Wildlife Rehab

[GitaBooks]

When we find caterpillars we like to bring them inside to let them become butterflies before releasing them back into the wild. However, one chrysalis was too small to open up and it appeared dead for months and months. She came out, beautiful and small, during the winter. Since we couldn't release her we fed her gatorade soaked into some cotton. To help her find it we would use something small to unroll her proboscis to help her drink.





Our friends helped raise a young squirrel that was old enough to walk but still very young and hungry. The squirrel's best friend happened to be their 120 lb saint bernard!

 

[CherriesBrood]

Aww that is so sweet! We have also helped butterflies too.

 

[GitaBooks]

Some babies fell out of a nest and though we tried to put them back in, they ended up out of it once more, ten feet down onto the ground. They weren't even feathered yet, the little Chipping Sparrows, and so we took on the challenge of raising the four. Huey, Dewey, Luey and Donald were their names. Sadly, all of them except Donnie passed. Donnie did well, however, and we fed him chopped worms when he was large enough to take it.



Esther, our "momma-wanna-be" dog fell in love with him. If he escaped she sat beside him to protect him from our bird-eating other dogs. She would listen to his calls and come to them also.


We put him into our cage with our zebra finches so he would learn how to act like a bird before release. Esther still liked him.

We released him at a wildlife park, where he wouldn't be in danger of flying up to someone's dog and getting injured.

 

[cassie]

Just a comment. The wildlife rescue told me to feed baby birds dog food. I did and they do well on it. You take kibble and moisten it until it is soft enough to feed. I have raised a lot of baby birds on soaked dog food.

 

[GitaBooks]

Just a comment. The wildlife rescue told me to feed baby birds dog food. I did and they do well on it. You take kibble and moisten it until it is soft enough to feed. I have raised a lot of baby birds on soaked dog food.

Thank you, that is very helpful information.

I've always been nervous about what to feed baby birds because we had a sparrow (a long time ago, when I was like 5) that we fed bread soaked in milk for the first few days. When we switched to what the store suggested the sparrow, Fuzzy, aspirated and died. However, dog food sounds like a good, easy to get option that might be slightly easier to work with and less likely to drown them.

 

[GitaBooks]

Feel free to post any stories of your own. I'd love to learn all I could.

Here are the Barn Swallows that call our place home. They build their nests on our old lights set up along the ceiling of the barn. They are quite incredible nests, actually, and the birds eat the insects so that is nice as well. They sure don't like people disturbing their babies though.


Sometimes we have to give a baby a helping hand. These guys are just fledging, and sometimes they fall to the ground and the cats or CHICKENS (yeah, the monsters) try to eat them. Chickens fight over baby birds.


A young swallow

 

[GitaBooks]

Trying to help some homeless baby sparrows. These guys didn't make it, they were too specialized in care needs, but we did do our best. We were helping them swallow food with a pen cap.


A sick baby starling. It also did not survive, but we did our best to help it, even giving it some antibiotics. The little guy was friendly. We were hoping to get to teach it to talk. Starlings are real smart birds, and because they aren't native you can keep those you raise as pets.


A young grackle caught by our dogs. I believe after it got over the shock of it we released it outside of the dog fence for its parents to continue to feed. It had recently fledged.


A fledgling gold-finch that got tangled in its own nest and was hanging by one foot. We used a ladder to reach it, cut it free, and then released it outside for its parents to find.

 

[CherriesBrood]

One note: If you touch baby birds and try to release them their parents will not accept them because they have human scent on them and they will abandon them. Next time if you are going to release them try to pick them up with a cloth, rag or something else than your hands. Hope this helps.

 

[GitaBooks]

One note: If you touch baby birds and try to release them their parents will not accept them because they have human scent on them and they will abandon them. Next time if you are going to release them try to pick them up with a cloth, rag or something else than your hands. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice.

According to scientists, however, this isn't true, particularly with fledglings. Birds don't have that strong a sense of smell, unlike mammals. We have handled many baby birds (of all ages) and watched them every day (we were documenting their growth with pictures) and the parents raised them up until they fledged.
Not to say handling wild animals is a great idea, it certainly will stress the parents and if a nest is messed with before the eggs hatch the mother may abandon them.

 

[Dianacatz]

I have once had a pigeon fly into my house through a open window! It took about 30 minutes to get him out!

Wishes,
Diana