How to feed a chick at home. How to feed a chick that has fallen out of a bird's nest. When to save a sparrow fledgling or chick

As the weather warms up, birds begin to nest in our area. A young generation of birds appears, and the districts are filled with bird chirping and large flocks. And among this spring paradise, only one thing worries many people. As the chicks grow up, they begin to jostle in the nest and, as a result, fall out of it onto the ground. And often this is certain death. What to do with a chick that has fallen out of the nest?

Let's try to help

While outdoors during walks in nature, people often see chicks fluttering on the ground. If the chick falls out of the nest, what should you do? Can a person help? The chick is alone, squeaking, trying to shout to its parents, and there are no birds nearby. The reflex reaction is to help the unfortunate person.

Don't torture nature

If a sparrow chick falls out of the nest, what should you do? Unfortunately, nothing can be done about this. The problem is that in the vast majority of cases, help is not needed in such a situation. This is a necessary stage in the development of many birds (mainly small passerines). Their chicks leave their nests as half-fledged birds. At this time, they are not yet able to fly, but they are already quickly mastering the space around them - they jump from branch to branch, flutter awkwardly. It is precisely these rather lively chicks that people see while walking.

This is what a sparrow chick looks like.

Signs of "fidgety"

What to do if the chick falls out of the nest? It is not difficult to identify a young sparrow that has fallen from the nest by its appearance: it is already feathered or still covered with growing feathers; The chick is quite large (half the size of an adult sparrow). He is often very lively, opens his mouth and asks for food. The parents did not leave their chick, but only flew away to get food. Of course, while people are near the chick, adult birds will hide. And if you wander around the area for a long time, it is quite possible that the parents may leave the baby to fend for itself.

Small birds

When the chick seems very small and helpless, do not try to help it. Chicks should not be taken home and attempted to be raised like kittens or puppies. What to do if the chick falls out of the nest? There is no need to touch the bird, pick it up or otherwise try to help. Birds such as warblers, warblers, larks, and wagtails create their nests on the ground, and their babies spend the first time in the grass. The presence of people in this regard is undesirable due to the fact that magpies and crows watch the movements of people and can see where they went, track down and kill the chick. Better to leave. If the chick is dry, warm, active, and well-feathered, it does not require help.

Swallow chicks

In the middle zone of the non-black earth region, where most of European Russia is located, other birds, such as swallows, also build nests. Our area is inhabited mainly by the so-called coastal swallows, which live on the banks of reservoirs. Such birds can set up nests in the roofs of houses and gardens, where they will later hatch several chicks.

If swallow chicks fall out of the nest, what should you do? The reasons for chicks falling out of the nest are still little known. According to one version, this can happen through negligence; according to another, parents throw the weakest ones out of the nest so that the rest have more food.

Based on this, it is necessary to act. First you need to put the chick back in its nest. It is important not to hold it in your hands for long. If the bird smells like a human, the parents will not take it in anyway.

If you were unable to place the baby in the nest and you are not afraid of “parental” troubles, you can take the swallow chick with you while it grows up. Taking care of birds will not let you get bored.

The grown chicks will fly away to build their own lives. There is no need to rush them and throw them up. Bird reflexes themselves will tell the kids the time to be in the air. This is what a swallow chick looks like.

Swifts

And if the swift chicks fall out of the nest, what should you do? First you need to determine their approximate age. Chicks and very young swifts can be distinguished from others by small white edges at the end of their feathers, as well as a light spot on the neck.

Most often, chicks fall out for various reasons. And this is where human help is really needed. When you see that this is a chick, don’t pass by, take it home. The main task is to feed the bird until it is ready to fly on its own. This, depending on the age at which you got the chick, will take several days or weeks, a maximum of a month. Swifts grow quite slowly and, as a rule, become “flightable” six weeks after emergence. However, unlike other chicks, young swifts do not need to be taught - all the necessary skills are inherent in them at the genetic level. This is what a swift chick looks like.

Blackbirds

Blackbirds are useful and interesting birds. But if a blackbird chick falls out of the nest, what should you do? First of all, don't worry. Blackbirds, like other passerines, develop very quickly. For chicks, childhood is divided into two periods: the first - in the nest, the second - on the ground.

