Just rescued a Blue Tit...advice please !

[curlylad]

I have just rescued a very small blue tit from one of our cats.
It does not have any obvious damage, its head, body, wings, tail feathers and legs all seem fine and undamaged.
I picked it up and put it in a dark, warm room on a towel, at first its chest was beating that fast it looked as if it would die from shock, however after about 2 hours it appears to have calmed down and is singing its head off, I presume calling its mother. However I do not want to let it go yet as Im not sure it is strong enough or can fly very far, it has been flying around the room but after only a 5 to 6 second flight it drops to the floor looking exhausted again.
I have made up a feed of mashed egg and cat food and am going to attempt to feed it to the bird with tweezers on the hope that it will eat it and then after an hour or so it may be strong enough to attempt the journey back to its nest.

Am I doing the right thing here, any advice please a.s.a.p.

curlylad.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by curlylad

I have just rescued a very small blue tit from one of our cats.

<sigh>

after an hour or so it may be strong enough to attempt the journey back to its nest.

Or one of your cats' mouths!

Jim

[feathered-friend]

If its newly fledged its unlikely to be able to fly far anyway.

If you know where your cat got it, and it seems well enough, just hungry, the best thing is to put it back and let it try to call its mother.

Keep an eye on it and see whether its mother comes but most importantly keep your cats in!

If you are not able to take it near to where your cat got it, read some of the other posts there is lots of info on caring for young birds.

Hope this helps a little!

Theres a sticky/post at the top of the page - read that

[solus]

Posted this reply on the other topic curlylad posted this on.

Put the bird back as soon as possible in a safe place in the garden (in a shrub for example) where hopefully the parent birds will find it and feed it. Assuming it was raised in or close to your garden? Or if you are pretty sure it was from a neighbour's garden see if you can place it there: it really needs to be close to where it came from in order for the parents to locate it. Keep the cat indoors!

Once they have fledged, baby birds do not return to the nest.

[curlylad]

Here's the update:-
I got the cats in and put the bird down in the garden where I found it, watching it carefully.
It soon became apparent that it was either injured or exhausted or maybe in shock as it could not or would not fly. It was making no calls or noises what so ever so I knew leaving it there would mean certain death for it. I took the decision to bring it indoors and placed it in a warm, dark room on a towel. I left it there for a few hours hoping it would perk up and it did seem to be more with it when I returned to check up on it. I read some other articles here and made a mush up of cat food and boiled egg and attempted to feed it some hoping this would build its strength, it did take some from me from the end of some tweezers and I again left it for another hour or so,. The next time I returned it was because I heard it giving a series of '3 note' chirps, presumably calling its mother. I entered the room and it flew off the towel and landed on my arm and stayed there continuing to give his 3 note call now more often and louder. At this point he was also flying around the room so I knew it was now time to release him. I took him outside and with the cats indoors carefully placed him in the bush next to where I found him and retreated to watch from the conservatory. He continued to call for quite some time and then a few other blue tits appeared, they seemed to be flying in and out of the bush for about ten minutes I think trying to coax him into flying off and he eventually got the hang of it and followed them off hopefully to safety. I watched as he disappeared out of sight with the others to the roof of a neighbouring house. I have since found out that the owner does have blue tits nesting in his eaves so I presume he is now safe.
I have read that human contact, handling and even letting them see you close up can create problems but I had no choice on this occasion as I am certain it would have died if I had just left it to its own devices in the garden.
I think we can say this one is a happy ending.

[feathered-friend]

Great to hear of an Happy ending, Well done