If you notice that the sparrow chick has fallen out of the nest, do not rush to drag it home. Assess the situation. You will have to look after a newborn a lot: if you don’t have time, don’t take on overwhelming work. It should be fed often, and, most importantly, correctly. There is no possibility - abandon the idea. Intervention would be a disservice if the bird accidentally fell from a tree while following its parents. Take a closer look to see if they are looking for the baby. If you decide to help your baby, read how to do it right.

Sometimes chicks fall out of their nests. To understand how to save a baby sparrow, you need to determine the cause. If you find a baby on the ground, look around.

The sparrows themselves will not throw the chick out of the nest. But other birds, swifts, starlings, can conquer their homes, getting rid of the “enemy” offspring. In this case, try to drive away the fighters and help the baby.

If a sparrow chick falls out of the nest by accident, return it back. Sometimes babies instinctively reach for their parents when falling from trees. If everything is in order with the “bird house”, the parents are there, then tragedy will not happen.

Don't worry about picking up the baby and carrying it to the nest. Sparrows do not smell, so they will not abandon their brood due to human intervention.

The nest can also be destroyed natural disasters: hurricane, thunderstorm. In this case, you can help the birds by restoring their home. Return the kids to the renovated house and watch them. If the parents respond to the call of the cubs, the rescue mission is over. If this does not happen, you will have to feed the young animals.

Sparrow chicks grow to independent age 2-3 weeks. That's how long it takes for the cubs to hatch.

Classification of sparrows

Newborn sparrow chicks are newly hatched, featherless, very small birds. It is hardly possible to provide them with food, since they will have to be fed frequently: once every 2-3 hours. The best solution- find an abandoned nest.

Yellowthroats are juvenile chicks that have acquired feathers. Despite the fact that the sparrows look mature, they are not capable of feeding themselves. At this age, babies often fall out due to carelessness. It is possible to get the bird out, but you will have to feed it regularly, and this takes time.

Fledglings are birds that are already fully mature and capable of feeding themselves. Having found such a bird, do not touch it: let it learn to fly and get food. The only possible help in this situation is to plant it on a hill (for protection from land-based predators).

This is important: water and food for the new resident

Having picked up a sparrow, it is important to understand how to give the chick water and what to feed it. To give your baby something to drink, it is better to use a pipette. Fill it with water and bring the tip to your beak. Do not put pressure on your “mouth” when trying to open it.

Newborn birds cannot drink from a bowl on their own - this must be remembered. If you put a container of water and leave, the sparrows will choke.

If you often pick up birds for treatment, then there will definitely be something in the house to feed the injured sparrow. It's another matter if the case is isolated. Before rushing to the pet store or preparing complex formulas, feed your baby with something you can find in the refrigerator. Lean meat, minced meat, eggs (boiled), cottage cheese, fish are suitable.

First steps in nursing

What needs to be done immediately after picking up the chick is to ensure comfort. Equipping the nest is a primary task. Use a lint-free cloth, rolling it to create a slant.

Feeding unfeathered chicks requires a routine from day one. It is important to maintain a certain time between meals: 15-20 minutes for newborns and 2-3 hours for wallflowers.

Below we will tell you how and what to feed a sparrow chick in order to raise it at home. Let's turn to nature. Give them:

• mealworms;
• larvae;
• small insects.

Human food will also work:

• cottage cheese;
• eggs;
• meat;
• fish.

The main thing is to feed the babies in a timely manner so that their own resources are not burned: sparrows have a fast metabolism. Read on to learn how to care for chicks and plan their diet correctly.

Nutritional formula recipe

What chicks eat with pleasure are insects. But feeding feathered birds and fledglings can be simplified by preparing a special mixture. The recipe is:

• three medium carrots and squeeze out the juice;
• grind the egg (pre-boil);
• cut the meat (veal/beef/chicken) and split it into fibers;
• chop greens (lettuce/woodlice/dandelion);
• add 10 g of cottage cheese (squeeze first);
• 2 tbsp. spoons of cooked millet (exclude salt or oil);
• a teaspoon of fish food (dry mixture);
• add calcium glycerophosphate powder (1 tablet per liter);
• add a teaspoon of crushed eggshells.