It is very easy to see chicks in the thick grass in summer. Having been born after 15-20 days, they strive to get out of the nest into the grass. They don't need people's help. The chicks are in the grass, hiding from predators, waiting for their parents to fly in to feed them, and growing. This is their usual life. Remember that in most cases there is no need to save anyone.

Even if there is immediate danger, for example, your cat decided to diversify its diet or a broken wing, you can take the chick home. But keep in mind that you will have to look after (feed, water, clean the cage) the baby yourself. Birds in captivity are completely helpless. And one more thing - the blackbirds brought may well remain in the house, delighting you with their unique singing for several more years. This is what a blackbird chick looks like.

Seagulls

Another bird species that people constantly encounter is seagulls. They live almost everywhere where humans have set foot. There are approximately 20 species of sea and river gulls in Russia, and everyone has probably seen these voracious birds or at least heard their piercing screams. It is not uncommon for seagull chicks to fall out of the nest. What to do?

This is a very difficult question. And the answers from nature lovers and ornithologists are very different. But in any case, if you find a gull chick and see that it is healthy, try to put it back in the nest. Birds live in colonies, you can just give him there. Without adults, it will be difficult for the chick to survive.

If you see signs of various diseases or damage, you can take him in, although it will be difficult. Seagulls are not domestic birds, and it is almost impossible to accustom them to life in the house. But if you manage to cure and raise a seagull to adulthood, then your life has not been lived in vain. This is what a seagull chick looks like.

Help Wanted

What to do if the chick falls out of the nest? If the situation is critical and you see that the chick may die (regardless of the type of bird), then you have to save it. But you must follow some rules:

Carefully, but in a very short time, inspect the location of the chick. Sometimes this makes it possible to identify the type of bird.
Pick up the bird (carefully) and quickly bring it into the house.
Along the way, inspect the chick for damage. If the baby has clearly visible broken paws, wings, or a blow to the head, then medical help cannot be avoided. In this case, it would be good to seek help from an ornithologist.
If there are no signs of physical damage, and the general condition of the chick is normal, then it is better not to touch it, but only provide food and shelter - nature will heal itself and it will recover.
Having brought the chick home, you need to protect it, for safety reasons, from contact with other animals.

What to feed

There is a popular misconception that birds can be fed regular plant foods. Alas, if it is not a pigeon, then live insects will be normal food. So get ready. Either you need to run to the pet store for worms, larvae and something else like that, or catch/dig/collect wild insects. Don't feed:

Dead insects, since it is unknown what they died from.
Colorado beetles.
Insects with bright colors.

How to feed

What to do if the chick falls out of the nest and asks for food? Birds, and especially chicks, have a very fast metabolism. This must be taken into account and feed them often, literally constantly. Otherwise, they will simply die of hunger. At the same time, some of them, especially waterfowl, need water. Representatives of such species need to provide a drinking bowl. The remaining chicks get water from food.

Where to stay

The chick needs to make a shelter, that is, literally build a nest. To do this, you will need a deep bowl or box about 10 cm high. The container needs to be filled with sand, grass, straws, small twigs, soil, pieces of fabric - everything that is usually found in bird nests. Do not fill the nest with cotton wool, fabrics with sparse threads, or knitting yarn. You should lay a paper napkin in two layers in the nest. It will need to be changed after each feeding.

The chick needs to be kept safe. Pets or children should not reach it. There is no need to try to place the chick on a perch or in a closed container. It is better to place the nest in an empty aquarium, covered on top with gauze or mesh, and do not leave it high. Otherwise, the grown chick may go to explore the territory, fall out and injure itself.

Most often there is a desire or need to raise song passerine chicks. But these are birds with the so-called nestling type of development, which hatch from eggs naked or covered with sparse down, blind, unable to feed on their own. In open-nesting species, short stumps of feathers on the body appear from under the skin only on the second or third day of life, the eyes open on the fourth day. In hollow nesters, these events occur even a day or two later. At the same time, the pace of development is rapidly increasing every day, and already on the eighth day of life, the chicks of some ground-nesting birds, such as the Dubrovnik, and on the twelfth, the chicks of the Accentor, which nests in the crowns of bushes, can leave the nest. During the entire period of the chicks’ stay in the nest, and even two or three weeks after leaving it, the parents tirelessly search for and bring the children more and more new portions of food. Therefore, before you take on such a task as feeding songbirds, you should be aware that he will have to devote at least 15-20 days of his life.

