Friday, August 14, 2009

So I was in bed last night around 10:30, reading my book, when David's brother, Joey, called me. He said he found a baby bird in the bed of his truck and wanted to know what he should do with it. He said it had feathers, so I thought maybe it had fledged and landed in the truck. Since he had trash duty the next day, he couldn't leave it in his truck. I told him to bring it over and I'd figure out what to do with it.

The bird was much younger than I thought....and it had a broken leg. :-( We brought it inside and I made a splint out of pieces of popsicle sticks.



I gave it some warm water with karo syrup though a syringe. He (we're calling it a "he") drank a good bit. I also fed it a small amount of canned cat food, mashed up and mixed with some water. He seemed to eat a good bit of that also. I think he was pretty hungry.

I told Joey it was a pretty stressful thing for a baby bird to have a broken leg, so we'd see how he did. I told him don't be surprised if he didn't make it though the night. We put him in a bowl with some bedding in the bottom and covered him with a washcloth for the night.

Imagine my surprise when I lifted the washcloth and found him staring at me with his mouth wide open waiting for breakfast! I gave him some more of the cat food, and found a cricket to mash up and mix in it. He gobbled down breakfast.

I put him and his bowl in a box covered with a towel and brought him to work with me. He started peeping again like he was hungry, so I fed him some hard-boiled egg yolk mixed with water.


I've emailed a wildlife rehabilitator to see if there's anyone in our area that can take him. If he didn't have a broken leg I'd go get some meal worms and raise him myself, but I don't feel comfortable with his broken leg. Hopefully I'll get a call or email back soon. I'll keep you updated!



The past two nights I've been at our county fair. Wednesday night I worked at the booth we set up for work. That's pretty boring work. You just hang around the booth and answer questions and talk to people.

Our work usuually serves the pork BBQ dinner on Thursday nights at the fair, so last night I spent about 3.5 hours putting hamburger buns on peoples' plates. I don't mind helping to serve dinner, because you get to see a lot of people and chat with them. It is a good reminder of why I like living in a small town/rural area. Everyone knows everyone (well, I don't know everyone, but I know lots of people now). My job is in agriculture, so I deal with the farming community on a daily basis. Pretty much everyone is very nice and I feel like I know more people in this county (where I've lived for almost 5 years now) than I do in my home county where I lived for 23 years.

This is the only picture I took that I liked. I didn't have much time to get pictures, but I made sure to stop by the animal barns. These piglets were so cute! I really would love to have a pig. David told me he'd consider getting one, but maybe not until next year. Sounds good to me!




4 comments:

Becky said...

You did a great job saving that baby bird. Poor thing. I hope he makes it.
Remember when I saved that baby bird and it was ready to fly away... on it's first flight, Faelon ate it in one gulp! So, if he does pull through, make sure there are no hungry dogs around! LOL

katiegirl said...

I do remember that, Beck. Ugh! Poor bird. I just remember Faelon with birdie feet sticking out of his mouth. :-( Kinda funny now, but it wasn't really at the time.

Linda said...

Awww, little birdie. Hope he makes it.

Becky, I want to laugh but it's not funny. :0 Poor little orphan bird ready to begin life.

Deb Johnson, Quiltbeeme said...

OH god, I forgot about that. Darn that Faelon! He thought it was squab!! Sorry Becky. Katie, I'm sorry the little guy didn't make it but you gave him such comfort. You are a good soul even if you do kill chickens...he he he Love you, Momma - who had my first veal when I took Mark to Carrabas for his birthday - yummy stuff that Veal Marsala! I know I'll burn in PETA hell but it was worth it!

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