Mix the resulting feed until smooth. It shouldn't stick to your hands. Give to children in portions, rolling into small balls the size of a cherry pit. When we prepare the mixture for feeding the chick, we get a large supply. You can store food in the freezer.

We told you how to feed a sparrow chick. But do not forget that the birds should be given water: a few drops of water on the food ball.

Calcium: dosage calculation and sources

Calcium for sparrow chicks, as for all birds, is necessary to prevent the development of rickets. The mixture given above includes the required amount useful substances. Using it, you don’t have to worry about the health of your kids.

The peculiarities of feeding a sparrow at home allow you to monitor the vitamins you receive. To calculate a chick's need for calcium, it is enough to determine 2% of its weight. But remember that it is possible to overdo it with the additive, so it is better to be safe and add more.

A bird can get calcium from chalk, edible clay or boiled egg shells. They are added in powder form. For a standard daily dose, take half a teaspoon - if you don’t want to make calculations.

Primary knowledge: what and how

Let's talk about how to hatch a sparrow chick and what to use for feeding. Newborn birds are fed from a syringe with a catheter - this is more convenient.

It is prohibited to use a catheter to feed grown sparrows, due to the danger to life: the birds can swallow the needle. The process of feeding a chick with a brush is less convenient: due to the soiling of the feathers. But for neat people, the technique is ideal, since the soft pile will not cause harm.

Sequence of feeding sparrow chicks - important point. Don't give them the whole portion at once. Dosage the feed for better absorption. One “dose” is 2/3 of the head volume. If babies continue to beg for treats, ignore them. Overfeeding is just as harmful as undernutrition.

The importance of the intermediate stage

When caring for a sparrow, do not miss the moment of stopping feeding and transferring the chick to self-catering. Remember that the baby’s desire for independence does not indicate that it is necessary to reduce feeding.

IN natural environment parents feed the chicks even when the babies learn to fly and get food. Don't miss this crucial moment. Make the sparrow chase you to get the food you want.

You can tell if a chick is ready for independence by looking at its weight. The norm is 20-27 g. The sparrow is completely covered with feathers, the tail is long, the beak loses its yellowness. Mature birds bite painfully.

As the sparrow chick grows up, the frequency of feeding is gradually reduced. Some birds switch to self-feeding quickly, while for others the process is delayed - this is not scary. If your baby refuses to eat, don't worry. This is a normal process until their weight drops below 21g.

Painless weaning

A human-fed sparrow chick can be released into the wild. The main thing is to consider how to carry out the process correctly. Remember: if you are not going to leave the selected bird, start preparing for “weaning” in advance.

When planning to release a sparrow into the wild, do not treat the bird like a pet. Don't spend more time with your baby than necessary. Don't play, don't caress. When feeding, it is better to wear something bright to distract attention “from yourself” and minimize addiction.

When the chick grows up, do not play with it. Do not teach your baby to “handle”. If you don’t spend a lot of time with the bird, the growing sparrow will quickly learn to be afraid of humans.

You cannot release a sparrow without prior preparation. Before the bird settles in nature, it is kept in an aviary. An outdoor corral helps to adapt. Teach the chick to “local” food.

Before releasing the sparrow, make sure the chick is healthy. Check the weather forecast. On the day of “absenteeing” there should be no rain or strong wind. It is better that the hydrometeorological center does not report any impending bad weather in the next few days.

Discuss exciting questions in the comments to the article.

How and what to feed the chick?

You picked up a chick on the street and brought it home. What to do if the chick does not know how to feed himself? Or does he categorically refuse food offered to him? If the chick is very small, up to 5 days, there are no problems. When he gets hungry, he will open his mouth at any extraneous sound, or even at the touch of an improvised nest that you build for him.

It is more difficult to feed adult chicks or fledglings. Birds are called fledglings from the moment they leave the nest until their first independent flight. They already know their parents. All others are enemies! They stubbornly do not open their beaks, which can ultimately lead to severe exhaustion. Therefore, there is no time to waste!

For small birds, 1-2 hours of fasting is the limit. For medium-sized birds, if they are already fledged, you can wait up to four hours, no more. For babies under 10 days of age, the pause from the moment of picking up to the first feeding should be kept to a minimum.

