STARRYEYED
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 1/11/21
- Messages
- 1
- Real Name
- ZHAN
Hi all. I am desperate and need urgent advise = within the next 1.5 hours as it is time to feed them soon again. 5 nights ago, someone brought a birds next with 4 chicks in it to me - I took it back to the place where it was found and placed it in the tree as best as I could. It was very windy that evening and the nest blew out again. I could only check on them 5 hours after receiving the notification that the next was on the grass (the person did not bother to look if the babies were ok or not …shocking … Anyway, even though it was incredibly hot, all 4 chicks survived. I took them to the VET and was told that they are mousebirds. The Vet who has knowledge about these birds was not on duty and I need to take care of them the next week. I tried to hand feed them the evening I took them home for the 2nd time, but they were not interested in taking the food. I received phase 2 powder WITHOUT proper instructions so ended up mixing some of it with a bit of hard boiled egg and a little water, and have been feeding them this with a syringe which they were eager to take & have been feeding them every 2 - 3 hours - even during the night. I am petrified of killing them by doing the wrong thing - they are feisty and have grown so so much stronger in the past few days - and chirping madly when it is feeding time ... opening their beaks to receive food, flapping the left wing when feeding and turning their heads sideways to receive the food from the syringe. The constancy of the food mix is like soft porridge. I can see the food in their esophagus and am careful not to overfeed them, but I don't have a scale so cannot weight them and feed them accordingly. Whenever I check in on them inbetween feeds, they screetch for more food and present their little beaks to receive food but as said. Also, someone whom I know had a mousebird as a pet, and told me to chew the food very finely before placing it in the syringe so that is what I have done, but as worried about them because they are so small. They can flap their wings and have loads of feathers, so I don't know how old they are, but they are not newborns. I understand that they are fruit eating birds, so will me having fed them finely chewed boiled egg hurt them. Please do not criticize me for not having the knowledge at hand to take care of them - I just need some guidance on what to do differently it I must. I bought purity and would like to introduce it in their diet - how do I go about this ? They aren't pooping as much as what they did a day / two days ago and this worries me. I have wiped their backside with a wetwipe but nothing comes out so am worried that they are blocked up (plus it is difficult to hold them while doing this) Please HELP with any information / guidance you can offer.
