where too large to add here - Mouse - Google Drive - the first 2 images are 7 days ago when I found him, the video was taken on Wednesday and then the last picture was taken this afternoon on our walk in the field. I don't have a scale small enough to pick up his weight, but I did manage to weigh him on a big kitchen scale and the needle seems to have moved ever so slightly but really not enough to get excited about.
I took him for a walk in our field (We live on a farm in Pretoria South Africa) this afternoon to a massive termite mound we have and dug out a few termites for him. He managed to catch one and tried to eat it but didn't quite get it right. I read about sprinkling some of the sand on his food which I have done this afternoon and he had a nice decent helping of it over his Papaya.
Apologies for the seriously long-winded note. I hope I don't scare anyone off with the length of my story.
Would very much appreciate if anyone has some advice for this new Mousebird mom.
I'm so so happy to have come across this forum the information and advice received so far from other posts has been amazing. Thank you!!
I recently found a baby Mousebird (I suspect a Red Faced Mousebird) about 7 days ago. He was found early one morning after a 4-day solid rain spell. It seems he had fallen from his nest in the morning after the rain had stopped. He wasn't in too much of a bad way so I suspect he hadn't been there long. He was just cold and shivering. I immediately took him in and gave him a warm water bottle and wrapped him up and begun researching what to feed him as I have never had the privilege of rearing a Mousebird before. My last bird mom duty was a baby Hadeda I rescued after a big storm who also fell out the tree - he has now been successfully released back into the garden and comes everyday for his mince feed.
So far things have been going well (In my mind anyway), baby Mouse (I've named him Mouse) has a very healthy appetite and is permanently calling for food and trying to eat my fingers or persuade me to feed him. When I found him I started him on a mashed up banana diet through a syringe which he seemed to enjoy and then gave him Papaya which he loved and I can't seem to get him off. it to eat anything else. He is not much keen on the banana or grapes anymore (The grapes are lovely sweet grapes from a vine in our back garden). He has a few pieces and then realises it's not the papaya and turns away with a look of absolute disgust on his face - yes he has this much character.
I got a small pot of Premolt from my vet for the Hadeda which I have sprinkled a tiny teaspoon head onto his papaya to add a little supplementation to the diet - not sure if this will help or is the right thing to do but I figured that a papaya only diet is probably not enough to sustain him.
So my worry is this, apart from him being a very lively bird and not wanting to leave me alone - at all. I think it's safe to say that I'm officially bird mom now. He talks all day when he is on me or around me and tries to get to me if I put him in his cage while I'm working as working with him on my shoulder is impossible. He doesn't seem to be growing and I don't know if I'm just being a paranoid mother but he seems to be slowing down a little. With the amount of food he has been eating I would have thought he would have grown quite significantly in this last week. I feed him every time he "shouts" at me which can be every 30 mins.
The other thing I thought of is maybe he is losing his baby fluff and that why he seems to be getting slimmer? I have attached some pictures for you to see (See link to Google Drive here as images where too large to add here - Mouse - Google Drive - the first 2 images are 7 days ago when I found him, the video was taken on Wednesday and then the last picture was taken this afternoon on our walk in the field. I don't have a scale small enough to pick up his weight, but I did manage to weigh him on a big kitchen scale and the needle seems to have moved ever so slightly but really not enough to get excited about.
I took him for a walk in our field (We live on a farm in Pretoria South Africa) this afternoon to a massive termite mound we have and dug out a few termites for him. He managed to catch one and tried to eat it but didn't quite get it right. I read about sprinkling some of the sand on his food which I have done this afternoon and he had a nice decent helping of it over his Papaya.
Apologies for the seriously long-winded note. I hope I don't scare anyone off with the length of my story.
Would very much appreciate if anyone has some advice for this new Mousebird mom.