So how to feed a bird? It is necessary to feed the bird by force! You should give food as carefully as possible, trying not to scare the bird and without making sudden movements. Next, cover the top of the bird with your left hand, securing its head with your thumb and forefinger. Large fingernail or index finger(whatever is more convenient) open the beak from the side and fix it in this position with the fingers of your left hand. Place food as deep as possible, at the root of the tongue, and the swallowing reflex will work! For small birds, it is better to place food with tweezers or, if it is a semi-liquid mixture, with a syringe without a needle.

Attention! Never try to open the beak from the tip! In many birds, such as swifts, this is a very delicate organ, and it is very easy to break it!

If you feed the chick insects, be sure to remove the wing cases, legs and other hard parts before feeding. It is also necessary to know that the shell of some insects is difficult for the stomachs of small chicks (up to 10 days of age) to digest. This applies to maggots, mealworms and zoobass. If these insects are feeding, it is best to squeeze out the contents and feed them with a syringe. The procedure is not pleasant, but absolutely necessary!

There is no need to give the chicks special water. If the food seems very dry, it is permissible to slightly moisten it with clean, drinking water. Free access to water must be provided to fledglings or pre-fledgling chicks that can move confidently on their feet.

Feeding the chicks, confidently standing on their feet, is carried out as if from the ground. Use a stick to pick at the ground and pretend that you have taken out food from there. Usually, after 1-2 days, the birds themselves actively “dig the ground” and even find food. Difficulty - it is necessary to have a fenced, predator-free area suitable for this.

And most importantly, WHAT TO FEED THE BIRD? Before feeding a bird, it is necessary to determine its species, as well as its age (chick, fledgling or independent bird). Improper feeding - common reason death of birds.

Based on the type of food they eat, birds are mainly divided into granivores, insectivores and carnivores. You can determine what type a bird is by its beak. In insectivorous birds, the beak is narrower, while in granivorous birds it is relatively wider and has a cone-shaped shape. Birds of prey are characterized by a powerful beak, usually curved at the end; there is no feathering at the base of the beak. The predators also have powerful paws with sharp claws on long toes.

Feeding corvids (raven, crow, rook, magpie, jackdaw, jay, nutcracker)

Don't feed birds with bread, grain, leftover human food, low-quality or expired products.

Meat can be considered a universal food for all corvids and their chicks. Beef heart is best. If the product has not been frozen, then you can safely feed it raw meat. Otherwise, the meat must be scalded with boiling water or boiled. But meat alone is not enough. Insects are an important element in the diet of corvids. These could be crickets, mealworms, zoobast and others. The younger the chick, the greater the proportion of insects should be present in its diet. If there are no insects, then it is necessary, along with meat, to feed the chick with a mash of cottage cheese and grated carrots, with the addition of porridge, preferably buckwheat, and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. All products must be fresh! Mash recipe. Carrots – 2 pcs. rub on a medium-sized grater and squeeze well. Hard boil 1 egg and grate it too. Low-fat cottage cheese, a third of a pack, lower into boiling water for 1-2 minutes, squeeze, loosen. Mix everything with the addition of pure (no additives) breadcrumbs. The mixture should be dry and not stick to your hands. Give it like this.

Birds begin to be given water from the fledgling age, when the bird is already confidently standing on its feet. Until this time, if you feel that the food is too dry, simply moisten it with clean, drinking water.

Feeding passerines (white-eye, white-browed, warbler, sparrow, bindweed, etc.)

Almost all chicks passerine birds feed on insects, regardless of whether it is an insectivorous bird or a granivorous bird. This is very important to know, since attempts to feed chicks, especially at a very young age, with grain, bread, parrot or canary food, most often end sadly.

From natural food, you can safely give your bird any insects, except poisonous ones, as well as berries and fruits (except citrus fruits), and vegetables. Most birds happily eat sunflower seeds, but not fried or salted!

Feeding insectivorous birds. For example, swifts are exclusively insectivorous birds and feed small insects. Crickets, wax moth larvae and flies should be used to feed insectivorous birds. Flies can be removed from the same maggot, just put it in a warm place. As a temporary measure (no more than 2-3 days), you can use maggots and mealworms. If you are feeding a chick, then insects must be killed before serving, and for insects such as crickets and cockroaches, the legs, whiskers, wings and elytra must be separated.

