For those that rescue

[FoxtonWildlifeRescue]

Hello

We run a wildlife rescue in Foxton, leics.

At the weekend, the RSPCA brought us a tiny cygnet. These rarely do well in captivity and that evening it started to go downhill. We knew it wouldn't last the night.

We also have a female swan and it was then that I remembered reading in a book about Len Baker's Swan Rescue a swan that had been a surrogate mother to 118 cygnets. We tentatively put the cygnet in with the swan ready to intervene if the swan attacked. Amazingly, it crept under the swan's wing and has now been adopted by the swan and is thriving.

Anyway, the reason for all this waffle is that I would never have risked putting a tiny cygnet with an unrelated swan if i hadn't read it. It made me think that it would be great to have a forum, similar to this one, for those that rescue where we can pool our collective knowledge and ideas and ask for help for cases that we might be struggling with?

I think it would be of great benefit to all rescue centres and i know some subscribe here. Perhaps one already exists? Just sounding it out. If you rescue, what do you think?

[valleyforge]

The British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council [BWRC] ... Google the acronym or name for the URL ... is the obvious forum for such rescue & rehab posts and for sharing information.

Although their website had a well subscribed and active forum, it is meantime out of action ... in fact it has been down now since February.

If they can't get it up and running soon, then I would certainly support an alternative venue, because as you say, being able to share experience is invaluable in this field.

regards

[Picidae]

I fed an abandoned Herring Gull chick with a yellow marigold glove on my hand with a dab of red paint round the two middle fingers (not to be inserted in beak of course) when it wouldn't feed. This emulates the parents beak (apparently the red somehow has the effect of stimulating appetite. (can't remember where I read that!) The chick was later taken to a proper rehab and was raised and released successfully with other gull fledglings.

[Jason Green]

We have several people associated with wildlife rescues here. Maybe Stu could create a sub-forum for it?

Picidae: See this description by Adam Cheeseman, posted in a gull ID request 13mths ago:

It's a juv. Herring Gull. The red mark on the lower mandible is called the Gonal Spot as it is situated on the Gonys, which is the name for the angled part of the lower mandible. This is where the chicks peck at to encourage the adults to regurgitate food.

[Picidae]

Thanks J

Can't remember where I originally read the info about stimulating appetite in chicks (it wasn't here) - I've known about the chicks pecking the gony spot to get the adults to feed them for years, but apparently the actual sight of the red colour stimulates the salivary glands in the chicks (and hence appetite) - bit like Pavlov's dogs and the sound of bells! - which causes them to peck in the first place. Hence the use of the rubber gloves with red paint to stimulate appetite when parents have abandoned. The pecking which ensues of course, then acts as a stimulant for the regurgitation by parents, as you say.

All very interesting but perhaps a bit off topic