From the moment when guardianship begins until the period until the chick begins to feed on its own, there is nothing to even think about ordinary activities, rest and long sleep. One quarter of every hour will be spent caring for the chick. Throughout the daylight hours, every 15-20 minutes you will have to not only give the chick something to eat, but feed it until it is full. It is easy to determine that the chick is full. When full, he stops opening his mouth and begging for food.

Particular attention will have to be paid to the composition of the chicks' food. We must not forget that most songbirds, be it warblers, buntings or sparrows, feed their chicks mainly on insects. This means that the adopted child should be fed the same as adult insectivorous birds: ant cocoons, mealworms, fly larvae, chicken eggs, cottage cheese, carrots, not forgetting vitamine and mineral supplements. Chicks can only be raised on live ant cocoons, but it is not possible to feed them with just a chicken egg or any other insect substitute.

Since you have to feed the chick very often, you need to constantly be near it or carry it with you. As long as the chick is small and does not try to run away, it can be kept in any small box. If you had to start raising a fledgling chick at the age of 4-5 days, then for the first two or three days it will need heating. The easiest way to arrange it is in the form of a heating pad from a flat bottle. As a rule, it is not possible to feed younger chicks.

Starting from 8-12 days of age, the chick has a desire to leave the “nest”, and from that time on it has to be placed in a small cage. Regardless of where the chick is kept, it needs soft, dry bedding. It is better to use dried grass or moss. If at first you don’t have either one or the other at hand, you can use cotton wool. However, in this case, it is necessary to constantly ensure that it is well crushed and the chick cannot get entangled in it or swallow its fibers. The litter is changed as it gets dirty.

It is convenient to give food from tweezers. From the very first feeding, you need to ensure that the chick opens its mouth on its own. To do this, bringing the tweezers, lightly shake the “nest” or touch the feathers of the head and the corners of the beak with tweezers. The younger the chicks, the easier it is for them to develop a begging reaction to approaching tweezers, since with age, a reaction of hiding and then flight appears to unfamiliar objects. If it is not possible to evoke a reaction of begging for food using numerous methods, then the first feeding is carried out by force, opening the beak with your hands, and then again they begin to ensure that the chick opens its mouth on its own. Once it begins to open its mouth when tweezers with food approach, the chick will then willingly beg for food from it until it learns to feed on its own. To quickly accustom the chick to independence, starting from 15-17 days of age, food is placed in the cage, scattered on the floor. After the chick begins to peck from the floor, food is placed in the feeder. However, they stop feeding the chick with tweezers only when it learns to eat its fill. From now on, he needs to be given a more spacious cage in which he can run and fly.

But what if you need to raise not one or two, but several dozen chicks. Then feeding becomes so difficult that it is no longer possible to do it manually. In this case, you have to turn to the help of parent birds, placing them in cages along with the chicks. Since concerns of this kind are not unexpected, the ornithologist has time to prepare in advance: stock up on plenty of necessary food, equip the premises, and prepare tools for catching adult individuals.

Parents should be caught when the chicks are five to seven days old if you are dealing with an open-nesting species, and one to two days later if the species of interest is a cavity nester. Younger chicks are more difficult to raise in captivity, since in the first days they need heating and gourmet food. On the contrary, at a later age, when their parents are caught, the chicks may run away from the nest, and in the cage they will begin to behave very restlessly and, instead of begging for food, they will try to find a loophole to run as far as possible.

Having caught adult birds and taken the chicks from the nest, they are placed in spacious fabric cages or ordinary cages and cages hung with thin light-colored fabric. To feed 5-10 chicks, one adult bird and a room measuring 40 by 40 by 60 centimeters is enough. After the chicks begin to feed on their own, no more than four birds the size of a bullfinch or six the size of a warbler can be kept in such a cage.

