What to feed a baby sparrow fell out of nest

What Do Baby Sparrows Eat?

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A Newly Born Baby Sparrow in its Nest

The most numerous of North America’s 35 sparrow species is the house sparrow. It consumes a variety of grains and seeds, but during the summer, it will appreciate the protein in insects. The diet of a newborn sparrow is determined by what its mother and father feed it; where they reside has an impact on the available options.

If you’ve decided to pet a baby sparrow or found one that’s been orphaned by its parents, you may ask the question: what do baby sparrows eat? It only takes a little to raise a baby sparrow. A variety of foods can be offered to a baby sparrow, including cooked egg and dog or cat food. Baby sparrows may consume anything at any time. It is not difficult to care for a baby sparrow.

What Do Baby Sparrows Eat?

Sparrows, like many other songbirds, are omnivorous and can therefore eat both animals and plants. These largely vegetarian birds forage for food on the ground. This does not imply that they don’t utilize feeders. The list of sparrows’ regular diet is as follows:

Grains Grains

Soybeans, white millet, rice, red millet, oats, wheat, barley, cracked corn, white proso milo, sorghum, and other grains are among their preferred foods. They prefer eating medium-sized cracked corn because of its tiny beaks. These grains can be given to your garden sparrows at home.

Seeds Seeds

Many plant and grass seeds are eaten by sparrows, which may be found in your yard or the garden. Striped sunflower seeds, black oil sunflower seeds, shelled safflower seeds, canary seeds, hard-shelled seeds, and nyjer seeds are just a few of the seed types that they consume.

Nuts Nuts

A wide range of nuts is a favorite food for sparrows, including peanuts, beechnuts, almonds, hickory nuts, Brazil nuts, and much more. These foods are high in protein and oil and are good for sparrows’ health. Unshelled nuts might be hazardous since they have tiny beaks.

Fruits Fruits Can Be Given To Baby Sparrows

When fed as supplementary food, baby sparrows feed on fruit by pecking. When migrating in the fall, they usually consume a wide range of fruits. Many gardeners are unhappy with the many holes that various species of sparrows have made in their fruits. Apples, pears, grapes, cherries, plums, loquats, peaches, watermelon, and bananas are just a few of the fruits sparrows may consume. Make sure to chop fruits before feeding garden sparrows so that they may eat them. Sparrows can’t finish entire fruits on their own because of the small size of their mouths and stomachs.

Berries Berries Can Be Fed To Baby Sparrows

Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, baneberries, buffalo berries, bearberries, chokeberries, salmonberries, elderberries, raspberries, and other common fruits are all part of the baby sparrow’s occasional diet.

We recommend planting numerous fruit-bearing trees in your yard if you want to offer berry-eating sparrows a variety of berries. Chopped fruits in feeders are a must since sparrows use their tiny beaks to consume their snacks.

Vegetables Vegetables Can Be Given To Baby Sparrows

Vegetables are eaten by birds in a similar way to how humans do. Sparrows consume a variety of veggies, including potatoes, lentils, peas, tomatoes, and lettuce. In general, they avoid consuming these items. When their food supply is low, sparrows eat vegetables to survive.

Make sure you chop your veggies into tiny pieces for your sparrows to swallow easily if you offer them some food from your kitchen. To allow a wide range of sparrows access to the water, place a bowl of water in your yard.

Insects Insects Are Eaten By Baby Sparrows

Sparrows consume a wide range of tiny invertebrates, including caterpillars, bees, aphids, and ants, particularly during the spring and early summer. They eat these creatures primarily to feed their young. When the youngsters leave the nest, they return to eating grains and seeds.

Plants Plants

Baby sparrows are mostly interested in the seeds of numerous trees and grasses, although they will occasionally consume leaves and grass. Sparrows must consume vegetation in the wild to survive if they don’t discover enough seeds to satiate their hunger.

Plants sparrows eat include ragweed, buckwheat, crabgrass, and a variety of buds and blooms. If you want to encourage them to consume plants, these plants should be accessible in your yard. Aside from that, insecticide applications in the grass are not recommended.

Human Food

Sparrows may consume a variety of human foods, such as bread crumbs and fried chips. If you’re willing to offer sparrows some bread crumbs, make sure they’re wet for a while before putting them in the water. The dried breadcrumbs are indigestible to sparrows.

