Rescued Bird

It's that time of year when little fledgling birds are learning how to fly. Unfortunately, with four cats, there are bound to be fledglings who become kitty toys.  While I was cleaning Rocky's cage Friday, one such occurrence almost happened.  A fledgling goldfinch was fluttering all over the place--right around the hose.  Unfortunately, Jinx and Jezzy were nearby. I thought I was going to have a hostage situation, but fortunately enough, the little goldfinch flew into a tree in the backyard and stayed there. Close call!

Not five minutes later, here comes Itty Bitty with a baby bird in her mouth. Luckily, I retrieved it.  I'm not sure what type of bird it was, only that it was very small and couldn't quite fly yet.  I found a website that said if you found a fledgling to leave it be and the parents would come help it. Not likely in this case. So, I took it inside and put it in an extra cage I have. It also said to soak cat food in water and then mash it up and to feed the mixture to baby birds. So, this I did.

Baby bird did ok the first day but didn't eat much at all. The next day it was chirping every hour on the hour for food so I fed it every hour from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm when it decided it was roosting time. It slept all through the night. This morning, baby bird wasn't very chipper, felt a bit cold, and didn't want to eat. I deduced that it probably wasn't going to make it, but wanting to try everything in my power to give it a chance, I put it on a heating pad. But, that didn't save it. Baby Bird went to birdie heaven this morning. And while it makes me sad, I do know that I did everything in my power to save the little guy so I'm satisfied with that.

 

And hopefully, all the little fledglings will learn to fly soon and I won't have to rescue anymore of them. Fly birdies, fly!