***IMPORANT!***
Survival depends on following things in this order!
- Warmth, hydration, then food.
Never feed a cold dehydrated bird. Their digestive system will not work

***Never put liquids directly into the mouth of a wild bird, this includes parrot hand-feeding formula! Birds airway is directly at the back of their tongue and it is very easy to aspirate (put it into their lungs) and kill them***
NEVER FEED SONGBIRDS EXACT PARROT HANDFEEDING FORMULA!
I DON'T CARE WHAT THE PETSTORE TOLD YOU. THEY ARE WRONG!
Please report any petstore giving this information so we can contact and  properly educate.

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Determining Age of a Baby

Sparrow:   http://www.starlingtalk.com/growingup_album1.htm
Starling:   http://www.starlingtalk.com/inthenest.htm

Cat Caught?

For many years people thought that cat caught birds died of shock within 48 hours. It is only recently that rehabbers discovered that what they actually died of was pasteurella septicaemia. 90% of cats carry the pasteurella multocida bacteria in their saliva so the chances of infection are high and birds caught by cats will usually succumb to the septicemia. The birds can die before symptoms of infection become noticeable, which is why rehabbers will treat birds that are even suspected of having been caught by a cat immediately with amoxycillin

Is It Time To Help?

Does this bird really need help? Baby birds that have all their feathers are fledglings and are ready to leave the nest. They need to be on the ground a day or two as they learn to fly, their parents are taking care of them. Unfeathered babies can be returned to the nest, for it is not true that if you touch a baby bird the parents will abandon it. If the nest has been destroyed, you can make a new one using something such as a  box or basket; nail it close to where the original one was. You should put fully feathered babies in a bush or on a tree limb, and they should be just fine. You might want to ask any cat owning neighbors to keep the cats in for a day or two to give the baby birds a chance to learn how to fly. The exception to this would be if there is an injury or the baby has been in a cat's or dog's mouth, even if you don't see any marks on it. Cats and dogs have a bacteria in their saliva that can be fatal to baby birds if they are not treated with antibiotics. These birds need to be taken to a wildlife rehabber right away.

Warmth & Bedding
If the baby is not completely feathered, it needs to be kept warm. You may use a heating pad on low heat, however cover the pad with a towel. (Some approximate temperature ranges are: unfeathered chicks -- 90 degrees; chicks with some pin feathers -- 85 degrees; fully feathered chicks -- 75 degrees.) Place the baby bird into a small container such as a margarine tub lined with crumpled towels. It cannot get any traction on a smooth surface, and the legs sliding out from under it will cause splay leg. Then put the container with the baby in a box and set it on the heating pad. If the baby bird has no feathers you will then need to cover the box with another towel to help hold the heat in.

Hydration
Most of the wild baby birds that come into wildlife centers are dehydrated and suffering some degree of starvation. Babies who have been orphaned for a while will need to be hydrated before being given any food. To check hydration you can look inside the bird's mouth; it should look moist. A dehydrated bird will usually have reddish looking skin.Or you can pull the skin up on the back of their neck, and it should spring back as soon as you let it go. Unflavored Pedialyte or Lactated Ringers Solution are good hydration fluids. In a pinch you may make your own by boiling 1/4 cup Karo corn syrup (Starlings are sucrose intolerant so table sugar or molasses would not be good choices) to one cup water and adding a pinch of salt. Cool to lukewarm, dip your fingers into it and place drops on the top outside of the baby's beak. It will then be able to suck some in without the danger of aspiration. Or you can feed small slivers of fruit, without the skin, that has a high water content such as grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, plums, or cherries. Never put liquids directly into the mouth of a wild bird, this includes parrot hand-feeding formula. It is too easy for them to inhale the fluid, causing inhalation pneumonia or even drown.


Food for Baby Starlings and Sparrows
Never give a baby bird earthworms or fishing worms! Such worms can carry parasites that are harmful

Birds need a balanced diet of many different things.

Dog kibble or Mazuri insectivorous pellets. Fully soaked till squishy.  Place on paper towel before feeding so they are not dripping
Crickets- Frozen with the legs removed.( Stick bag of crickets in freezer. Once frozen, shake the bag to remove legs). Store bodies in the freezer, pull out and run under some warm water to thaw right before feeding.
Mealworms- drown worms in calcium and bird vitamins (cut worm in small pieces for smaller birds). Larger birds you can just crush the head of the worm with hemostats before you feed. Never feed a live mealworm. They bite.
wax worms- high in fat, only a few



Food can be blended in a magic bullet to fit in a syringe for the small birds. 1cc syringe and a  canula tip should be used (shown below).
This will be able to deliver the food straight into the crop, by-passing the danger zone of the airway on their tongue. Extreme caution needs to be used not to rupture the crop! Do not use anything that has had the end cut off! The edges will be sharp and tear the crop.
See video below

Very Small babies will need a very small tube. IV catheters work great. The pink smaller one is a 20 gauge, the larger orange one is a 14 gauge. And the last image is the white teat canula tip.

 Planted




A baby without feathers will need to be fed every 20 to 30 minutes over a period of at least 12 hours a day. A healthy baby should start begging for food after you have fed him a few times. To help get a feeding response try tapping on the container he is in, or tapping lightly on the top of his beak. Older babies will take longer to start gaping, and may need to be force fed a few times before they come to accept you as a source for food. I feed from the time I wake up until I go to bed.

Babies starting to feather need to be fed every 45 minutes or so, and a fully feathered baby can go an hour or two without feeding. Feed as much as the baby wants. You will not overfeed him, as he will stop begging for food when he is full.

IMPORTANT RELEASING TIPS
Once self feeding, you can add broccoli florets and other various fruits vegetables and seeds to their normal above diet.
Birds need to spend several weeks in a large outdoor aviary building up flight muscles and going though an acclimation molt. When birds go from an unnatural indoor environment, to outdoors, they will go through a hard molt, dropping lots of feathers and look horrible for a while. This is why you can NOT release a bird you have raised indoors. They will not be able to fly well or have proper waterproofing during a hard molt and will die if not protected.  Any outdoor enclosure MUST be made of material such as 1/4 hardware cloth to protect the bird from predators. Store bough bird cages are not acceptable or safe. Predators can easily rip a bird right through the bars. Shade cloth and screen mesh can then be placed on the inside panels to prevent feathers from being damaged on the wire. All birds need PERFECT wing and tail feathers to be released. No exceptions. They will not survive without them.
Planting bird safe plants like nasturtium in the aviary will help their natural foraging instincts. Begin to hide the bugs in some dirt, leaves, rocks, and bring in as much safe natural environment enrichment as possible.

A baby raised alone, is not releasable

Human imprinting is a horrific problem we rehabbers see way too much of when the public tries to raise wildlife on their own.
Animals raised alone and improperly from babies, can not be released. They will have no idea how to be wild and will not survive.