Baby House Sparrows *Update with pictures*

[duckncover]

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This is the 10 day old one....


And here's both

 

[duckncover]

They're doing great! Names needed!

 

[Polish Chickens]

Chipper would be a great name for the 10 day old one I think

 

[duckncover]

I like that name I already had a parakeet named that

 

[Patchesnposies]

I am so glad that I found this thread. Some folks brought us some baby birds they "found" and they were just sure that "we" would know what to do with them and how to care for them.

There are five of them and three seem to be older, as they are fairly feathered out, as opposed to the two nearly naked littlest ones.

I was a bit panicked as I had never known anyone who had successfully raised baby birds that had fallen out of their nest...but so far these seem to be thriving on the baby bird food we got from Petsmart.

Here is one of the bigger babies.

And this is them in their makeshift nest!

The eensy-weensy baby quail they brought us are doing great. We put them into the brooder with a handful of Birchen Marans chicks and they are adorable.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

What cuties!

Just a note: A great food for baby birds is hard dog food soaked in water. There are many things you can feed a baby bird, but if you don't have time to whip up a recipe from one of the many helpful websites out there and you can't run to the store, dog food will work wonders. I've raised about six or seven baby birds on it. Eventually the seed eaters (such as sparrows) can be weaned off and will begin to eat seeds. Insect eaters (Such as starlings and robins, etc) can be weaned onto a dog food/apple sauce/fruit diet.

Baby birds need a lot of protein (Hence the reason momma birds feed insects!) and the dog food provides just that. I used to take about a cup of dog food, soak it in a little container, and then stick it in the fridge for the day. I would let each little portion warm up before feeding and then I would hand feed pieces of the food. Each day I would make a new batch of dog food.

Like I said, there are many things you can feed baby birds, but I just figured I'd let you guys in on my little "secret"! I may not always have baby bird formula on hand, but I usually always have dog food!

I've never had luck releasing babies back into the wild, so they usually end up as my pets. Luckily I've ended up with baby starlings and sparrows, so it was legal to keep them. I did once have a grackle though and eventually we had to give him up to a rehabilitator because we lived in a town and didn't have the space for him. He would actually fly around outside and come when we called him. He lived outside once he was old enough to fly. The problem was that he would land on anyone who was outside hoping for attention. Since he looked like a crow, we were afraid he would be injured by some fearful person. If we hadn't lived in a town back then, I would probably still have that bird!