Lyet (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lyet) wrote,@ 2008-04-18 18:04:00 |
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Bird rescue!
So yesterday He-yet calls me at work to tell me that there's a baby bird on the ground outside abandoned near an egg (broken) and lots of gray feathers. We've had mourning doves nesting on the tree outside our bedroom for a while, and haven't heard them in a few days. I come home and investigate, sure enough it's a mourning dove baby (still in the pinky stage, all skin and pinfeathers) and it appears something "got" the momma bird.
At this I haven't yet used the great internet to determine what to do, but I feed the bird (or attempt to feed the bird) some warm milk/water, and his crop is already full, so we leave him out there to see if mom is around. By nightfall mom still isn't there, it's been hours and hours, so (to He-yet's reluctance) I bring him in.
I read up on baby mourning doves, make him a nest and get him warm. We don't expect him to make it through the night. Get up this morning, and he's alive and looking around and alert. I feed him some cornmeal and water from a shot glass (he sticks his head in a few times) and go to work. He-yet checks on him throughout the day.
So now he's still alive and alert. He doesn't eat very well. I bought hand-feeding formula and more of it gets on him than in him, but I think it's not warm enough so I'll feed him again in a few hours and make sure it's warmer.
Not sure how I got into this, but I'm happy to temporarily be a bird-mom. I mean, aside from my three parakeets. I hope little bird (who doesn't yet have a name) lives, but even if he dies, he's had a better life than if we let him freeze to death last night or get eaten.
So yesterday He-yet calls me at work to tell me that there's a baby bird on the ground outside abandoned near an egg (broken) and lots of gray feathers. We've had mourning doves nesting on the tree outside our bedroom for a while, and haven't heard them in a few days. I come home and investigate, sure enough it's a mourning dove baby (still in the pinky stage, all skin and pinfeathers) and it appears something "got" the momma bird.
At this I haven't yet used the great internet to determine what to do, but I feed the bird (or attempt to feed the bird) some warm milk/water, and his crop is already full, so we leave him out there to see if mom is around. By nightfall mom still isn't there, it's been hours and hours, so (to He-yet's reluctance) I bring him in.
I read up on baby mourning doves, make him a nest and get him warm. We don't expect him to make it through the night. Get up this morning, and he's alive and looking around and alert. I feed him some cornmeal and water from a shot glass (he sticks his head in a few times) and go to work. He-yet checks on him throughout the day.
So now he's still alive and alert. He doesn't eat very well. I bought hand-feeding formula and more of it gets on him than in him, but I think it's not warm enough so I'll feed him again in a few hours and make sure it's warmer.
Not sure how I got into this, but I'm happy to temporarily be a bird-mom. I mean, aside from my three parakeets. I hope little bird (who doesn't yet have a name) lives, but even if he dies, he's had a better life than if we let him freeze to death last night or get eaten.
