Baby Sparrow

[janandchrissie]

Hello I rescued a new born sparrow two days ago, any more helpful advice would be gratefully appreciated I'd love to see him grow up and not die despite my efforts!

Christine

[owlmomma]

PM in your inbox

[valleyforge]

PM from me also

[janandchrissie]

Thank you very much for your reply, he is doing very well, I read the comments on the other forum and also left a message there.

He is very affectionate and as soon as he sees my hand he tries to get on it. He's still a bit wobbly on his legs bless.

I am feeding him cat food in small amounts and occasionally banana and oats. He likes this alot.

I have him in a box with lots of comfy tissue that he buries himself in and this box is under a lamo with shade, I then wrap a towel around the shad and the box to keep the heat in which works very well, I feed him for the last time at midnight, again at 4am and then at 7am when I am up, then throughout the day every 1-2 hours.

Is this okay?

At night I read that they dont need to eat as they wouldnt in the wild, and as the light that keeps him warm is bright I put a black cloth over his box with a little hole so he thinks its night too. Is this okay? I cant think of any other way to keep him warm, or would he be okay with just the box of tissue?

He still has no feathers and has only just opened his eyes. I think he had just hatched when he fell out the tree.

Is there anything else I can feed him or anything else I need to do, I haven't given him water yet as I was told this could drown them or give him pneumonia. But surely he needs some fluids? Although the cat food I mush up has lots of jelly which is watery?

Anyway thank you for all the messages all over the forums, it was a great help reading them, please reply here if you feel I can do anything else for this little chap, I will post pictures tomorrow.

Christine

[valleyforge]

Hi Christine,

Glad to hear things are going so well so far.

Sounds like you are doing all the right things ... keeping him/her warm and feeding at regular intervals.

It is important not to overheat the wee fella though ... if you can keep his environment around 22 - 25degC and not over 30 degC that would be best.

Provided he/she is kept in a warm room you can reduce the external heating once the feathers have developed. You need to be sure your wrapped lamp isn't a fire hazard of course, and an alternative might be to make a 'hot water bottle' using a screw top soft drink bottle filled with hot water and wrapped in a dish cloth placed next to to the bird (providing it can't roll over it accidentally).

Whatever source of heating you use, it's important that you allow the bird to back off somewhere a little cooler if he/she becomes uncomfortably hot. If it is you'll notice it fidgeting a lot ... when its comfortable it'll sleep soundly between meals.

You are right that at this stage you should not offer water, other than what's mixed within the feed. The food mixture ... mashed catfood, oatibix and mashed banana is good, but mixed with just enough water to form a thick 'gloop' ... not so runny it drops off the handle of a teaspoon, but not not too dry either. If you get the consistency right, you'll be providing all the liquid the nestling needs at this stage of development. Once all the feathers have developed you can introduce a shallow dish of water (bottle top or jar lid) ... but sounds like you may be a couple weeks away from that yet.

Your midnight and 4am feeds are great at the moment, as long as you have the stamina for them, they certainly won't do any harm. Once it's a little more developed you should be able to comfortably finish feeding around 10.30pm and resume at 07.00am, if that is your normal waking time.

If you can provide some photos, that would be good so we can maybe identify was he/she is, and perhaps advise what supplemental foods to provide as it grows. Otherwise, please describe it the best you can, particularly the shape of the beak (broad like a sparrow or finch, or more tapered like a robin's?) ... also the colour of the inside of the beak, the beak margins, and any markings you notice inside the mouth can be diagnostic of species as of course is colour of feathers once they've developed.

Keep up the good work and don't hesitate to contact us if you are concerned at any time.

[janandchrissie]

Photo017.jpg

Cant figure out how to get a photo on here for you to see him!

Chris

[janandchrissie]

I put the photo of him in my avatar bit! That got around that one! Haha

[valleyforge]

Good try ... but it's a bit to small for my old eyes to see anything useful

Here are the instructions for adding an image to your post:

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in Forum
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