European Starling care?

[KenjiQuacker]

Contact a fish and game officer before you go ahead with something like this. You have to think about the future as well. What is your capacity for birds? What happens after you have several adult birds? What do you plan to do if you end up with several males or several females (which may fight)? Can you afford avian vet care in the event they become ill? Are you experienced with tube feeding in the event a baby won't eat? Are you experienced and willing to feed an accurate diet, close to what they would eat in the wild? I'm not trying to put you down, but when you take wild animals into your care it goes much farther then just taking them out of their environment (invasive or not) and raising them. You really need to think about what happens once they're grown.

Ive volunteered at 3 different wildlife rehabilitation centers for 2 years now, hand raised 6 different baby birds, built an aviary, gotten a job to pay for my animals, and I'm planning on getting a cage for each starling, taking them to the avian vet that's only 10 minutes from here once they're old enough to go to the vet, I have plenty of space in my aviary, and I've been researching for 6 months on their care, diet, and health problems. Thank you for making sure I'm ready though.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Ive volunteered at 3 different wildlife rehabilitation centers for 2 years now, hand raised 6 different baby birds, built an aviary, gotten a job to pay for my animals, and I'm planning on getting a cage for each starling, taking them to the avian vet that's only 10 minutes from here once they're old enough to go to the vet, I have plenty of space in my aviary, and I've been researching for 6 months on their care, diet, and health problems. Thank you for making sure I'm ready though.

Sorry, I just had to make sure. I've seen to many people try to take on raising wildlife and not understand what they're getting into. I'm glad to see you have the experience and you're prepared! Best of luck to you.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Sorry, I just had to make sure. I've seen to many people try to take on raising wildlife and not understand what they're getting into. I'm glad to see you have the experience and you're prepared! Best of luck to you.

Thank you! Sorry if I came off as trying to be defensive or anything, i just felt a little threatened by all the questions

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Hello there! So this is gonna take a while to explain and it might be confusing, but I'll try my best to explain.

Me and my friend know that starlings are invasive, and legal to kill or to keep in captivity. We really like helping the ecosystem, and we have lots of starlings here in washington. We thought we could go to peoples homes or places with too many starlings and look for nests, then take the babies once they're around 7-14 days old (imprinting age) and hand raise them. This would be helping the ecosystem (even in just a small way) by taking starlings out of the ecosystem without killing them. We've been doing tons of research, and we know the basics, but does anybody have tips or experience in raising baby starlings? If anybody could give me more information on raising them and keeping them as adults, I'd love to hear it!

(edit) I've had lots of experience raising wildlife in the past and I'm currently volunteering at two different wildlife rehabilitation centers, and I have an aviary and a job so I can get enough money to care for Starlings. So I'm pretty sure I'm ready for this lol.

Contact a fish and game officer before you go ahead with something like this. You have to think about the future as well. What is your capacity for birds? What happens after you have several adult birds? What do you plan to do if you end up with several males or several females (which may fight)? Can you afford avian vet care in the event they become ill? Are you experienced with tube feeding in the event a baby won't eat? Are you experienced and willing to feed an accurate diet, close to what they would eat in the wild? I'm not trying to put you down, but when you take wild animals into your care it goes much farther then just taking them out of their environment (invasive or not) and raising them. You really need to think about what happens once they're grown.

Oh and I totally forgot to add, I'll be selling them as pets to people (obviously I'll be teaching them how to care for them) so I won't have too many once they're adults.

 

[cassie]

Contact a fish and game officer before you go ahead with something like this. You have to think about the future as well. What is your capacity for birds? What happens after you have several adult birds? What do you plan to do if you end up with several males or several females (which may fight)? Can you afford avian vet care in the event they become ill? Are you experienced with tube feeding in the event a baby won't eat? Are you experienced and willing to feed an accurate diet, close to what they would eat in the wild? I'm not trying to put you down, but when you take wild animals into your care it goes much farther then just taking them out of their environment (invasive or not) and raising them. You really need to think about what happens once they're grown.

A baby bird not eating is not a problem. You just poke the food down its throat. I kept a magpie as a pet for years. Rescued him from a cat. No, it wasn't legal. No, I didn't care. I just told everyone he was a California Mynah bird. Personally, I would not consider a large scale starling rescue. One or two for pets would be plenty for me.

Our local wildlife rehab fed baby birds dog food. Either soaked dry or canned food. Meat eating baby birds, such as owls and hawks, were fed cat food. Any starlings bought in were fed to them, too. With their guidance I raised and released to the wild any number of baby birds. The wildlife rehab was overwhelmed and they were glad to have me raise the ones I found. They were very generous with advice and counsel. As for an avian vet, in most places I have lived, there aren't any. You just do the best you can with what you have.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

A baby bird not eating is not a problem. You just poke the food down its throat. I kept a magpie as a pet for years. Rescued him from a cat. No, it wasn't legal. No, I didn't care. I just told everyone he was a California Mynah bird. Personally, I would not consider a large scale starling rescue. One or two for pets would be plenty for me.

Our local wildlife rehab fed baby birds dog food. Either soaked dry or canned food. Meat eating baby birds, such as owls and hawks, were fed cat food. Any starlings bought in were fed to them, too. With their guidance I raised and released to the wild any number of baby birds. The wildlife rehab was overwhelmed and they were glad to have me raise the ones I found. They were very generous with advice and counsel. As for an avian vet, in most places I have lived, there aren't any. You just do the best you can with what you have.

Thanks for all the information! I won't be keeping them all, I forgot to add that I'll be selling them as pets to my friends and people near me (and teaching and training them all how to care for them) so I won't get overloaded with birds, and if I do I have an aviary I can put them. Also that's so cool that you helped rescue those birds! People like you are amazing for helping those birds.

 

[Weeg]

Ive volunteered at 3 different wildlife rehabilitation centers for 2 years now, hand raised 6 different baby birds, built an aviary, gotten a job to pay for my animals, and I'm planning on getting a cage for each starling, taking them to the avian vet that's only 10 minutes from here once they're old enough to go to the vet, I have plenty of space in my aviary, and I've been researching for 6 months on their care, diet, and health problems. Thank you for making sure I'm ready though.

Oh wow! That is really cool! You sound like you have that part under control. Nice job!

 

[Weeg]

Oh and I totally forgot to add, I'll be selling them as pets to people (obviously I'll be teaching them how to care for them) so I won't have too many once they're adults.

Okay, that makes sense. Sounds like you have a good plan and lots of experience as long as it is legal. I will defiantly be following this thread, such a cool idea as long as it goes as planned.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Oh wow! That is really cool! You sound like you have that part under control. Nice job!

Thank you! : )

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Okay, that makes sense. Sounds like you have a good plan and lots of experience as long as it is legal. I will defiantly be following this thread, such a cool idea as long as it goes as planned.

Yeah, I'll make sure it's legal before I do anything, and I'll have until spring to set everything up.