Nestlings will not consume bread crumbs even after they have been soaked in water. The food will not be able to fit into their tiny stomachs. Adult sparrows should never receive old bread crumbs since their stomachs could become upset.

Scraps

Many varieties of sparrows eat food that has been tossed aside by people. They may be discovered around leftovers in the kitchen or dining room. Scavenging for meals, they may be found in garbage cans or dumpsters.

Keep your kitchen waste uncovered to allow a wide range of sparrows to consume from it. This has several advantages, as we all know that birds are excellent natural pest controllers. Sparrows will keep your environment clean by consuming the scraps, as we all know.

What Do Baby Sparrows Eat in The Wild?

A baby sparrow, on the other hand, only eats whatever his parents feed him. This means he’s eating the same things as his family does. The house sparrow is a flexible eater who will eat anything that is accessible. In the winter, he’ll fill his belly with acorns and other nuts. In the summer, he’ll eat caterpillars and grasshoppers. Other sparrows forage on the ground in search of seeds and insects during the summer, such as field sparrows. The parents regurgitate their meal discoveries to feed their young.b

How To Feed Baby Sparrows? Baby Sparrows in Their Nests

You may learn how to care for a newborn Sparrow if you’ve discovered one. However, observe the area carefully before taking action to ensure that the bird is an orphan. Hand-reared birds have a poor survival rate, so their best chance of survival is in the nest under parental monitoring.

Step 1

Start by feeding the baby bird with a wet mixture of puppy or cat food. Before combining it with the food, add a baby bird formula or Pronutro to the water. Puppy or cat canned food has a greater protein content and is closer to the natural diet than adult dog canned food. In a mixing glass, combine the food. If the bird is too young to feed itself, break off tiny bits and tweeze feed it with your finger.

Step 2

Add as many insects as you can to the cat or dog food. A natural diet for a baby sparrow consists of dry foods such as seeds and seeds, as well as live invertebrates including spiders, aphids, snails, caterpillars, and other small invertebrates. Young birds prefer feeding their young with live food rather than dried-up items.

Do not give captive baby sparrows earthworms. It’s harmful to birds to have earthworms because they contain something poisonous. Instead, try providing the tiniest crickets. You might also consider offering whole insects, such as those sold for reptiles like bearded dragons, as a food option. For supplies, check your local pet shop.

Another alternative is to sell clean white maggots, which can be found in fishing shops. Once again, the maggot should only be fed when its stomach is devoid of food. Because the black line in a maggot’s belly indicates where he has eaten, wait until this line disappears before feeding the baby bird.

Step 3

Combine live foods with a vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure that your pet gets all of the essential nutrients. Supplements such as Nutrobal or Cricket Diet Calcium Paste, which are available from pet retailers, can help guarantee balanced nutrition if the live food is insufficient.

Step 4

Repot the sparrow every few weeks. Feed the bird on a regular basis. Place food on tweezers straight into the sparrow’s open beak, or in a shallow dish if it is old enough. It takes around two weeks for a newborn sparrow to develop robust enough to feed himself.

If the bird is tiny and has few feathers, feed it every half hour. Feed the animal if it’s older. When hungry, the bird will chirp and yawn, and when full, it will cease eating.

Step 5

Offer the bird some water in a budgie sipper bottle, but only after it has accepted the drink. Young birds are poor drinkers from a short container. This is likely to result in water intoxication.

Step 6

When you’re feeding the bird as it gets bigger, change the food you give it. Continue to feed the wet dog or cat food when the baby is young, but add a variety of different foods for the bird to select from as it grows older. When a young bird is strong enough to feed itself, it no longer needs a wild bird seed feeder. Place the seed in a shallow dish so that the bird may begin feeding as soon as possible.

What Are The Natural Predators of Baby Sparrows?

House sparrows are relatively safe from predators since they prefer to nest in and around human dwellings. Crows, jays, grackles, and certain tiny raptor species may eat house sparrow eggs, hatchlings, and adults. House sparrows are attacked by gray and red squirrels. However, domestic cats are the main predators of adult house sparrows.

