Here comes the third installment and blog about the the baby bird we found.This is a link to the prior blog and pictures of how small he was when we found him.
As you can tell he's grown a lot and is now trying to fly, sitting on my finger. He kind of flies like one of those first airplaines, meaning he runs, flaps his wings, and manages a short jump in the air.
He continues to eat like crazy. But instead of eating every twenty minutes he is now OK if he gets a meal once or twice per hour. His favorite is moist dog food mixed with apple sauce.
The longest we've left him is a couple of hours. Apparently he got real hungry, since he managed to get out of what we thought was a safe cage, and was sitting on the front porch waiting for us when we returned home.He made it clear he was not happy with our absence.
During the day we keep him in the back yard and he's free to run around as much as he wants to. So far he stays within a safe distance and jumps up on a finger when we ask him to.
2 comments:
Yay, baby bird! Yay, baby bird's surrogate parents! Do his 3x/hr feedings continue 24/7, I wonder? Also: Is it too early to start warming up the "empty nest syndrome" jokes? ;)
I found a bird a few weeks back in the city and its parents were nowhere to be found. When they're as small as the one you found and in danger of being smushed, I guess it's best to do what you did. Otherwise, if it's got its feathers, the vets/Audobon say it's very important to let its parents come find it and keep feeding it, since it's going to fly any minute anyway. As you know, feeding wild birds is akin to dealing with a very hungry baby, and can be a full-time job! If you are unsure of what to do next, call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in your local area (I found one through Google). They are usually able to take care of it properly and see it off. I also found that baby birds do well with wet cat food (canned) fed with a rounded-end tweezet. You gotta get it down that little throat, you know! Good luck and enjy this experience.
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