Advise please

[Nutkin]

This is completely unrelated to squirells, but since I have learned to trust the people here, I thought maybe you can help point me in the right direction. I have been "mama" to a brown thrush since early June. I took him or her, not sure which, away from one of my cats and have raised Beeper. What I would love to be able to do is find someone in my area who can rehabilitate him. I do not trust the people at Oak Mt Wildlife Rescue as they would not help me when I aquired my rescue baby squirell Nut Nut two tears ago. They said she was too young to survive as she was about a day old, but they would "take care of her". I asked them what that meant, and they said they would feed her to their birds of prey. :nono Needless to say, I refuse to take them anything. I have tried searching the web, but have not found anything that has panned out. If anyone could recommend someone, I would really appreciate it. Beeper deserves to fly free, but I have no idea how to rehabilitate him and release around here is a no go due to an abundance of cats in the area. I live in the Birmingham, Alabama area. Thanks a bunch!

PS - Squirells RULE!! :Love_Icon

[Mars]

First question - is this bird imprinted upon you? Does it land on you? Is it overly friendly with people? Does it know to be afraid of cats and dogs?

Second is it flighted yet? Is it self feeding?

These things are important for us to determine if Beeper is really going to be releasable. Birds are not like squirrels. They don't wild up easily. They must be raised to be wild. That doesn't mean Beeper should end up as raptor food. I fully agree with you and would never give any critter to such a center or rehabber. Give us a better idea of where we are working from and we can help you either release Beeper or find a proper placement for him. :)

[Nutkin]

Beeper tends to like to be near people. He likes to be talked to, will accept food from myself and my husband, and will fly around you all day, but hates being touched. He will pop his beak, try to "bite" and fly if you try to have him sit on your finger and goes nuts if he thinks you are trying to pick him up. He flies beautifully and is becoming very difficult to catch when I let him out for flight in the mornings. I usually just have to either get lucky or wait until he is really tired from flying from room to room. The only experience he has had with dogs or cats is when Milkshake tried to eat him.
He eats a variety of foods including soaked cat food for protien, chopped fruits and veggies, and an occasional bit of egg. If you need any more information, please let me know. I sure appreciate you help!:thankyou

[Mars]

My first thought is to stop feeding him by hand. We don't want him approaching people because he expects to be fed. Which brings up my next question. Is he friendly around strangers or just you and your husband??

Next step to getting Beeper ready would be to feed as many natural foods from your area as you can. And make him look for them. Don't always feed him in the same spot every day. We need to see his ability to adapt.


There are two options here. 1) If Beeper is not one to approach strangers, is self feeding and able to adapt to changing situations I think you can plan to release Beeper yourself. There is no way to predict what this little ones chances are, there can be no promises. There never are in this business. But it also sounds like you have done a wonderful job raising him.

2) This option is to place Beeper at a aviary at a science center, audibon or nature center. I can give you a possible world wide listing for this purpose but hopefullly there is a place locally that would give him a home and good care and Beeper would become an education bird. In this case it will not matter if he approaches strangers or not. Actually he would adapt better if he is not stressed by strangers.

I hope this helps. :)

[susanw]

This is why it's not good to handle a releasable animal to much. Of course if you are hand feeding a baby, it's totaly different. We don't even take ours out of the cages to feed, unless it's a non-insect eating baby. We do soft releases on all our animals, get them adapted to the outside before just letting them go.

[Nutkin]

Thank you Mars and Susan for your help. Beeper is pretty friendly towards most people. They don't seem to bother him unless they try to touch him. Can you give me an idea of some natural foods for him? His beak suggests an insect eater, but I'm not sure that this is all he would eat normally. I would love to find him a place where he could live outside, relatively safe. If you could send me the list Mars, I would really appreciate it. By the way Susan, what part of the south are you located in? Anywhere close to Alabama? If you would rather not publish this info., I can send you my email address. Thanks!
Thanks so much for all your help and advise!!!:bowdown

[Mars]

is this your bird?

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/WOOTHR/



"Wood Thrushes may often be found near water where they forage for favored invertebrate prey such as beetles, flies, millipedes, earthworms, spiders, and sow bugs in the moist soil and fallen leaves. Most of their animal food is taken on the ground where leaves are overturned to expose hidden prey. They may also occasionally glean insects from the leaves of low shrubs and trees. In summer, 60 percent of the Wood Thrush diet consists of animal food. At all times of the year small fruits and berries are important, including the fruit of dogwood, spicebush, grape, blackberry, blueberry, holly, elderberry, Virginia creeper, and pokeberry. Young are fed both insects and berries."

If so try to create a tray or box of leaves and soil then release bugs or meal worms in it for him to hunt. He needs to be able to find food on his own.

:)

[Nutkin]

Thanks Mars, that sounds like my Beeper! I will see what I can do about helping him learn to hunt. I'll keep ya'll updated. Thanks a million!!!:D

[susanw]

Thank you Mars and Susan for your help. Beeper is pretty friendly towards most people. They don't seem to bother him unless they try to touch him. Can you give me an idea of some natural foods for him? His beak suggests an insect eater, but I'm not sure that this is all he would eat normally. I would love to find him a place where he could live outside, relatively safe. If you could send me the list Mars, I would really appreciate it. By the way Susan, what part of the south are you located in? Anywhere close to Alabama? If you would rather not publish this info., I can send you my email address. Thanks!
Thanks so much for all your help and advise!!!:bowdown


No, not that close. I'm in Florida.:wave123