Feeding A Baby Sparrow?

[georger]

My son and his friends found an orphaned bird in the park.

No nest in sight and with that many kids around, all screaming and being so excited about discovering such a small creature, leaving it there to hope for the adult birds to care for it just isn't an option.

It has complete plumage and tries to fly/hop. It is small, about 2 1/4 inches long. It doesn't seem injured in any way. It's sleeping now (I hope it's sleeping) in a small cloth-lined Kleenex box my wife put together.

My wife and I have been trying to feed it a sugar/water mixture with bread, with no success. I suggested letting it calm down and waiting.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Intrepid Prez]

Warm, dark and quiet.

Keep the box near a heater, even overnight.
Keep the bird in the dark.
Make sure there are no sounds of TV sets radios etc.

See your vet and he'll suggest the correct food mixture for the bird.

Make a puppet of a mother sparrow and feed it with that...
try not to let the bird see any people whatsoever.

Make a tape-recording of sparrows whistling and chirping and
keep it playing constantly... but turn it off at night.

A perfectly heathy young bird can die of shock.

The bird must not become 'imprinted' with humans otherwise he'll
never be able to be released again.

Contact your local animal rescue/foster care society...
and... if possible, give the bird to them immediately...
the sooner they take over, the better chance the bird has of release.

Good intentions are to be commended...
but get that bird to the wildlife/rescue specialists.

Well done georger. :)


Easy...

[georger]

Here are a few (pretty lousy) photos of the bird. It's a VERY cheap camera!

http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.rutkay/Sparrow/

We just dripped water, or a mix of food/water, onto his beak and then he'd open up and take what he needed (assuming it's a "he"?).

He started chirping away with our Budgie this morning! He hopped up out of his "nest", perched on top of it and wanted to be active!

At first the sound of being in a car seemed to make him nervous, but he got used to it. At a stop light he made his way out from beneath the cloth, lit out of his "nest" and landed on the floor of the car near my wife's feet. Kinda awkward shifting through a left turn while holding a box and a bird is on the floor!

Back in the box we kept him covered in the light, white cloth. And in the car I put the radio on some jazz and some classical music. He went nuts on that, really seemed to like both types!

The rest of it, guess it's just the luck of the draw. I took the bird to two other places before this, but all they said they could do is kill it.....I didn't burn gas for 50 km just to hear someone say that.

Third time was the charm, the sanctuary took him right in, asked me to sign the bird over to them, they would look after him until he was strong enough to fly out independently.

[WhatWouldJewelDo]

awwwwwwwwwwww... hes so cute. this reminds me of once when i was in a situation like your son was. I was walking around the park with my friends and I saw this little white dove laying on the grass with its wing bleeding.i was with some girls and they got all grossed out and stepped back, but I was trying to figure out what to do. and then i remembered...

my mom makes me keep the pet emergency hospital's phone number just in case something happens to one of my dogs, and i had never realized the point of doing that until then. I immediatly called them up and they said they would send someone, and they said to be calm and step away from the bird but keep and eye on him, and if he tries to hop just keep track of where hes going, so i did. Then like 20 minutes later i got a call and it was the animal people, they said they were in the front of the park and asked where i was, my friend ran to the guy and led him over to us and he took the bird, and *hopefull* they didnt kill him and just cared for him and released him. :coffee:

[bluediamond]

what happened to the bird georger ?


la la la la
dave

[georger]

I took him to a bird sanctuary over a week ago, one that wouldn't kill him.

I asked the staff if they had the capability to photograph and transmit via e-mail the release of the bird.

They said they would do their best to that end.

I haven't heard from them since. The bird may still be on the mend, he had an infected right eye.

[bluediamond]

im sure the bird will be ok.

my cat got hold of one a few weekends ago, after id retrieved it from the cats mouth it was shaking and looked like it was in a lot of distress.

i was just going to show my girlfriend the bird, then suddenly it flew out of my hand, went up on our roof then after a few shakes it flew off, seemingly fine from its ordeal.


:lalala:
dave.