If you got insectivorous bird, then you can buy bloodworms as food at any fishing store, wash them and feed them as food; you also need to buy a mealworm at the nearest “bird market”. This is a universal food for all insectivorous birds.

Eat universal method not to harm the bird and, even without knowing its species, not to let it die of hunger. This is still the same mash, the recipe for which has already been given above.

Newly hatched chicks are very difficult to handle. It is best to buy a chick that has almost learned to feed on its own. Nursing a healthy baby six weeks old is a very rewarding experience.

How much food should I give?

During one feeding, the chick eats food weighing approximately 10% of its body weight. (If a bird weighs 500 g, then it needs 50 g of the mixture per feeding.) A chick at this age needs to be fed approximately 3 times a day.

You cannot feed the chick if its crop has not yet cleared after the last meal. If food remains in the crop for more than 3-4 hours, then this is a sign of a blockage in the crop, which can cause the growth of a bacterial or fungal infection.

If you give a chick too much food, its crop will stretch and lose its ability to move food further into the digestive tract.

You need to weigh your bird on a scale daily. This will allow you to determine how much food to give the chick and monitor whether it gains or loses weight, which is an indicator of its overall health.

What to feed?

Many chicks feel great on formulas artificial feeding that are commercially available. They are made specifically for a specific type of bird. This is very convenient as they are easy to use. It is important to mix the ingredients according to the instructions and not add anything extra other than what the veterinarian prescribed. A mixture that is too thick can cause blockage of the crop, while a liquid mixture is not enough. nutrients.

Mixture temperature

The temperature of the mixture should be 37-40 degrees. Chicks do not eat food that is too cold. On the other hand, you should not give hot food. Many chicks die when novice owners heat the formula so hot that it burns the crop. To prevent this from happening, heat the mixture in hot water stirring constantly and checking the temperature with a thermometer. If you use a microwave, stir the mixture thoroughly as there may be hot lumps in it. Measure the temperature before and after stirring.

How to feed?

Your baby bird is used to the way it was fed at the pet store or nursery. Ideally, you should receive instructions on exactly how to do this.

Spoon feeding. With one hand, support the chick's head at the base of its beak, and with the other, scoop the mixture into a spoon. Let the chick swallow, and continue in this manner until it has eaten the required 10% of its weight.

When feeding the chick, you can use a syringe with a long tip. The tip should be placed on top of the chick's tongue and each time wait for the end of swallowing.
Remember that chicks also need to breathe while eating. If you give food for too long, the baby may suffocate.

Be careful with active chicks. It is easy to injure the back of the throat with the tip of the syringe when hungry babies pounce on food.

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With the arrival of warm weather, our forests and gardens are filled with bird songs, and people, in turn, try to spend as much time as possible on 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 end up in the field. 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

1. 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.
2. Take the chick in your hands (do not squeeze it too much!) and bring it home as soon as possible.
3. 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, but general condition If the chick is satisfactory, it is better not to torture it, but simply provide good conditions- nature will do its job and he will recover.
4. IN as soon as possible Providing food for the chick 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 (paw and wing on one side), closing of one eye or unequal degree of dilation of the pupils 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 are 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(can be dug), caterpillars (will have to be collected), boiled egg(only as an additional food, and not as 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 a 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 by the chicks very quickly 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 up 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, 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 are 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 to left hand and gently spread the beak with your fingers, right hand insert a syringe into his throat and squeeze out about 1 cm³ of pulp. Don't 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 stranded thread can even amputate the baby's fingers. Place in the tray paper napkin in 2-3 layers. 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 on 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, give 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.

With the arrival of the long-awaited spring, parks, forests and gardens are filled with bird songs, eventually giving way to the squeaks of their offspring. While walking through city parks, people quite often find newly fledged chicks and, feeling sorry for the babies with all their hearts, begin to figure out how to help them.

However, this matter is not as simple as it might seem at first glance (and, as experts say, it is not always necessary, but rather harmful).

In order not to harm the birds more irreparable harm than some real help, let's first figure out how you can help a little bird that has fallen out of its nest and in what case you can save the fallen chicks.