Small chicks, covered only with tubes of growing feathers, should have a nest in their cage or a simple likeness of it made of dry grass and moss, placed in a corner so that the chicks can sit in it in a group, collectively maintaining the required temperature. In the cage, the nest quickly becomes dirty, since the adult bird soon stops carrying away droppings. Therefore, it is replaced with a new one at least every one to two days. Perches are installed in the cage only after the adult bird begins to feed the chicks, and after a day or two, the curtain of light fabric is removed from the cage. Food is presented to the feeding individual, like any adult bird that has just been caught.

In all my many years of practice, not a single adult, placed in a cage with its chicks, began feeding them later than an hour after being caught. An adult bird does not refuse adopted children, and sometimes feeds chicks of another species. Such universal nurses are most often found among pied flycatchers. According to K.N. Blagosklonov, this small bird is successfully able to serve as a mother for any insectivorous songbird.

Particularly difficult to feed are finches such as linnet, bullfinch, greenfinch, goldfinch and others (except chaffinch and brambling). Their chicks can be fed only with the help of adults, also finches. The food brought to the chicks by the finches is not only mechanically processed in the beak, but also moistened with saliva containing enzymes, without which the chicks' digestion is impaired. However, wild finches often refuse to feed their babies after they are caged.

When raising finch chicks, it is a great relief that the domesticated canary, which breeds easily in captivity, belongs to the same systematic group and can be used to feed any wild finches. To do this, remove the clutch from the canary's nest and replace it with eggs or small, recently hatched chicks of the desired species. While the chicks are in the nest, the canary always feeds them willingly, but after leaving the nest, some individuals stop feeding the foster fledglings, perhaps due to the fact that their calling cry differs from the cry of canary chicks.

Raising other birds, such as ducklings, raptors, owls, chickens or rails, is less difficult. These are birds with a less intense metabolism, many of them are born almost ready for independent life. Therefore, feeding concerns come down mainly to providing high-quality food. Thus, a feature of feeding birds of prey is the mandatory addition of live food to the main diet. They are usually given mice or voles. Feeding chicks by hand is not difficult, as it can only be done a few times a day. Chicks of hawks, falcons and pygmy owls must be fed with poultry meat or slaughtered day-old chicks.

Just like chicks with the nestling type of development, most brood and semi-brood birds in the first days of life need additional heating, cleanliness and dryness of the nest or bedding. The small chicks of all chicken birds are especially afraid of even short-term wetness. Unlike chicks, some hatchlings can be raised in captivity from the moment of birth. With careful care, a varied, high-quality diet and additional heating, it was possible to raise chicks of all grouse and pheasants of our fauna, mallard ducklings and other dabbling ducks, many waders and all rail ducks from the moment of birth.

The main difficulty in raising ducklings is getting the chicks wet and cooling when they fall into the water. This happens because, under natural conditions, the mother duck always lubricates their down with her fatty lubricant - the secretion of the coccygeal gland. In ducklings, it begins to function at an older age.

Newborn owlets, raptors and gulls, while in the nest, in the first days of life receive pieces of food from the mouth or esophagus of their parents, moistened with digestive enzymes, without which they cannot digest. Therefore, they can independently digest animal food only from 5-10 days of age.

In the first days of life, Easter eggs can only peck at food raised from the ground by their parents. Therefore, for a day or two they have to present food, just like passerine birds, in tweezers, but not put it in their mouth, but give them the opportunity to grab it on their own.

A sparrow cannot be called an exotic bird

Sparrows are not exotic birds at all. They can often be found in parks, squares, and playgrounds; flocks of them fly in to sit on balconies or windowsills. However, what should you do if you find a sparrow chick while walking?

Our website already had a general article on how to behave correctly in such cases (look for it). But, judging by the number of comments and questions about how to remove a found chick of a pigeon, crow, or swift, not everyone is still aware that it is not worth interfering with the processes of nature.

But, if you nevertheless picked up a sparrow chick (because you thought that it would die without you), learn to provide it with the right help. AND how to feed a sparrow chick, how to care for it– we will tell you in our article today...

