My Grandpa got me a present....

[KDK241]

I know, it's stupid. It is a Federal felony to keep any wild birds as pets so it's not even a state to state basis. Except for starlings, sparrows and pigeons. They don't care about them I guess, lol. I suppose to keep people from catching them to keep or sell but what about situations like this? I mean, what if there was an emergency at my house and the police had to come and saw the babies? And what about situations where they grow up and don't know how to survive? It's stupid. The first robin I had I was about 8. The nest had fallen out of the grain elevator and my uncle managed to catch it (the baby) before it hit the ground. My mom accidently killed it when she let it get too hot. What did you feed the baby? I'm trying to figure out how old these guys are but it's hard! One site I saw pics that looked like them and it said they were 5 days old, another site said 7 days old. It would be nice to know so I can at least tell if they are developing correctly.

[birdsnreps]

lol, back then i used to make my own baby bird formula. for the robin i ground up wild bird seed to almost a powder, then i added hot water and diff gerber baby foods, whatever we had at the time. for some reason, the robin seemed to really thrive when i added nijer seed as well, still not quite sure why, but there was a huge difference when i used it and when i didnt. i pretty much did the same thing when i raised doves back then, except i didnt really use the nijer seed on them. when i did small parrots, i ground up parrot seed (didnt know nothin about pellets back then either), and added fruit and veggie gerber baby foods. trying to grind up that seed was tough and time consuming but the babies always did really well. i pretty much just ground up anything that the parents ate, added hot water (but not too hot), made it mushy enough, and fed it to the babies.

[KDK241]

Thanks. I might have to try and add some of that to their food. I know this is what the raptor center said to give them but frankly, I have little faith in most people knowing what they are talking about. Good grief, I called my avian vet before the U of M cuz Harrison's website says you can feed neonate formula to baby robins and she said they didn't have any so just use the juvenile formula. The ingredients are totally different and everything I read says that robins don't digest grains very well and don't eat them in the wild. I can say I am learning more about robins then I ever thought I would! I did try and get some waxworms for them but it's fishing opener weekend so of course they didn't have any!! I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and praying that things keep going well. I can say I will NEVER COMPLAIN about my cockatiels poop again!!!

[Ashling]

"it said they were 5 days old, another site said 7 days old"
OK then- let's say they're 6 days old ^__^ hehe
Goodluck with them. It is very selfless for you to take those little guys in! Have you heard of krummies? I fed this to my baby Raven last year- dog food, eggs, krummies, seed, mealworms, any meat I had, fruit and vegies all mashed up. If that helps? You seem to be doing a great job! Take care.

[red192]

I am so glad my avian vet does wild bird rehab. I have taken baby birds to her people found and said, 'GIVE IT TO TERRI! SHE HAS BIRDS!" NO don't bring it to me. But I have checked back with her and all babies lived and were released. Wish I could offer you 2 cents worth of info but I'm clueless.....Great job with them though!

[birdsnreps]

i never fed mine live food but im sure it wouldnt hurt. mealworms are good too if you cant find any waxworms.

[KDK241]

Yeah, they were out of those too so I'll have to wait until tomorrow. They are doing good still. I don't see any new feathers coming in but the one's they have are getting longer. I do have a question about feeding though. How do you get the air out of the syringe when the formula is kind of thick? I can get the formula in the syringe and it comes out just fine but no matter how hard or how long I tap on it I can't get the air out. It's not a huge deal because I squirt the food in their mouths anyway but when there is air in there it just keeps squirting and makes a huge mess. I could never feed my tiels thicker formula so I was wondering if there is a trick to it!

[birdsnreps]

you might wanna add some more water so its not quite as thick. i never had air problems with mine :) what you can do though for the air is thump the syringe with your finger while the syringe is upside down. if that doesnt work, you can do this while you suck up some more air at the same time (hope this makes sense LOL) the air bubbles should float towards the tip of the syringe so you can squeeze them out.

[KDK241]

Thanks, I will try that. I was adding more water but then their poop started to get a bit runny. Adding more beef baby food seems to make it less thick as well so I'm going to see how that goes as well. It's strange since I have no problems sucking it in the syringe but once it's in there it doesn't move down like normal.

[birdsnreps]

haha, cute little babies :) so what are you gonna do with them then?