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Urgent Rescued Mouse Bird

Abby Squire

Moving in
Joined
12/3/17
Messages
5
Location
Zimbabwe
Hello,

I live in Zimbabwe in a farming area outside the capital city Harare.
Yesterday, my family and I found a little baby Red-Faced Mouse Bird that had fallen out of his nest. As a family, we often save and successfully raise baby birds that have fallen out of their nests. Most of the time we have saved predatory birds such as owls and hawks but we are a bit unsure of this little Mouse Bird.

He does not appear injured and is fully feathered but cannot fly. His eyes are open and we have tried to follow the advice given in earlier posts on this site such as stimulating the poop shoot (which has been successful), and checking for a feeding response which is also quite strong.

However, we are quite unsure of what to feed him as we do not have access to any of the feeding formulas mentioned on this site in Zimbabwe. We have kept his fluids up using water with a bit of sugar and we have managed to feed him a bit of mashed up banana and tiny pieces of apple without the skin on the end of a spoon.

Please could we get advice on what to feed the little chap and how much and how often we should feed him?

Thank you!
 

Tiel Feathers

Joyriding the Neighborhood
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Quincy,CA
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I’m sorry I can’t help you with feeding the little mouse bird, but thank you for helping him, and I hope he will be okay!
 

Abby Squire

Moving in
Joined
12/3/17
Messages
5
Location
Zimbabwe
Thank you for your help with the thread! This was the thread we had been following which was very helpful! We are just really unsure of how old he is but judging by the photos on the thread you included, he appears to be 10 days old. We are also very worried about feeding him the wrong food... however, we often have Mousebirds in our Vegetable Garden which eat an array of our produce so as he gets older we will try to feed him this!
 

sunnysmom

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He's very cute. Thank you for helping him.
 

Hana Baig

Walking the driveway
Joined
6/1/17
Messages
262
Location
Knowhere
Real Name
Hana Baig
They eat a diverse diet of fruits and have a voracious appetite! They will eat pieces of whole fruit with their small, pointed beak tips or consume diced fruits along with a pelleted diet. Larger softbill pellets that are soaked are preferred by most individuals though some dry finch pellets are accessible at all times. We prefer to mix a cockatiel sized pellet right in with the fruit and allow it to soften in the natural juices.
Common dietary items include apple, pear, orange, tangerine, grapes, blueberries, diced green, leafy vegetables, and their favorites, banana and melons including cantaloupe, honeydew, and papaya.
sorce- >BEAKS BIRDHOUSE<
I'm no bird expert, but I don't need to be to do research, hope this helped
 

Abby Squire

Moving in
Joined
12/3/17
Messages
5
Location
Zimbabwe
Thank you for this help! Sadly, I am unable to purchase the pellets mentioned in the article here in Zimbabwe so I am worried that our little guy isn't getting all the nutrients he needs. However, we have a large population of wild Mousebirds here who certainly don't eat the pellets so I am trying to feed the baby what we see the big ones eating!
 

Hana Baig

Walking the driveway
Joined
6/1/17
Messages
262
Location
Knowhere
Real Name
Hana Baig
Thank you for this help! Sadly, I am unable to purchase the pellets mentioned in the article here in Zimbabwe so I am worried that our little guy isn't getting all the nutrients he needs. However, we have a large population of wild Mousebirds here who certainly don't eat the pellets so I am trying to feed the baby what we see the big ones eating!
The fruits alone will give him/her the nutrition he/she needs, wishing you the best of luck!
 
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