Just a caveat-- Exact is a fine diet for seed eating birds. We use it along with a similar product, Nutra Start. But these diets are not suitable for insectivores or (as an exclusive diet) for omnivores either. So, great for sparrows (and of course parrots, for which they are specifically formulated) but not good for, say, Mockingbirds, Swifts, or Crows. We have asked the producing companies to clarify this on their packaging for years, since they make statements about suitability that gloss over these critical differences.
He’s quite old enough for seed now. He’ll need to learn to eat it (both taste and manipulation) so he’ll be able to survive in the wild. Please make quality mixed seed available to him now, so he has the chance. After all, he isn’t likely to find much prepared baby food available to him after he goes “exploring” out the window.
“Flight school” is now, and you describe him “practicing”. He’ll be competant to fly even before his feather coat is complete. Probably within days. Birds normally “fledge” (fly away from the nest and begin life on their own) at this stage. As Colibri says, sparrows won’t molt into adult plumage until some time (4 to 6 weeks) later. So you may miss that final determination of gender.
CannyDan - THANKS so much for the advice about food. I will go out and get the best seed I can find ASAP.
To everyone else - thank so much for sharing in my excitement! He is definitely practicing flapping his wings, and I think he’ll be taking off on short indoor flights pretty soon.
I have to tell you the cutest thing he does… Right now, he spends a lot of time in a makeshift nest I crafted out of a ball of yarn fashioned like a doughnut. When he has to poop, he will backup until his little butt is just hanging off the edge, and squirt a poop over the edge of the “nest.” This way, he doesn’t dirty himself!
But he is also very predictable about his pooping. When it’s time to feed him, we first pick him up and hold him over a paper towel, and he will poop! My boyfriend did this over the toilet for even easier cleanup!
He has also been preening his feathers a lot lately. He’s a handsome guy. All I hope for him is that, once he is ready, he will go out into the world and have a good life. I will miss him but he would be bored living with me. There are so m any adventures outside for him, and buddies to hang out with (I always see sparrows hanging out in groups).
Icarus, I am honored that you stopped by to read about your namesake!
No matter what, the life he’s had so far just has to be better than what he would have if you’d not intervened. He’s a handsome little fellow, I’m glad he made it.
The reason I’m posting is because I found a little sparrow of about the same age. Or I should say my dog found him. My dog is a Rat Terrier, his “job” is to find little flitty creatures and end them. Well, he didn’t get the little sparrow, it got into some junk and was fine.
I put the dog up and checked the bird, he seemed fine and could almost fly, he’d skim along the ground a couple of feet at a time. But my dog will always go back to where he last made contact, so I was worried. There are lots of sparrows out there, so I moved him just enough to throw the dog off the trail and threw about a half a loaf of bread out since sparrows love that. Not that I think the little guy would eat it, but it’d sure bring every sparrow around. Hopefully they’ll feed him, but he’ll be able to make it on his own in a couple of days I bet, all I need to do is keep the dog away from him.
No way for me to really take him in, I just hope he makes it long enough to survive on his own.
Lol, I just played your video to see the little guy and my cat jumped up on the desk and got as close as possible to the screen to see/hear/eat the bird.
It behooves me to point out that cat saliva is extremely dangerous to birds. Most people say “toxic,” but it’s really the bacterial content. Even a small scratch can become infected and overwhelm a bird, especially a baby.
Cats have saliva over the whole cat, because they clean themselves with their tongues.
It’s never safe for a bird to be t9ouched by a cat, even gently. Please rein in the kitty!
I am at work today, and my boyfriend is at home “babysitting”, and he made the videos, and I saw the one with the cat too, and I was :eek: :eek:
I called him and asked, in a nutshell WTF??!
He said not to worry, Ulysses (the cat) never touched him, and he was standing right there, giving Ulysses the evil eye, which he (Ulysses) knows means DON’T!
(Well that is what I am trying to believe… because I don’t want anything to happen to Icarus… I would never have taken that risk to get the video…)
But Icarus is OK, and we won’t be doing that again.
I’ve raised many foundling birds. My favorite are any in the corvid family; crows, raven, jays, etc. I had a bluejay named Virgil for a couple years. (Fell out of a very high nest and bustit his leg, which I splinted with toothpicks and bandage tape.) He would sit on my shoulder and whisper in my ear with little whistling noises that I swear had the rhythms, if not the sense, of human speech. (He died suddenly, sans symptoms, in his third year: one night he was fine–happy and whispering–the next morning he was dead on the floor of the cage. Weird.)
He’s flying on his own now! He goes on little trips around the room. He’s not quite ready to be released yet, but will be soon.
We started putting him in the window a few days ago, and he loves looking outside and chatting with the other house sparrows. He gets really excited. A particular female house sparrow noticed his chirping and started coming up to the window and perching on the windowsill or she’ll grasp the window screen and hang out with Icarus. We suspect that it is his mother. There’s a photo of her at the window at the above link! It’s so cute!
Wow, it’s amazing how fast he grew up! Good job on saving the little guy.
I hope it goes well when he’s finally released. I’d be worried about his ability to find food on his own though. If it were me, I guess I might try getting him used to taking his food from a bird feeder while he’s still in the house and then hang it outside once he leaves.
:eek: