Feeding and caring for baby birds
If you have nothing else, put some warm water in a small screw cap bottle, wrap in a flannel and use inside to warm the chick.
If they are bald or only partly feathered make a nest for them using a plastic dish and line with paper towelling.
A small soft toy can be added as a surrogate mother.
The first feed should not be given until the bird feels warm and looks reasonably alert.
Water birds will also need an incubator but with a towel covering a newspaper floor covering and a cotton mop-head to nestle in.
Ducks are self feeding, so once they are warm, they will need appropriate food and water in their incubator at all times.
Coots, moorhen, pheasant etc. also self feed but need to be offered small amounts of food hourly to make sure they get enough.
Please remember: Young pigeons are tube fed: - see pigeons information page
All swifts are tube fed: - see swifts information page
For birds that gape use a pair of plastic tweezers and offer the food in tiny amounts.
If very small they may need feeding half-hourly, remember too little food is safer than too much.
When caring for these little creatures you must feed at regular intervals for the 10 daylight hours.
Darken the cage until you want to feed: that way you can have a later, artificial dawn at 7 or 8am and feed until later in the evening.
For birds that gape use a clean pair of tweezers, wash well afterwards and store overnight in a pot of sterilising solution.
Pick up only tiny pieces of food to pop into their open beaks each time, too much food will make them choke.
dunnock & robin
nestlings
older robin chicks
Difficulty getting nestlings to gape
With long tweezers, very gently wipe half a freshly chopped maggot along the side of the beak, from hinge to tip, so the juice can be tasted.
You may have to repeat it a few times, with more maggots, but the chick should eventually open its beak a little and take it in.
If possible, dip the first maggot in 1 drop of Bach Rescue Remedy or a few drops of Critical Care solution to aid recovery.
Only open the beak manually as a last resort after trying the maggot technique for several minutes.
Remember -
Check that the birds produce a dropping each time you feed them.
Close the cage front when you take a patient out as the temperature soon drops and babies get cold quickly.
Be patient when feeding these helpless babies.
Concentrate on the job in hand; be sure they swallow each morsel before offering more food.
Do not over feed.
Handle them as little as possible and feed them inside the cage or incubator, rather than getting individual birds out.
If you can, weigh each bird daily when cleaning the cage. When they have fledged and begin to fly, it will be impossible.
Which food for which baby bird?
In an emergency, young birds can be given meat cat food mashed up finely with a few drops of water.
This can be offered in tweezers or on a cocktail stick or plastic coffee stirrer. Most young fledglings will gape and take some food.
If they refuse try making up a small amount of rehydration fluid such as Lectade or Critical Care.
Dab it gently onto the side of the beak with a tiny artist’s paintbrush or cotton wool bud; the bird should take some sips.
If shocked and frightened, add 1 drop of Bach Rescue Remedy or brandy to the fluid.
Emergency rehydration fluid: 1 tablespoon tepid, previously boiled water, 1 small pinch of sugar or glucose, 5 grains of salt.
SMALL BIRDS
Blue tits, Great tits, Long tailed tits
These are fed a mixture
offreshly chopped
maggots, mini mealworms and wax moth larvae at regular intervals for 10
hours of the day.
Very young nestlings need feeding ˝ hourly with tiny amounts of fresh
food.
As they grow larger& develop feathers you can change feeds to hourly and when eventually they begin feeding themselves, 2-hourly.
(First or last feed of the day should have a pinch of vitamin & mineral supplement)
In their cage, when ready to begin to feed themselves, tits should be given a small bowl of insectivorous food, (Sluis/Bogena or similar),
live maggots and /or small mealworms, plus a small bowl of water.
Tits will need to be hand fed with tweezers much longer than other garden birds.
Even when they are outside in an aviary and seem to be feeding themselves, they need to be hand fed at least 4 times a day.
They follow their parents around for 2-3 weeks being fed in the trees, so continue to offer food until they are all no longer interested.
Housemartins, swallows, wrens, robins, & other small-beaked birds
These are fed a mixture of finely chopped maggots, larvae, flies and mealworms. Feed half hourly / hourly depending on age.