Why did the sparrow end up on the ground?

The little sparrow could have fallen out of the nest. After all, the parents of this species of birds themselves rarely throw away their children. Other birds could also “help” him leave the nest. Among swifts, starlings, crows and, of course, sparrows, quite often there is enmity for the best nests. And getting rid of its permanent residents, the invaders are ready to throw away their offspring as well.

If the sparrow was lucky and did not break when falling to the ground, then he will really need your help. Especially if you see other birds (not sparrows) circling above it. Even if you drive them away, they may return, or the chick may become a victim of other animals.

Therefore, if there is no way to return it to its parents (by the way, sparrows do not smell human smell, so you don’t have to worry that they won’t accept the chick back), you will have to take care of it. And most importantly, do it right.

How to determine the age of a sparrow

To properly care for a chick, you need to at least determine its age by eye. And our tips will help you with this. So,

if a sparrow was recently born, then its body is not yet covered with feathers, its eyes may be closed, and its size is very miniature. I would like to immediately note that he is very helpless and needs protection. But you need to feed him every 2-3 hours. It is unlikely that you, a busy person, will have such an opportunity day and night. Therefore, as an option, in order not to abandon the bird to its fate, you can throw the sparrow into another sparrow’s nest.
Yellowthroats - the body of the chicks is already covered with down and feathers, but the beak is decorated with a yellow stripe, indicating that they are still very young. Therefore, they cannot yet obtain their own food. They need to be fed.
Fledglings are teenage birds, ready for independent life and learning to fly. Basically, if there are no predators nearby and bad weather is not approaching, they do not need your help.

What to feed a sparrow chick

A sparrow chick, like any other, needs special food and water. It would be better to feed him from a pipette or from a syringe without a needle. This must be done extremely carefully so as not to injure the beak and so that the bird does not choke. By the way,

young birds cannot drink on their own. They will either choke or die of thirst near the water. Therefore, they need to be forced to drink several times a day.

Sparrows are omnivores. And it pleases. Therefore, as soon as you bring the bird home, make sure to feed it lean meat, minced meat, boiled egg, cottage cheese or fish. In the future, you will need to take care to find mealworms, larvae, and small insects. From human food you can give cottage cheese, eggs, meat, fish.

It is very important to feed passerine chicks on time. Otherwise, due to their rapid metabolism, they begin to burn their body’s own resources. Therefore, get ready to feed newborn birds every 15-20 minutes, and feed yellowmouths every 2-3 hours.

How to prepare food mixture for a sparrow chick

It is quite clear that you may not be able to give fresh insects to your chick every day. But so that you don’t worry about feeding your feathered guest poorly, try making the following mixture for him:

squeeze the juice out of the grated raw carrots,
boil the egg and grind it into puree,
finely chop boiled meat (beef, chicken or veal),
take the greens and chop them,
add a little cottage cheese (10 grams is enough),
add 2 tablespoons of wheat cereal boiled in water (without oil, salt and sugar),
add a teaspoon of fish food,
add 1 tablet of calcium glycerophosphate and eggshells (you need to grind them first).
Mix the resulting mixture of individual ingredients thoroughly until smooth, roll it into small balls the size of a cherry pit. Feed the sparrow chick these pellets throughout the day. This is a completely complete diet for him. By the way, these balls can be stored in the freezer to prevent them from spoiling.
Before feeding, you will need to defrost them and drop a few drops of water on them - this way the sparrow will eat and drink right away.

With the arrival of warmer weather, our forests and gardens are filled with bird songs, and people, in turn, try to spend as much time as possible in the fresh air. During outdoor recreation, helpless chicks are often found. Naturally, there is a desire to save the baby’s life, but not everyone knows how to save a chick that has fallen out of the nest. Let's figure out how we can help him.

To save or not to save - that is the question

The first thought that arises when looking at a fledgling and flightless chick is “fell out of the nest”, “lost” and even “parents abandoned and forgot”. In fact, the chick is alone, there are no brothers, sisters, or adult birds nearby, and it screams loudly. How can you not help here? But the fact of the matter is that help in 95% of cases in such situations is not needed.