Is it worth saving a lost chick?

If, while walking through the forest or park, you find a chick that has fallen from its nest, do not rush to help it; experts do not advise doing this. The person who finds the chick immediately decides that the baby fell out of the nest by accident, got lost, or was abandoned to the mercy of fate by cruel parents and is certainly in danger of life.

A baby who screams and is clearly completely unable to fly evokes deep sympathy in our hearts. It seems that if help is not urgently provided, he will immediately become an easy meal for a predator or die from lack of food and hypothermia.

However, this is not always the case. Many chicks, especially passerines, leave the nest as soon as they have feathers. They are not yet capable of full flight, but they can flutter from bush to bush. It is these babies that are most often mistaken for lost chicks, but human help can cause them a severe shock.

The fact is that if the chick is really lost, then the parents are looking for it, but they are afraid to fly up to it because of the person, since they perceive it as a threat.

Important! If you stay close to the chick for a long time or, worse, pick it up, then in this case the parents can actually abandon it due to the stress they have experienced. Moreover, some species of birds build their nests not in trees, but on the ground, and such chicks should not be surprising.

What to feed a chick that has fallen out of the nest

If you do take the chick home, then get ready to solve a number of significant problems. A chick is not a puppy or a kitten, it needs special care and the main serious problem- this is nutrition. For adequate nutrition, small chicks need high-calorie protein food.

Important! Their diet should include insect larvae, caterpillars and various midges, and parents give grains to the chicks only after they have been previously soaked in the crop. At home, they can be prepared by long boiling or soaking.

As you can see, feeding chicks is not an easy task. And for those people who spend a lot of time at work, such a task becomes completely impossible. Therefore, think again - is it worth “saving” the chick?

How to properly feed a found chick

If it is clear what to feed the chicks, then an equally important question arises - how to feed them. You must understand that metabolic processes in a young body occur instantly, and this means that the chicks digest food very quickly and soon experience severe hunger again.

It's hard to believe, but in nature, winged parents feed their offspring up to 100-200 times a day. Restless and hardworking birds need to throw something into the chick’s voracious beak every 15-20 minutes. Therefore, a few hours of starvation are enough for the chick to weaken and die.

If you brought home a chick, then you will have to become for him caring parents and feed him every 15-20 minutes, and when he gets a little older, it is necessary to gradually increase the intervals between meals to 30-40 minutes.

At night, you can feed the chick less often, but it is important to follow one rule: the last feeding should be no earlier than 10 p.m., and the first no later than 6 a.m. Give food to the chicks using tweezers. This will remind the chick of its parents' beak and will not frighten it.

What not to give to found chicks

Many people think that chicks can be given grains, seeds or bread crumbs - this is not true, such food can kill the baby. If we talk about plant foods and specifically cereals, then they need to be boiled until they become paste-like, after which they need to be cooled. It is in this semi-digested form that birds give grain to their chicks.

Is it necessary to give water to a chick?

IN natural conditions chicks drink very little, as they receive the necessary moisture from food. If you can provide your pet with wet food in the form of worms or insect larvae, you don’t have to water the bird. When the food is based on cockroaches or crickets, then it is considered dry, so your pet needs to be watered from a pipette 3-4 times a day. Each breed of bird has its own characteristics, you can find out more from your veterinarian. There are some birds that don’t need to be watered at all.

Where to place a chick that has fallen out of the nest

If you brought the chick home, then it needs to be equipped with a separate place where it will feel comfortable. You can take a bowl with high sides or a box at least 10-12 cm high.

Important! In the resulting nest you need to put sawdust, straw, a piece of fabric, and you need to make a small depression in the center. A couple of napkins should be placed in the hole to provide the chick with a toilet.

Under natural conditions, both parents clean the nest, but you will have to clean the nest yourself after you have fed your new pet.

You should not use fresh grass, as your baby may get hypothermia from the dampness, because there is no one to warm him - there are no parents nearby. It is not recommended to use synthetic materials as bedding. on them little chick allergies may occur and he may get sick.

You should also not use gauze, as the baby may get tangled in the threads and get hurt or even die.. The baby's nest must be kept in an inaccessible place so that a cat or dog, if they live in your home, cannot reach it.