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| The Loser's bird sits on a stick. |
If it's the species the Loser thinks it might be, it will live on a diet of insects, never weigh more than four-tenths of an ounce, and somehow fly from its birthplace in Pennsylvania to Central America and back again.
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ReplyDeleteI wish I'd found these posts a year ago when you wrote them. YOU CANNOT FEED A WILD SPARROW THIS WAY. They need a very specialized diet in captivity. You cannot simply give them bugs or worms.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough....they eat cat food. Cat kibbles. And it needs to be supplemented with calcium, too or their bones will get weak.
I know you meant well, but this is not how you rehab a wild bird.
Really, trying to rehab wild birds is very hard and only for experts with training. (It isn't even legal in most states.)
You know what would cheer you up? a parakeet. They are adorable, warble like little angels -- very low maintenance -- live off of a simple seed diet -- are friendly and playful.
Not a wild bird. They will only break your heart.
I did feed him that. Cat food mixed with an egg yolk and a little rice milk. He was thriving and flying and all, but died anyway. As I write this, well over a year later, it still hurts to recall it.
DeleteHe turned out to be a cat bird, by the way.
The problem is that wild birds do not do well in captivity, even if you feed them the correct diet. (Actually rice milk is NOT something a bird would ever eat.) They can appear to be doing OK and then the next AM, they are dead on the floor of the cage.
ReplyDeleteHe really looks like a common sparrow, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Most wild birds eat a similar diet anyways.
I managed to keep a crippled baby sparrow for a YEAR -- raised him from a "pinkie" without feathers -- got him to fly and sit on my finger -- but in the end, he died.
Wild birds will break your heart. You would really enjoy having a parakeet - cockatiel -- or even a canary. They are bred to live in captivity and easy to tame.