Newborn Baby Robin All Alone!!

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I tried calling two places today and a exotic vet office and was told they were all full.
The rehabber I know still hasn't contacted me, she usually works with much larger things, seals, hawks, squirels, racoons, etc. Who knows what she's got this time of year.
I'm starting to have a sinking feeling I may be on my own with this.

I have searched my whole property high and low and found only one other nest, and they are doves, not Robins.
I've also put a post on my local craigslist asking if anyone has a nest of young robins that I could add him to.
I'm trying.
What are his chances of being a normal adult bird after being raised by me? I would feel horrible if he couldn't function right. What do I do with him if he can't ever learn to find food right? I can't keep him, it's illegal, well it's technically illegal for me to be raising him but that's another story. I could never bear to keep a wild bird inside, that's so wrong, he needs to be free.
I'll do everything in my power to rehab him the best I can myself if no one will take him, I'm just not feeling very confident right now...

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Little Stormy passed away early this morning at around 5:00am sometime. I had just checked on him at 4:30 and he was fine, sleeping. When I checked him at 6:00 he was stiff and very cold.
I really tried. He was eating and pooping and kept warm and everything. No rehab place ever said they would take him, and some never even called me back. I called places in three states. I feel really crummy...

RIP Little Stormy.

 

[wegotchickens]

:aww So sorry that you lost the baby bird!! :aww

 

[chickenzoo]

They can be really hard to raise, you did all you could. Ive hand raised a lot of parrots over the years and still lost a baby pigeon recently.It happens, so sorry,you gave it your best and kept him from dieing cold and alone.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I'm so sorry that you lost Stormy...another gal on another board lost her baby robin also...must just be late chicks.

 

[horsejody]

I'm so sorry. At least you tried. You did the right thing. He didn't die because of anything you did. He may have had an injury from the fall that you weren't aware of. You gave him a chance. That's the best that anybody can do.
Jody

 

[jjthink]

I'm very sorry.....
JJ

 

[seriousbill]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I handfed a baby Oriole earlier this summer under similiar circumstances. He lived for three weeks. I fed him handfeeding formula (for baby pet birds) every hour during the day, and it worked well for a while. He grew and feathered out, but then one day when I was expecting him to begin the weaning process, he just started to get weak, and soon he died. It is very difficult even under the best of circumstances to raise an orphaned wild bird. My sincere sympathies.

 

[petru26]

Need help with baby robin.
Crow attacked the nest and injure one of the babies in the morning, they were two birds in it. Parents feed the babies until the afternoon, but did not returned and it was dark, so I looked for them and only found one. Brought in to the house for the night and put it outside, no sign of the parents. By the afternoon I started feeding him, he was fine singing, my friend brought me some different food EXACT for all babies, he had it last nigh and this morning. Since then he does not want to eat. Tried calling wildlife rescue and still waiting for their call. Any suggestions? Please help.
Thank you.

 

[OnceAroundTheBlock]

Petru, I know it's late and stores are probably closed right now but in the morning this is what you need to do. Go to the store and buy a box of instant high protein baby cereal, get the kind that says "rice" on the box if you can. Mix up a dish of it using warm water to a consistency of mush (NOT soupy) and then add a mashed up hardboiled egg yolk to it and mix well. The consistency needs to be not too runny but thin enough to be able to pass thru an eye dropper with a tapered end on it. When you feed it, and you will have to do it hourly or maybe every hour and a half during the daytime but at night you won't (the mother doesn't feed them after dark in their nest). Make sure you don't overfeed it, keep your eye on the crop which is located alongside of the birds neck on the right side, and when you can see it bulging some and a yellowish color right thru the thin skin, you'll know that's enough for that feeding. Don't worry about giving him any water, he gets all he needs from the formula that you're feeding him.

It's very important to keep him warm too. I always use a heating pad set on the lowest temp. Keep feeding the bird this baby cereal formula and when you start seeing it's body getting covered with feathers, you can start making the cereal thicker and introduce some raw hamburger meat to his diet. At this stage you can add moistened dog food pellets too. The Qtip with the cotton ends cut off, is a great feeding tool suggestion. You won't need the heating pad anymore either when he starts getting his feathers.

As the bird gets bigger, you need to move it to a bird cage and let him excercise his wings by flapping them and eventually you want him to start eating on his own. Put the moistened dog food with a small amount of raw hamburger in a jar lid along with a separate jar lid filled with water. At this stage, you want to handle him as little as possible. You want him to be less dependent on you so he'll have a better chance for survival in the wild when it's time to let him go.

When he's eating on his own, and trying to fly, put the cage outside in a safe and shady spot. Leave him outside day and night. After a week of that, open the cage door with the food and water and if he feels he still needs shelter, he has a refuge before going it alone.

As much as you probably love him at this point, you have to remember he is a wild animal and deserves to be free and live out his life as it was intended. It takes commitment to raise an orphaned bird but the joy you'll feel as he takes flight and begins his free life from now on, makes it worth it all.

For many years, I volunteered at a Seabird/Songbird Sanctuary and learned the proper way to nurse orphaned or injured birds back to health. I never get tired of the joy that comes with it either.

Good luck and hope everything will turnout well with your little bird.