The fact is that in many birds (primarily small passerines), the chicks leave the nest as half-fledged fledglings. During this period of life, they still do not know how to fly, but they are already actively exploring the surrounding space - climbing branches, fluttering awkwardly. It is these fairly active chicks that come into the field of human vision. It is easy to identify a fledgling by appearance: it is feathered or covered with the rudiments of unopened feathers; The chick is quite large (about 50-70% of the size of a sparrow), it is often active, that is, it opens its mouth and asks to eat. The parents did not abandon this chick, but simply flew away to get food. Of course, as long as you stand next to the chick, they will not make themselves known. And if you stay too long, there is a chance that the parents will abandon him out of concern.

Even if the chick looks too small and helpless, do not rush to classify it as an orphan. Birds such as warblers, warblers, larks, and wagtails nest on the ground; their chicks spend their entire childhood on the grass. Your presence in this situation is also undesirable because magpies and crows monitor human behavior. Smart birds can check after you leave what you were looking at there, they will find and kill the chick. Hence the conclusion: do not “save” everything that catches your eye. If the chick is dry, warm, active, and well-feathered, then it does not need help.

What if the situation raises concerns? Perhaps the chick is too weak or has clearly fallen from the nest from a great height and cannot be returned to its parents. In this case, you can try to save him, but keep in mind that the likelihood of success will be directly proportional to your hard work, and you will have to put in a lot of work.

What to do first

Quickly and carefully examine the place where you found the chick, remember what it looks like. In some cases, this will help determine the type of bird.
Take the chick in your hands (do not squeeze it too much!) and bring it home as soon as possible.
On the way, inspect the chick for damage. If a bird has clearly visible fractures of its paws, wings, or contusion (as defined below), then you cannot do without a veterinarian. It is highly advisable to seek help from a veterinarian who specializes in treating birds (unfortunately, such specialists are extremely rare). If there are no obvious signs of a fracture, and the general condition of the chick is satisfactory, then it is better not to torture it, but simply provide good conditions - nature will do its job and it will recover.
Providing the chick with food as soon as possible is even more important than arranging a home for it.

Now a few words on how to determine concussion. Typically, chicks receive severe bruises either from hitting the ground or colliding with cars. At the same time, the bird has no external wounds, but there is a concussion. Sure signs of this condition: bleeding from the nostrils, paralysis of both legs or paralysis of half the body (leg and wing on one side), closing of one eye or unequal degree of pupil dilation on the injured and healthy side of the body.

What to feed

You may think that feeding a chick is as easy as shelling pears - crumble bread and crumbs. But here you will find disappointment No. 2. Chicks do not eat bread, crackers, porridge, cereals, or seeds. They don't eat at all. Even the chicks of granivorous birds do not take dry food at first. And the reason is that the growing body needs proteins, so in nature even granivorous birds feed their offspring with animal food and exclusively soft food. You will have to do the same. The only exception is pigeons. They feed the chicks with crop secretions - bird's milk, and then semi-digested grains. If you have picked up a chick pigeon, you can feed it unsalted porridge, gradually reducing the degree of cooking. In other cases, the best food for the chick is mealworms, cockroaches, crickets, darkling beetle larvae - zoophobus (all these foods are sold in pet stores), earthworms (you can dig them up), caterpillars (you have to collect them), a boiled egg (only as additional food, and not a substitute for everything). Even if you have provided the chick with the food listed above, it is recommended to periodically catch beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, flies, mosquitoes and give these insects to it, because the more varied the diet, the healthier your ward will grow up. In the first few hours, very weak chicks should be given water sweetened with glucose (but not sugar syrup!) instead of solid food.

