A nest in the wisteria on our house was just attacked by a crow, who carried of one baby and knocked the other from the nest. The robin is mostly feathered, but not yet ready to fledge. I would have left him, but we have cats. I cut down the empty nest (it was too close to the house anyways) and put it in a cat carrier. I fed it two worms which it ate. Should I feed it something else? How much should eat eat? Will it stop eating when it has had enough? Any help would be great!

-- Elizabeth (Lividia66@aol.com), June 19, 2001

Answers

raw hamburger and make sure he gets water.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), June 19, 2001.

No, it wont stop eating when it's had enough and you will blow it up. Trust me, I've done it. I would think two worms would be plenty. As long as you can get worms I would feed them. Maybe not more than one or two a day. If you can get ahold of a wildlife rehabilitator you might ask them, although I've found them to be completely unhelpful in these type situations. Maybe you'll have better luck.

-- Julie (julieamc@eagleslair.net), June 19, 2001.

I've given the babies (we found another) to our vet, who has a rehabilitator on staff. Thanks for the help, though!

-- Elizabeth (Lividia66@aol.com), June 19, 2001.

Just got done raising 3 baby starlings! Son contracted to demolish an old carriage house; when the backhoe knocked one wall out, these 3 babies, no feathers at all, fell to the ground - he said, "MOM....", what could I do? Had to try. Took them home & put in a styrofoam box with lid (holes cut out for air), heating pad set on low on bottom of box, then layers of newspapers, then layers of paper towel. Fed them (with a plastic eye dropper with end cut off so it was wide)a mix of corn meal, oat meal, hard-boiled egg yolk & milk (blended) to start. Nearly starved them the first day, then used a timer and fed them every half hour from then on, a couple of eyedroppersfull each, from 6:00 am to about 8:00 pm. (Tried to think like a mama bird - she wouldn't feed them after dark, and they always settled down and never peeped after dark.) Took them with me everywhere, work, shopping, my birthday party, EVERYWHERE! In about a week, took the heating pad out (they were panting one day!), and added some canned & dry cat food to mixture, and eliminated milk; used water instead. They feathered out, grew big, I got a huge birdcage at garage sale & they loved it. After two & 1/2 weeks, they were flying out when I'd lift the lid of the cage, so I knew it was time. Took them to a place where we camp (landlocked, no cars, no cats, etc), fed them one last time, lifted the lid, and they were gone into the surrounding trees in a second flat! We could hear them calling all that day, and the smallest one kept flying back to the picnic table or car, but wouldn't let me catch him. Finally in the evening, he let me catch him and feed him one more time. Next morning he came back and perched on the car for awhile, but then he must have joined his siblings. Saw him on the ground eating ants or whatever, so felt better about the food situation - had lots of guilt about not being able to teach them to eat for themselves. Couldn't figure out why only one came back until I remembered that when I first picked them up off the ground, two had their eyes open and had already "imprinted" with their mother, the smallest still had his eyes shut and must have imprinted with me! They were tough little birds, thank God, and really taught me a lot! I'm glad I had the experience.

Only other bird I ever raised was a pidgeon that the kids brought home about 30 years ago, no feathers yet, but fed him & raised him, and what a pet! After he was big enough to put outside, he would fly to the screen door in the morning, come inside, drink coffee out of my cup, & fly to the sink where I'd turn on the tap so he could take a "shower"! He also perched on the car a lot, and would fly after us when we got in the car and drove away!

I've been lucky - robins are probably a lot harder to raise.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), June 20, 2001.

Dry catfood with warm water. Let the catfood swell with the water and mash. Feed babies with eydropper. Don't give them worms as this will sometimes kill them until they are older. Cat food has meat byproducts and grains and plenty of protein according to the vet. Feed during daylight hours Every 20 minutes and let hem sleep at night. Raised a robin last year. She came back to have her family this year!

-- Peg (Ashlinep@localnet.com), June 27, 2001.