Sup...
I know you were just posting that stuff about birds for fun, but I honestly wanted to say thank you. I saw your posts on my dash and was like "huh, must be interesting to help cute birds all day!" Then wouldn't you know it I ended up having a saga with this injured stellar's jay fledgling that can't get a break from the horrors. (Tweaked leg, won't grab with talons. Other leg is fine.) I might talk about this jay's story in another ask if wanted. I know it's bad practice to just take in wild animals but this poor bird wasn't going to make it if I kept putting it outside (been dealing with this jay for four days). At this point, this bird should've been flying by now but it kinda just kinda won't? It's leg is def injured but I didn't see anything wrong with its wings. I'm gonna try and see if I can get this bird to a sanctuary or something cause I am not a professional. As cute as this bird is, I'd prefer not to keep it. Been trying to feed it every hour and change it's bedding.
Tried my best to look for info but I can't find much of anything. It's pretty chill and doesn't seem to mind sitting in a makeshift nest. It eats anything I offer it, been feeding it wet cat food (heard that this was the best method to feed young birds in a pinch?) and carefully giving it a little bit of water from a tiny pipette (it sometimes just holds the food in its mouth and won't gulp.) Gonna try and get it mealworms or some kind of container of edible insect soon. Do you have any tips or anything bad with my current method? Like I said, I do want to get this bird to a rescue or whatever they call it. I just don't want it to starve to death in the meantime. P.S the hand motions gif is so helpful, I found that using two fingers and kinda bobbing it around the bird works well. At least for stellar's jays.
So definitely get it to a bird sanctuary because taking care of fledgelings means you have to feed them every 15 minutes to an hour depending on age. Keep the bird warm especially if theyre not flying age, using a heating pad if you have to. It should be warm to the touch. Birds can self drink as long as they arent wiwis, so a shallow jar lid of water thatd be fine. It doesnt need to be held in anything bigger than a shoebox, and its best if it cant see you.
Jays are also corvids, which means they imprint on humans easier than other birds, and a wildlife rehab is better equipped to avoid socializing them. The food we give them is vitamin loaded mealworms and crickets, but we give new admits a sort of bird gatorade to help rehydrate.
Dehydrated birds wont eat, and cold birds wont drink.
Stellars jays are my fav songbird, so i hope youre able to find him help- and its a weekend so you can most definitely find somewhere open.