The House Sparrow is a dangerous, invasive species that may be found almost everywhere on the planet. Their aggressiveness toward other birds, propensity to form defensive flocks, capacity to reproduce rapidly, appetite for a variety of foods, and nesting close to humans have aided them in spreading across almost all of Earth’s continental regions. According to certain data, house sparrow populations appear to be declining, but it is anticipated that they will continue to be a common and abundant species throughout their current territories.

House sparrows are hunted and fed upon by a variety of owls and hawks. Cooper’s hawks, snowy owls, merlins, eastern screech owls, and many other species are among them. Cats, raccoons, domestic dogs, and many other animals are predators of nesting youngsters or eggs. House sparrows avoid being spotted and eaten by foraging in groups of two to ten individuals, which offers a lot of eyes to keep an eye out for predators.

How To Protect Baby Sparrows From Predators?

To keep birds safe, keep cats indoors as much as possible. If your cat goes outside, attach a bell strap to them as a warning to avians or try not to let them out during the morning peak feeding time. If they bring home a bird, do not praise the cat or give them treats since this will be regarded as an indication that they should make you happy again. Do not offer food to strays that hang around in your yard and eat birds.

When dogs are allowed outside, keep an eye on them to guard against any potential bird harm. If your dog brings you a bird, don’t give him a pat on the back.

Keep feeders at least 10-12 feet from shrubs and natural cover to prevent birds from colliding with windows. Also, keep bird feeders at least 10-12 feet away from bushes or other natural coverage. It also allows birds to keep an eye out for predators who may be hiding in the trees or shrubs. It also offers a secure refuge that is close enough for birds to flee to if they detect danger.

Are Baby Sparrows Healthy To Eat?

The flesh of every bird is comparable to chicken or a turkey, so eating just about any bird is deemed safe. However, whether these birds are feeding on clean food must be considered. The majority of sparrows are discovered trapped in rubbish, searching for nourishment.

Because sparrows aren’t particularly clean, you can’t go out and capture one off the streets or in your backyard since you don’t know where they’ve been and what they’ve eaten. They could even be infested with disease!

You may also collect and maintain a few of them in cages, which will allow you to watch what they eat and give them the appropriate nutrients. But eating sparrow meat is a lot of effort for little pleasure.

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What is a Baby Sparrow's Diet?

By Betty Lewis

i David De Lossy/Photodisc/Getty Images

The house sparrow is the most common of North America's 35 sparrow species. Generally, he eats a lot of grains and seeds, but will enjoy the protein of insects during the summer. A baby sparrow's diet depends on what mom and dad feed it; where they live affects the menu options.

Wild Child

A baby sparrow eats whatever his parents give him to eat, which means he's eating the same things they are. The house sparrow is opportunistic in his dining, eating whatever's available. Commercial birdseed and discarded food will work, as do various grasses, ragweed and seeds he comes across. He'll indulge in insects in the summer, such as caterpillars and grasshoppers. Other sparrows, such as field sparrows, forage for seeds and insects on the ground. Mom and dad regurgitate their food finds to feed to their nestlings.

Orphaned Baby?

If you come across a baby sparrow in your yard, pause a moment before deciding he's in distress. A fledgling, which is a baby bird with his feathers, may be on the ground because he's learning to fly. If the baby doesn't have feathers, you can return him to his nest -- despite the myth, his parents won't abandon him because of human touch. If there's no nest, or you determine the baby sparrow needs your assistance, a proper diet is important to putting him on the path to independence.

Home Cooking

Baby birds grow quickly and require protein to grow properly. Mom and dad take care of their nestlings' protein requirements with insects, but you can use cat food to meet the baby sparrow's protein needs. Soak one cup of cat food in enough water to make it mushy and add 1/4 cup of applesauce, one chopped hard-boiled egg, a crushed calcium carbonate tablet and avian vitamins, dosed according to the package. Mix everything together with enough water to give the mixture the consistency of cooked oatmeal. Freezing the mixture in ice cube trays gives you a fresh inventory of food on hand, so you can thaw only what you need. Chopsticks or plastic forceps make good feeding utensils.

How Much How Often

A baby sparrow should gain weight daily to get ready to fly. If his eyes are closed and he's featherless, he'll need fed every 15 to 20 minutes, dawn to dusk. When he starts growing feathers and his eyes are open, feeding can occur every 30 to 45 minutes during the same time. As he grows, the time between feedings and the amount you feed can increase. When he's hopping out of the nest, he can be fed once an hour; by the time he's confident outside the nest, every two or three hours is sufficient. Try leaving food by his bowl when he's about a month old, though he won't be weaned for another few weeks. If he continually refuses to eat, call a vet or wildlife rehabilitation center.

To Do, and Not to Do

Avoid pasta and bread products, which are empty calories and won't help him grow, as well as dairy products because baby birds don't handle lactose well. If he's well hydrated, the inside of his mouth will look moist; if he's dehydrated, his skin may look reddish. Don't give him drops of water in his mouth because he can inhale them and drown. Instead, use Gatorade as a hydrating fluid, dipping your fingers in it and placing drops on his beak.

References

2ndChance.info: Caring for Orphan Wild Baby Birds
StarlingTalk.com: Baby Starling & Sparrow Care
Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds: House Sparrow
WildlifeHotline.com: Raising Baby Sparrows & Starlings
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Field Sparrow Habitat Model

Photo Credits

How to feed a chick that has fallen out of the nest

Tying materials (7)

Happiness fell on your head?

How not to harm?

How to create all conditions for survival?

Where to settle?

What difficulties will you face?

How to feed a chick?

Chick formula recipe

Happiness fell on your head?

Have you suddenly found a chick that has fallen out of the nest in the dacha, near the house or even on the balcony? Is there anything you can do to help this kid? Or is he already doomed? Help the chick, most often you can. And we will tell you how to do it.

How not to harm?

When you find a chick that has fallen out of the nest, do not rush to grab it in your hands. Perhaps there is a chance to return the baby to the nest. But if you take it with "bare" hands, your parents will not accept it back.

Pay attention to how the chick looks. If he is active, mobile and he already has feathers, then most likely you have the so-called “fledgling”. And if you find a fledgling in the park, in the garden, in the country - where he can hide and predators will not find him, then just do not touch. Parents continue to feed the fledglings! He will not be abandoned, he will simply hide, and he will be fed in the same way as the chicks left in the nest. The chick's parents have a much better chance of saving the chick than you.

If you see a nest from which the baby has fallen out, you can carefully take the chick with a handkerchief and put it back into the nest.

If you didn't find the nest, the chick is very small and leaving it where it is found is very dangerous, you will have to take it with you. For such cases - our following instructions.

How to create all conditions for survival?

There are two main factors that determine whether your chick will survive or not. The first factor is age. Chicks under the age of 4 - 5 days, having fallen out of the nest, almost never survive. Do you know how old the chick is? If the baby is still “naked”, without plumage, then he is definitely not yet 8-12 days old. It is very simple to calculate: if at the time of falling out of the nest the chick was 5 days old, then by the 8th day it should already have feathers. It is at the age of 8 - 12 days that the chicks are called "fledglings" - during this period they are very active and often fall out.

The second circumstance is metabolism. Chicks have an incredibly active metabolism. Left without food during daylight hours for 3-4 hours, they literally burn their internal resources. That is, if the baby was on the ground without food before you found him for more than 3 hours, his metabolism is probably already disturbed. You can start feeding him and he will look like everything is fine. But the metabolic disorder will not “pass away”, irreversible processes are already underway inside the small organism, and within 3 days (maximum) the chick will die quite suddenly.

The main conclusion is that the critical period is 3 days. If within 3 days the chick suddenly dies - it's not your fault, and you really could not do anything. It's all about age and metabolism. If the baby has lived with you for more than 3 days, then everything depends only on your efforts. This is especially important if the bird was picked up by children. Explain to them right away that during the first 3 days you should not give the chick a name and place high hopes on its survival.

Where to settle?

Place the chick in a box lined with a soft, lint-free cloth or dry grass. Do not keep the box in the open sun or in a draft. Keeping a box on the floor is a bad idea. If it's cold outside, place a plastic bottle of warm water under the fabric.

What difficulties will you face?

Deciding to take a chick and feed it, you take responsibility for its life and a huge number of worries. Firstly, the chick squeaks almost all the time during daylight hours. Secondly, the chick needs to be fed every 20 minutes. And don't just give him food. And feed enough. When the chick is full, he stops opening his mouth. When hungry, it stretches its neck and opens its huge mouth.

As soon as the chick has eaten, it begins to move backwards. The reflex makes him go all the way to the edge of the nest to stick his butt out and poop. Usually, adult birds pick up the "capsule" and carry it away from the nest. If the nest is soiled with droppings, predators will quickly find it by smell.

By the way, by the litter you can tell if you feed the chick too often. If too often, a protein film - a shell - does not have time to form on the litter. If the litter spreads, and does not resemble a capsule, it is time to feed the bird less often.

How to feed a chick?

Birds feed their young mainly on insects. So, if you have somewhere in the far corner of the kitchen cabinet a bag of cereals in which moths are wound up, the chick is lucky. For the first time, you are provided with worms. Meal worms, ant cocoons, fly larvae are also suitable.

Older chicks can be given boiled egg yolk, cottage cheese and carrots. The yolk should be grated on a fine grater, the cottage cheese should be washed in a sieve under running water, the carrots should be grated on a fine grater. Don't forget about vitamins and minerals. Remember: only insects can feed a chick. Only "regular" products without additives - no.

Food can be given with tweezers. Touch his head, wait for the chick to open its mouth, give it food. The younger the chick, the easier it is to develop a reflex for begging for food. At an older age, he will begin to hide from you with tweezers, and then generally run away. This is fine. Fledgling you will most likely have to force-feed the first few times. Gradually, the baby will learn to fill up. And when he learns to eat on his own, you will need to buy a more spacious cage, on which you can run and fly.

Don't forget to water the chick after each pipetting. 1-2 drops will be enough.

Chick formula

1 carrot, peeled and grated. Squeeze out the juice as much as possible. Grate the boiled egg on a fine grater and add to the carrots. Disassemble the boiled chicken breast into small fibers. Add very finely chopped greens (not spices!!!) salad or dandelion leaves. Add non-acidic and non-greasy cottage cheese washed in running water. Add 2 tbsp. l . crumbly millet porridge without salt butter. Add 1 hr. l . dry food for fish (gammarus or daphnia). Add calcium glycerophosphate (at the rate of 1 tablet per liter of the finished mixture), as well as 1 ⁄ 2 tsp. l . ground eggshell. The mixture should be crumbly, it should not stick to your fingers.

How to save a chick that has fallen out of the nest | Encyclopedia of Animals

With the advent of warm weather, our forests and gardens are filled with bird songs, and people, in turn, try to spend as much time as possible outdoors. During outdoor recreation, helpless chicks are often found. Naturally, there is a desire to save the life of a baby, but not everyone knows how to save a chick that has fallen out of the nest. Let's see how we can help him.

To save or not to save - that is the question

The first thought that arises when looking at a fledgling and flightless chick is “fell out of the nest”, “lost” and even “parents abandoned and forgot”. In fact, the chick is alone, no brothers, sisters, or adult birds are visible nearby, and it also screams loudly. How can you help here? But the fact of the matter is that help in 95% of cases in such situations is not needed.

The fact is that in many birds (primarily small passerines) chicks leave the nest as half-fledged fledglings. During this period of life, they still do not know how to fly, but they are already actively exploring the surrounding space - they climb branches, clumsily flit. It is these rather active chicks that fall into the field of human vision. It is easy to determine the fledgling in appearance: it is feathered or covered with rudiments of unopened feathers; the chick is quite large (about 50-70% of the size of a sparrow), it is often active, that is, it opens its mouth and asks for food. Parents did not abandon this chick, but simply flew away for food. Of course, while you are standing next to the chick, they will not make themselves felt. And if you stay too long, then there is a chance that the parents will leave him out of concern.

Even if the chick looks too small and helpless, don't rush to classify it as an orphan. Birds such as warblers, warblers, larks, wagtails nest on the ground, their chicks spend their entire childhood on the grass. Your presence in this situation is also undesirable because magpies and crows track human behavior. Smart birds can check after you leave what you saw there, find and kill the chick. Hence the conclusion: do not "save" everything that catches your eye. If the chick is dry, warm, active, well feathered, then he does not need help.