What not to feed chicks

dead insects- no matter what species they belong to and no matter where you find them. In nature, insects almost never live to old age; rather, someone will eat them. If you find a dead cockroach behind the stove or a dead locust in the garden, do not rush to rejoice. Most likely, this individual died from an insecticide, which means that poison from the food can enter the chick’s body and greatly harm its already weak health;
Colorado potato beetles- Adults, larvae and eggs of this species are poisonous. They are not eaten by any species of birds, so this easily accessible resource will have to be forgotten;
ladybugs- they secrete a moderately toxic liquid; in nature, a bird that catches such a bug by mistake will spit it out. In captivity, especially if the chick is force-fed, it does not have the opportunity to refuse harmful food, so it can become poisoned;
hairy caterpillars- firstly, they can be poisonous, and secondly, when feeding, the villi can clog the chick’s goiter and it will die. Although in temperate zones hairy caterpillars can be eaten by cuckoos and orioles, it is still better to be on the safe side and not use this food;
brightly colored bugs- in nature, many birds willingly peck at such insects, but this mainly concerns inconspicuous turtle bugs. The back of the bug, decorated with bright spots or stripes, has a warning character - “don’t eat me, it will be worse for you.” To be on the safe side, there is no need to catch such specimens for the chick.

How to feed

The main thing you should know from the very beginning is that birds have a very high metabolism, and small chicks have a simply enormous metabolic rate. Any food eaten is digested very quickly by the chicks and they need to be fed again and again. In nature, parents jointly feed the brood 100-500 times a day! This means that the chick needs to be fed every 10-15 minutes. And don’t expect to retrain him! A chick deprived of food instantly weakens; a couple of hours of hunger is enough for it to die. You will have to provide constant supervision to the baby, feed him at first every 15 minutes, and when he grows a little, every 20-30. But you need to take a break at night, but start the first feeding no later than 6 a.m.! Evening feeding ends around sunset, that is, around 10 p.m.

It is more convenient to present the food with tweezers. In general, tactile contact should be kept to a minimum; frequent touching is stressful for a tiny creature, and it also worsens the condition of the down and feathers. If the chick is very small and naked, then there is no need to give it whole large insects. In this case, it is better to cut them up with tweezers and feed them in pieces. It is also recommended to remove hard elytra from large beetles and long legs from grasshoppers and locusts. Often chicks refuse to take any food. This happens because they do not recognize their mother in you, or they have become so weak that they have lost their appetite. In this case, you will have to force feed the ward. To do this, you need to crush the food and fill it into a syringe without a needle (you can add a couple of drops of water to thin the mixture). Take the bird in your left hand and carefully spread the beak with your fingers, with your right hand insert a syringe into its throat and squeeze out about 1 cm³ of mush. Do not overdo it! Tiny chicks' beaks can easily be broken, which can be a fatal injury. For greater convenience, you can put a flexible tube on the end of the syringe.

Where to stay

If the first difficulties did not dampen your enthusiasm, then you should provide the chick with shelter in your home. First of all, you need to make a nest.

Take a deep bowl or cardboard box with a side about 10 cm high. Fill this container with sawdust, dry clean sand, hay, straw, scraps of fabric, make a depression in the middle that imitates a nest tray. You should not fill the container with fresh grass; raw material can cause hypothermia in the chick, because in an artificial house there is no one to warm it. By the way, if you are serious about rescuing, you can purchase a small thermal mat at the pet store; it will to some extent replace your puppy’s mother’s warmth. Cotton wool, yarn, and fabrics with sparsely woven threads can also be considered dangerous fillers. A chick's paws easily become entangled in such material, and a tightened thread can even amputate the baby's fingers. Place a paper napkin in 2-3 layers in the tray. Chicks defecate as often as they eat; in nature, their parents monitor their hygiene and remove droppings from the nest. You just need to change the napkin after each feeding. So, the nest is ready.

Now you need to think about security. In the savior's house there may live stupid children, blind grandmothers, dogs, cats, and there may also be curious neighbors who stop by for a minute. All these creatures threaten the life of a little chick: children can grab it and squeeze it in a fist (certain death), dogs and cats can start a hunt (you won’t even find feathers), a blind grandmother will accidentally sit on a box (well, don’t execute the old lady for this), and noisy neighbors can accidentally knock it over (“Tanya, I’ll come to you for a second for salt, oh, it looks like something fell here!”). To prevent trouble, it is better to place the nest in a cage or aquarium covered with gauze. In the cage, do not try to place the chick on a perch; do not place it in closed containers (jars, etc.). Do not place the nest in high places. The fact is that a weak chick can get stronger and, unexpectedly for you, set off to explore the surrounding space. He is guaranteed to fall out of his shelter and, unlike the forest and meadow, what will be waiting for him below is not soft grass, but the floor. You should not place the box with the chick in the sun, as this will not warm it, and the helpless bird is guaranteed to get sunstroke and may die. Drafts are very dangerous.

