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Saturday, May 12, 2007

Moving is stressful for birds too. E-mails pour in for advice.


We recently moved, and once again, Blue had to readjust to a new environment. This is always hard on him. It took a full month for him to return to his old self. Now he loves his new place. Blue is getting his flight feathers back and soon will be flying again. I quickly realized moving was much harder on Blue then it was on us, and it was no picnic for anyone.

Blue became frightened for awhile of new noises, new lighting and just all the hustle and bustle of packing. He now enjoys this place immensely and certainly sucked all the extra attention he could get from us. We also have finches and canaries, it seemed as if they did not even notice the move. They do enjoy the extra sunlight we get here.
Blue also has friends. This is Stevie Ray Vaughn and Tina Turner. They often mimic Blue, bathing and grooming at the same time.


I have received a multitude of e-mails from people who have rescued Scrub Jays here in California. If you are in Florida, remember, they are nearly extinct and the state bird to boot. You must call animal rescue immediately.

I have always felt it is wrong to cage or domesticate any wild animal unless it cannot fend for himself and will die if you release him. Two of the people who e-mailed me were in that position. I will be posting video of a young bird feeding soon. Nessa took the time and made the right decision. She took her baby to animal rescue. They will give it back to her once it is healed up, as the bird cannot be released. She can visit and feed it everyday so it will still bond with her. It had a problem with one of its legs. I will be posting extensively on its journey from a baby to an adult with her help.

I will be posting some thing people should know and do when they find a bird in need of rescue. In the mean time, please e-mail me if you find yourself with a Scrub Jay in need of help.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say great site and thanks for all your help with our rescued Jay. He is doing wonderful. we will send you some pics soon. He is eating just as you described and doing well. I cannot thank you enough for all your help and guidance.
Jan in San Fran

Anonymous said...

we just moved into a house in sonoma county and I was just commenting this week how we had a very social and friendly scrub jay, well this evening while family was over with their dog the dog was making a racket in the yard and I started to hear 2 of the adult scrub jays making alot of noise I went and saw the dog had gentle picked up a fallen baby bird.
I am hoping you can tell me what to do with it,
I am not sure the best way to go about fefeding and caring for the young bird. any advice would be helpful
-CJ

Fellowhuman said...

HI CJ,
first, thank you for posting your question here. I have received 80 e-mails about what to do, all with different issues. But, Blues site has saved many birds. I will be putting up links to general info soon. I realize many helpful posts have been buried by others.
Read this first its a long URL so make sure you paste the entire link.
http://scrubjayantics.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-found-scub-jay-what-do-i-do.html
If you have trouble with the link google "I found a scrub jay", its the third or fourth link down.
First thing, food. As young birds they get their water from food. Get a feeder, a syringe type with no needle, to squirt the food in his mouth. They need to eat every 30 minutes at a very young age and it lessons as they grow up. 45 minutes then an hour and so forth.

Use a baby bird food mix called Exact with hard boiled egg yolk, crushed up cat food dry, the good stuff, crush it very finely. Make it about 70% exact and water and a mixture of these other ingredients. This will get him by, but adding a small amount off boiled carrots so they are very soft, crushed meal worms is good too. It should have the consistency of watery oatmeal.
The Cat food and egg yolk is key, protien. They sleep all night and will not need food. They will cry and flap their wings when they are hungry, and stop eating when they are done. The gey messy with it.

Keep him warm and in a dim place until he is calm.

If its cold at night put a heating pad on LOW, under his box. The box should be padded and cushy.

Please read the post making the decision to keep the bird or trying to release it to its parents in the morning if its uninjured. They cannot be released after you have had them long. If you need food fast just use the egg yolk and cat food. Make it liquid, use a spoon. They dehydrate quickly. Send a photo so I can determine age. If he is old enough he can eat meal worms. He will gobble them, bits of hard boiled egg and the all the above foods. Can he fly? is he injured?
you can send any pics or emergency questions to thatoldbookstore@hotmail.com. I answer my email quickly. Pleas let us know how he does.
Hope this helps! Good luck.
Tim

Fellowhuman said...

HI CJ,
first, thank you for posting your question here. I have received 80 e-mails about what to do, all with different issues. But, Blues site has saved many birds. I will be putting up links to general info soon. I realize many helpful posts have been buried by others.
Read this first its a long URL so make sure you paste the entire link.
http://scrubjayantics.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-found-scub-jay-what-do-i-do.html
If you have trouble with the link google "I found a scrub jay", its the third or fourth link down.
First thing, food. As young birds they get their water from food. Get a feeder, a syringe type with no needle, to squirt the food in his mouth. They need to eat every 30 minutes at a very young age and it lessons as they grow up. 45 minutes then an hour and so forth.

Use a baby bird food mix called Exact with hard boiled egg yolk, crushed up cat food dry, the good stuff, crush it very finely. Make it about 70% exact and water and a mixture of these other ingredients. This will get him by, but adding a small amount off boiled carrots so they are very soft, crushed meal worms is good too. It should have the consistency of watery oatmeal.
The Cat food and egg yolk is key, protien. They sleep all night and will not need food. They will cry and flap their wings when they are hungry, and stop eating when they are done. The gey messy with it.

Keep him warm and in a dim place until he is calm.

If its cold at night put a heating pad on LOW, under his box. The box should be padded and cushy.

Please read the post making the decision to keep the bird or trying to release it to its parents in the morning if its uninjured. They cannot be released after you have had them long. If you need food fast just use the egg yolk and cat food. Make it liquid, use a spoon. They dehydrate quickly. Send a photo so I can determine age. If he is old enough he can eat meal worms. He will gobble them, bits of hard boiled egg and the all the above foods. Can he fly? is he injured?
you can send any pics or emergency questions to thatoldbookstore@hotmail.com. I answer my email quickly. Pleas let us know how he does.
Hope this helps! Good luck.
Tim