hello all, I would much appreciate any advice you could give me on what I've done so far and what to do next!
This afternoon my mum rescued a baby bluetit from the claws of our now thoroughly disliked cat (she murdered my pet canary a few months ago)
At first we thought it was definitely dying - it just curled up in my hands and buried its head in between my fingers with quite heavy breathing.
Immediately I got my canary's old cage and covered the floor with a towel then filled a shoebox with some kitchen towel and placed that inside. Then I put the little thing inside the box. For a very long time it just lay on its side and we were pretty certain it would die so at that point we were just trying to make it as comfortable as we could.
There were no signs of bleeding or anything broken so we thought it was just a case of shock.
After a while I went and checked on 'him' and found that he was sitting up, looking around curiously. I was worried about dehydration so i dipped a paintbrush in some water and offered it to him, he drank greedily and cheered up very quickly.
I also crushed some 'RSPB Buggy Nibbles' into a powder and mixed with water which he also took from the paintbrush.
After this he was hopping all round the cage, jumping up against the bars, chattering away to me and chirping.
The chirping made me think he was looking for his parents so i had the idea of placing the cage outside our back door where he was found, going back inside and watching what would happen through the window.
(By now it was late afternoon and beginning to spit with light rain, also turning cold.)
As soon as he was outside he started calling very loudly and presently a fullgrown bluetit arrived out of nowhere. It inspected the cage and then flew off. Then it returned with a mate. They both flew around and about him whilst he called very loudly and they seemed to confirm that he was theirs. Then they flew off again.
While they were gone I quickly went out and took the lid off the cage so he was exposed (because before they appeared completely dumbfounded by the cage even though i had left the door open)
So now it was very cold and wet, the little guy was chirping madly. Again the two birds came back and inspected from a slight distance, but they seemed stuck as to what to do. They flew off.
As soon as they were gone, the tiny thing waddled to the edge of the cage and suddenly took off, flying a couple of metres before crashing suddenly earthwards and getting stuck in a kind of ditch between the wall and some decking we have outside.
I was worried he'd broken his neck to i rushed outside and picked him out of the thorns where he was stuck.
This was where i didn't really know what to do. It was getting late, dark, cold, wet. I'd tried to somehow reintroduce him to his parents but this hadn't worked. Also we now knew he couldn't really fly any kind of distance.
Again he curled up in my hands and buried his beak. I took him back inside, gave the cage some dry bedding and fed him some water and a little food. He seemed exhausted and tucked his head under his wing in his box of ripped loo paper and instantly went to sleep, only chirping a little when i fed him.
I've put a hot water bottle inside the cage but not so close or hot that he'll overheat and covered the cage with a blanket now that it's dark.
I'm hoping now that he'll sleep through the night and hopefully be better in the morning so that maybe we could put him outside again, but there was no way i was going to leave him which is what I've heard some people suggest.
All I'm really looking for from everyone is some kind of reassurance that I've vaguely done the right thing - or maybe even I've done everything wrong - and some kind of advice as to what we do next. Has anyone had a similar experience? Should I care for him in some kind of way until he's strong enough to fly? Or if i do that will he never be able to survive in the wild if he's had too much hand rearing? Will his parents take him back? Will I accidentally kill him with all this??
Help much needed!
Thank You,
Lettice x x
Baby bluetit found - help! 
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