Do chicks need water?

In nature, passerine chicks do not need water, as they receive sufficient moisture from their food. After all, adult birds do not bring them water in their beaks. At home, you can do without watering the chick if you follow the diet, that is, provide a variety of, and most importantly, “wet” food - earthworms, fatty succulent caterpillars. Flies, cockroaches, and crickets (these are the ones most often bought in stores) can be conditionally classified as “dry” food. They do not give the chick enough moisture. In this case, he can instill liquid from a pipette a few drops at a time, but do this not at every feeding, but a little less often. Please note that shell-shocked chicks should not be given water.

Fortunately, the chicks grow quickly and the period of troubles soon passes; in just a week or two, your ward can become quite stronger. In order for the feeding process to be completed successfully, do not forget to gradually accustom the chick to adult food. For granivorous birds, this can be porridge cooked without salt, small grains (millet, rice). Chicks of insectivorous species will have to be supplemented with insects. No matter how hard you try, your chick will be weaker than its wild counterparts and completely unsuited to independent life. Here you cannot help him in any way, so you will have to take responsibility for his life. You will have to keep the grown bird as a pet. If you are not ready to keep a bird (you need to think about this from the very beginning), then it is better not to take the chick home at all. So he will have at least a tiny chance of survival. But if you are not afraid of difficulties, then the reward for your labors will be the saved life of the bird.

The recommendations in this article are focused mainly on feeding passerine birds and pigeons, since these are the ones that are found most often. It is better to transfer chicks of large birds (eagles, cranes, owls, storks, etc.) to the zoo, where they are guaranteed professional veterinary care.

First, find a place for him. A small box with a soft cloth on the bottom will do. Make sure that the chick will not jump out of it. Very tiny ones need heating. To do this, you can use a heating pad or just a bottle of warm water.

What can you feed a sparrow chick?

First of all, it should be remembered that the chicks of insectivorous small birds - larks, tits - eat food equal to 3/4 of their weight in one day. It is best for the bird’s diet to consist of familiar insects: worms, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, and larvae. However, of course, getting them is not so easy.

For some reason, in books, fairy tales, and films, sparrows are usually fed. But this is under no circumstances possible. You can give the chick bakery products no more than once every 2 days, and even then only in the form of crumbs soaked in milk. In addition, you can gradually give finely chopped boiled or raw meat, ground in a mortar and steamed cereal seeds or oatmeal.

Vegetables - beets, cucumbers, carrots - are also suitable for feeding. They need to be grated and squeezed out of excess juice. You can also feed the sparrow chick with boiled eggs or cottage cheese. The main thing is that this food is unsalted. It is advisable to add a little coal or crushed chalk to the food - the chick will be happy with this seasoning. In turn, giving salt to birds is strictly prohibited.

Try to let the chick eat on its own, however, if this does not work, you can give it food by unclenching its beak with tweezers. Since the bird is still small, it needs to be fed often - at least once every 2 hours. This is quite a difficult task, and therefore it is considered difficult to feed the chicks of small birds. In addition, do not forget that in addition to food, the bird should also have clean water freely available.

Before the sparrow chick comes out, think

Before releasing a sparrow chick, think: perhaps it would be better to leave it where you found it? In most cases, fledglings fall out of the nests. This is the name given to chicks that do not yet know how to fly, but have made their first attempt to try it. Their adult parents then try to feed their offspring already on earth.

If there are not a large number of stray dogs and cats in the area, the chance of such a chick surviving in the wild is significantly higher than at home. It must be borne in mind that birds often die at home due to improper feeding or maintenance. And if you really want to take part in rescuing the chick, it may be better to place a feeder with food where the lost chick is rather than feeding it in a cage at home. Remember: birds raised in captivity often die after they are released into the environment.