(First feed of the day should have a pinch of vitamin & mineral supplement added)
In their cage, when ready to feed themselves, give a small bowl of sluis with flies killed by freezing and live maggots, plus a small bowl of water.
Swifts
NOTE: Please see the London's Swifts website for : Swift feeding
until I have devised a suitable liquid feed for tube-feeding fledglings. Cat biscuits have always been problematic as a basis for the feed, even when enriched with
freshly killed mealworm juices and liquidised white maggots and I recommend that the guidelines found on their site be used instead of the method previously outlined here.
MEDIUM SIZED BIRDS
Blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows, starlings, and finches
These are fed on a mixture of freshly chopped maggots, wax moth larvae and mealworms, mixed into a tiny bit of finely mashed cat food to bind them together.
Offer in plastic tweezers or a coffee stirrer at 1-2 hourly intervals, depending on the age.
(First feed of the day should have a pinch of vitamin & mineral supplement added)
In their cage when ready to feed themselves give a small dish of sluis and live maggots plus a dish of water.
They will show interest in the wiggly maggots and it encourages them to peck.
Finches and sparrows should be offered mixed small seeds such as millet as well as Sluis.
Woodpeckers
If young enough they will gape and can be fed freshly chopped maggots, mealworms, crickets etc. in tweezers or on a coffee stirrer.
If they are older and refuse to eat they should be tube fed a liquidised mix of fresh insect larvae until they begin to pick up food.
In the cage put small
dishes of egg food, insectivorous food
with live maggots or mealworms on top, a securely fixed peanut
feeder and fat ball,
plus a small
bowl of water.
They can then choose
what they want and are more likely to
thrive.
Pigeons and doves
Very young pigeons and doves with yellow feathers are fed Kaytee Exact or a parrot rearing food through a soft tube attached to a 5ml syringe.
Measure the tube against the bird's beak and neck to get an idea of the length needed and take great care not to force the tube down too far.
They need to be fed 2 hourly if very young.
Always check their crops before each feed. If the crop is not empty when the next feed is due, allow more time to digest their meal.
They must have warmth, quiet and food regularly supplied, whether by hand or placed in the cage for them to help themselves.
LARGE BIRDS
Crows, Jays, Jackdaws and Magpies
They are fed freshly
chopped mealworms, maggots and crickets rolled into small balls and
shreds of finely cut up up dead day
old chicks (including
bones and feathers). Food is offered in plastic tweezers or on a
plastic coffee-stirrer every 1-2 hours depending on age.
(First feed of the day
should have a pinch of vitamin &
mineral supplement added)
In their cage, when ready to feed themselves, give a small bowl of
finely
chopped chick, (including bones and feathers) plus a heavy bowl of
water.
Do not give the crow family low flat dishes to feed from, they stand in them and get foot problems.
Dishes must be placed to the side of the cage; if they are at the front the birds will stand in them and may develop foot problems.
Kestrel, Sparrow hawk, Owl
If fluffy feathers are still present, feed tiny pieces of chopped chick using tweezers. Avoid feeding beak, legs or egg sac until older.
Add a vitamin and calcium supplement daily; Nutrobal plus ACE vitamins or SA37 are suitable.
Feed 2-3 hourly to begin with and adjust accordingly as the bird gets older and more self-sufficient.
Leave a small dish of finely chopped chick or a small mouse in the cage last thing at night to encourage self-feeding.
WATER BIRDS
Coot, Lapwing and Moorhen
Hand feed chopped maggots and mealworms, also tiny pieces of chopped pond weed.
Provide a small bowl of sluis with a few live maggots/mealworms and a small bowl of pond water in the cage.
Cygnets, Ducklings and Goslings
These eat chick crumbs soaked in pond water with some duck weed if possible. Place this in bowls that are too small for them to sit in.
If they get wet at this early, fluffy stage they get cold and lethargic and are unable to feed.
They do not become waterproof until the adult feathers develop so need on their mother to provide warmth and stop them getting waterlogged.
They will need a towel over a layer of newspaper in their cage, a mop-head “Mummy” to cuddle up to and an overhead heat source.