Starling diet and toys?

[dovemom]

I've been raising a starling that fell from his home nest before he was supposed to (my dude was totally naked) and local rehabbers refused him because of the invasive status. I raised two of them last year (unsuccessfully, but one had a broken leg and was euthanized while the other fell ill after he fledged) so I once again donned the task of raising a baby bird. Feeding every hour, he has grown and fledged two days ago. he looks like an actual bird now! He has lost all of his baby fluff. Pic of him included!

I still feed him a baby diet of high protein kitten food and crickets, waxworms, earthworms, and flies. However, he obviously won't eat kitten food his whole life. When/ How should I begin adding fruits, nuts, and seeds into his diet? also, does anyone have any toy recommendations? He loves his swing and bells but doesn't seem to care for the plastic rings or mirror.

 

[sootling]

When/ How should I begin adding fruits, nuts, and seeds into his diet?

When he is old enough to wean you should start adding seeds, nuts and fruit/veggies into his diet. Mix them into his normal food to get him used to them.

 

[AussieBird]

@Feather
And there one more person with a starling but i can't remember who...

 

[iamwhoiam]

Thanks for rescuing the Starling. Have you been to this forum? Starling Talk: The Care and Feeding of Injured and Orphaned Starlings

 

[AussieBird]

nd there one more person with a starling but i can't remember who...

I remember who i was thinking of now!
@Kile

 

[Kile]

Hello! I have a starling that I found at about 8 days old that fell a surprising height from its nest and survived and she now lives with me in the house .
I do not know if you plan on keeping or releasing this starling. If you are raising 1 alone it may be difficult to release it and pose a danger to it because it may have imprinted on you especially if handled a lot. If you don’t have a choice of keeping it (they can live 20 years with good care and are very friendly!) try to follow starling talk’s recommendations and they also have a message board for starling owners. If you do plan on keeping it, in an area where it is legal, I have some advice.
Once it is beginning to walk around you can probably start adjusting its diet, but either use the dry diet for adult starlings that is recommended on starling talk, or follow my recommendation below.
About the diet, be careful with this because starlings are insectivores and usually do not eat seeds! And do not feed it spray millet as a treat (personal experience)- as you would with parrots- because it will likely swallow a chunk of it and throw up the indigestible part (I do find this really interesting however, that my starling just regurgitates things that bother her tummy, some birds do not seem to do that and can get impacted).
What I feed my starling is Mazuri insectivore food, I found it difficult to get the starling talk diet to grind up into the right size pieces so I looked to Mazuri because they are popular in exotic pet food. I believe the owner of starling talk fed it to a few starlings to test it and did not see a difference in their health compared to the starling talk diet and she recommended it as an alternative (I’m like 99% sure I read that somewhere ). You can feed it fruits, boiled eggs, and certain bugs that don’t have a super hard shell as a side (I feed crickets, I have read some bad things about live mealworms and have occasionally seen mine regurgitate them so I now do not give her those but I may try the dried ones soon). I plan on trying to switch her to a more fresh diet with more fruits and veggies alongside her pellets because it is obviously healthier and has more variety and I am going to work on that soon. There is a cool starling owner on instagram (account is mcshizzsnpets) that feeds fresh to her group of birds and I am awaiting diet advice but her phone broke so I will get to that later. Anyhow, I will move on to the next topic.

On the discussion of toys, don’t give your bird a mirror in its cage! It can become psychologically damaging as it can think its another bird. I got rid of mine as soon as I read about it because Booboo was sitting on it all the time. For other toys, I think your swings and bells are good! Mine also loves bells. I really recommend the shredding toys made for small birds that have the colored paper shreds shoved into them. Mine loves to pull the paper out of the cracks or balls. If you see your starling try to swallow the paper, or long pieces of it, maybe reintroduce the shredding toys when it is older to see if it takes to it differently. My starling loves loves LOVES carrying around pebbles. I have little glass yogurt jars that I washed and recycled (a heavy plastic would be nice so it doesn’t fall from somewhere and break… personal anecdote ) and I have a bunch of pebbles I put inside of them. The pebbles need to be big enough that the bird wont try to swallow, yet small enough that it can pick them up (this isn’t hard to find, check a local hardware store that sells landscaping supplies or a craft store which would probably be much easier lol). I set the jars around my room and I put one in her cage and she picks up the pebbles and carries them around and will bring them to me. You could also put some in a food bowl that attaches to the cage. The pebbles are nice because you can wash them easily and don’t have to discard them. Starlings like toys that they can stick their beak in or toys they can pick up/grab/shake. I have even bought her a pack of some hamster toys for the bottom of the cage. Some people have also recommended foraging mats that they sell for dogs, and I want to get one soon because it would be lovely to use when she is out to play. I believe they are washable. Someone has recommended me to put a brick inside of a sock for her to peck to keep her beak short also.

For the cage, I suggest a pretty big cage because starlings love to fly and do not have the ability to climb on things to play. They sell ones on amazon that are black and look like they have 2 stories (what I have), it has half inch bar spacing and 2 doors on the front (one on top and bottom). There are 3 hinge doors on each side of the cage which are nice for cage attachments. It is around 4 feet tall (without the legs) and around 4 feet in length, 2.5 feet in width. It has a shelf underneath. It looks like a rectangle and isnt pretty but it works.
I have a bath for her that I attach to the side of her cage and she bathes whenever she wants to, which I feel like is every 2 hours . Its a big bath you can find on amazon and I think it is labelled for African greys. I found the parakeet baths way too small. You should also get natural wood perches of different sizes to avoid arthritis and other issues. The natural wood texture can help keep nails short. I use potty training pads (usually for dogs) in the bottom of my cage instead of shavings, it is easy to clean, and I put the pads on top of the grate because grates are bad for birds feet and limits their ability to play and forage on the ground.
You may need to trim its beak and nails in the future, which you can do with sharp nail clippers. There is advice on this from some starling accounts on youtube, instagram, and even tiktok. You should also let it fly in a safe room and spend time with you for at least an hour every day. More is always better if possible. On vacations, have a trusted friend or family member care for them with careful instructions. Maybe a pet sitter if you trust them enough.

Okay, that is all I think finger workout for the day !
I might have forgotten something, so if you have any questions feel free to ask me and I would love to answer.
P.S. You probably know this already but starlings can learn to talk better than most parrot species
Have a lovely day!

 

[Kile]

The forum censored part of the instagram account I mentioned when talking about the diet, so that is not the correct username but you probably know what word is supposed to go there instead of shizz

 

[redindiaink]

I relied heavily on starling talk for information plus a few youtube clips from starling owners. One of our local wild life rehab groups takes them so can't help much beyond starling talk is invaluable.

If you are raising 1 alone it may be difficult to release it and pose a danger to it because it may have imprinted on you especially if handled a lot.

I was given a starling chick that fell from a nest. This one was around nine days old and the neighbour who found it cuddled and coo'ed at it like it was a baby. I knew better because I have a friend whose a falconer that was raising a chick. The teen version of me begged and pleaded to see it. He let me feed it but not before a stern warning, "No talking, no touching and you can't just hang out with it. In and out."

If it's following your face or reacting to your voice it's imprinted on you. It doesn't take long to happen, one or two feedings in that magical window when they're around a week old.

 

[Kile]

If it's following your face or reacting to your voice it's imprinted on you. It doesn't take long to happen, one or two feedings in that magical window when they're around a week old.

Its crazy how quickly baby birds and other animals take to the people or even other creatures that raise them!