For the Birds
One of Kai’s friends came over a couple of weeks ago and flew his radio controlled helicopter onto the roof. (As kids will do.) So, the next day, I bust out the ladder and climb up there to get it. (I’ve been needing to adjust the damn TV antenna for months now anyway.) Well, on my way down, I see a bunch of grass and shit sticking out from under one of the solar panels. “What the hell?” I think and start pulling it out. Lo and behold (of course I should have realized it) it was a fucking bird nest and there come 4 little baby sparrows probably not 2 days out of their eggs.
Shit. If they had chirped or if the mother would have dive bombed me, I would have realized it, but too late now. I’d done destroyed the nest and gotten the babies into a situation in which it was now unlikely that the parents would take care of them. Well, nothing to do but man-up and try to take care of them. (Great, just what I need – another fucking pet!! And 4 of them at that.)
After a bit of an Internet study session I found a couple of sites telling me what I needed. The hardest thing was deciding what to feed them. Well, turns out since sparrows mostly eat seeds, dog/cat food would do the trick. So I crushed up a bit of the Science Diet we feed the dogs, added a bit of Meal Worm powder (for calcium and minerals) from the local pet shop and mixed in a little water. VOILÀ!! Instant bird vomit!!
It was quite surprising how fast they grow. In just a day, the growth of their feathers was plainly evident. Unfortunately, another thing I found in my search of the Net though, was that 90% of babies found like this died. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when the smallest one didn’t wake up one morning. Then the second smallest… But hell, the other 2 are doing good and it’s been a full two weeks now so we’re probably past the worst dangers.
The biggest one actually flew a couple meters today in the house. Can’t wait for them to be able to eat on their own though. It’s a huge pain in the ass having to feed them every 45 minutes from waking to bed time. Should be about another week or so until they can eat, drink, and bathe on their own.
Time to learn how to build a bird cage.