What if the situation causes concern? Perhaps the chick is too weak or obviously fell out of the nest from a great height and cannot be returned to its parents. In this case, you can try to save him, but keep in mind that the likelihood of success will be directly proportional to your diligence, and you will have to put in a lot of work.

What to do first

Quickly and carefully inspect the place where you found the chick, remember how it looks. In some cases, this will help determine the type of bird.
Pick up the chick (don't squeeze too hard!) and bring him home as soon as possible.
On the way, inspect the chick for damage. If the bird has clearly visible fractures of the paws, wings, concussion (how to define it a little lower), then you can’t do without a veterinarian. It is highly desirable to seek help from a veterinarian who specializes specifically in the treatment of birds (unfortunately, such specialists are extremely rare). If there are no obvious signs of a fracture, and the general condition of the chick is satisfactory, then it is better not to torment him, but simply to provide good conditions - nature will do its job and he will recover.
Providing a chick with food as soon as possible is even more important than furnishing a home for it.

Now a few words on how to define contusion. Usually, chicks get severe bruises either from hitting the ground or when they collide with cars. At the same time, the bird has no wounds on the outside, but a concussion is observed. True signs of this condition are bleeding from the nostrils, paralysis of both legs or paralysis of half of the body (paw and wing on one side), closure of one eye, or unequal degree of pupil dilation on the injured and healthy side of the body.

What to feed

You may think that feeding a chick is easy - crumble bread and crumble. But here you will find disappointment number 2. Chicks do not eat bread, crackers, porridge, cereals, seeds. They don't eat at all. Even the chicks of granivorous birds do not take dry food at first. And the reason is that the growing organism needs proteins, therefore, in nature, even granivorous birds feed their offspring with animal food and exceptionally soft food. You will have to do the same. Pigeons are the only exception. They feed the chicks with goiter secretions - bird's milk, and then with semi-digested grains. If you picked up a pigeon chick, then you can feed it with unsalted porridge, gradually reducing the degree of cooking. In other cases, the best food for the chick is mealworms, cockroaches, crickets, darkling larvae - zoophobus (all these foods are sold in pet stores), earthworms (you can dig up), caterpillars (you will have to collect), a boiled egg (only as an additional food, and not a substitute for anything and everything). Even if you have provided the chick with the listed food, it is recommended to periodically catch bugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, flies, mosquitoes and give these insects to him, because the more varied the diet, the healthier your ward will grow. Very weak chicks should be given glucose-sweetened water (not sugar syrup!), instead of solid food, for the first few hours.

What not to feed the chicks

dead insects - no matter what species they belong to and wherever you find them. In nature, insects almost never live to old age, rather someone will eat them. If you find a dead cockroach behind the stove or a dead locust in the garden, do not rush to rejoice. Most likely, this individual died from an insecticide, which means that the poison from the feed can enter the body of the chick and greatly harm its already poor health;
Colorado potato beetles - adults, larvae and eggs are poisonous in this species. They are not eaten by any species of birds, so this easily accessible resource will have to be forgotten;
ladybugs - they secrete a moderately toxic liquid, in nature a bird that has caught such a bug by mistake will spit it out. In captivity, especially in the case of force-feeding the chick, he does not have the opportunity to refuse harmful food, so he can get poisoned;
hairy caterpillars - firstly, they can be poisonous, and secondly, the villi during feeding can clog the chick's goiter and it will die. Although cuckoos and orioles can eat in the temperate hairy strip, it is still better to play it safe and not use this food;
brightly colored bugs - in nature, many birds willingly peck at such insects, but this mainly concerns nondescript turtle bugs. The back of the bug, decorated with bright spots or stripes, is of a warning nature - "do not eat me, it will be worse for you." For safety net, it is not necessary to catch such specimens for the chick.

How to feed

The main thing you should know from the very beginning is that birds have a very high metabolism, and small chicks have a huge metabolic rate. Any food eaten by the chicks is digested very quickly and they need to be fed again and again. In nature, parents jointly feed the brood 100-500 times a day! This means that every 10-15 minutes the chick needs to be fed. And don't expect to overtrain him! A chick deprived of food instantly weakens, a couple of hours of hunger is enough for it to die. You will have to provide the baby with constant supervision, feed him at first every 15 minutes, and when he grows up a little, after 20-30. But you need to take a break at night, but start the first feeding no later than 6 o'clock in the morning! Evening feeding is completed around sunset, that is, around 22.00.

It is more convenient to bring food with tweezers. In general, tactile contact should be kept to a minimum, frequent touching is stressful for the tiny creature, and it worsens the condition of down and feathers. If the chick is very small and naked, then it is not necessary to give it a whole large insects. In this case, it is better to cut them with tweezers and feed them in pieces. It is also recommended to remove hard elytra from large beetles, long legs from grasshoppers and locusts. Often the chicks refuse to take any food. This happens because they do not recognize you as their mother, or they are so weak that they have lost their appetite. In this case, you will have to force-feed the ward. To do this, you need to crush the food and fill it with a syringe without a needle (you can add a couple of drops of water to dilute the mixture). Take the bird in your left hand and gently spread its beak with your fingers, insert a syringe into its mouth with your right hand and squeeze out about 1 cm³ of slurry. Do not overdo it! In tiny chicks, the beak is easily broken, and this is already a fatal injury. For greater convenience, a flexible tube can be put on the end of the syringe.

Where to house

If the first difficulties do not dampen your enthusiasm, then you should provide a shelter in your home for the chick. First of all, you need to make a nest.

Take a deep bowl or cardboard box with a rim about 10 cm high. Fill this container with sawdust, dry clean sand, hay, straw, scraps of cloth, make a recess in the middle that imitates the nest tray. Do not fill the container with fresh grass, raw material can cause hypothermia of the chick, because there is no one to warm it in an artificial house. By the way, if you are seriously engaged in rescue, you can purchase a small thermal mat at the pet store, it will to some extent replace the mother's warmth for your pupil. Also, cotton wool, yarn, fabrics with a rare weave of threads can be considered dangerous fillers. The paws of a chick are easily tangled in such material, and a tightened thread can even amputate the fingers of a feathered baby. Lay a paper napkin in the tray in 2-3 layers. Chicks defecate as often as they eat; in nature, their parents monitor their hygiene and take the litter out of the nest. You just need to change the napkin after each feeding. So, the nest is ready.

Now we need to think about security. In the house of the savior, stupid children, blind-sighted grandmothers, dogs, cats can live, and there are also curious neighbors who have dropped in for a minute. All these creatures threaten the life of a little chick: children can grab it and squeeze it in a fist (certain death), dogs and cats can arrange a hunt (you won’t even find feathers), a blind grandmother will sit by chance on a box (well, don’t execute the old woman for this), and noisy neighbors can accidentally knock it over (“Tanya, I’ll come to you for a second for salt, oh, it seems that something has fallen here!”). To prevent trouble, it is better to place the nest in a cage or an aquarium covered with gauze. In the cage, do not try to put the chick on the perch, do not place it in closed containers (jars, etc.). Don't nest on high ground. The fact is that a weak chick can get stronger and, unexpectedly for you, will go to explore the surrounding space. He is guaranteed to fall out of his shelter and, unlike the forest and the meadow, it will not be soft grass waiting for him at the bottom, but the floor. You should not put the box with the chick in the sun, so you will not warm it, and the helpless bird is guaranteed to get sunstroke and may die. Drafts are very dangerous.

Do chicks need water?

In nature, chicks of passerine birds do not need water, as they get enough moisture with food. After all, adult birds do not bring them water in their beaks. At home, you can do without watering the chick if you follow the diet, that is, you give a variety of, and most importantly, “wet” food - earthworms, fatty juicy caterpillars. Flies, cockroaches, crickets (they are most often bought in a store) can be conditionally classified as “dry” food. They do not give the chick enough moisture. In this case, he can instill a few drops of liquid from a pipette, but do this not at every feeding, but a little less often. Please note that shell-shocked chicks should not be given water.

What to do next?

Fortunately, the chicks grow quickly and the period of trouble soon passes, in a week or two your ward may be completely stronger. In order for the feeding process to be completed successfully, do not forget to gradually accustom the chick to adult food.