Believe it or not, we have 3 Finches approximately three and one half weeks old that are still hooked on cat food (Fancy Feast Beef).
My wife and I found five just born House Finches three weeks ago in a nest that had fallen out of a small tree in our back yard after a very violent rain storm. Three of the birds were in the flooded nest and two were on the ground nearby. All were soaked, cold, gasping, and barely alive. We placed them in the nest and took the nest inside and placed it under a 10 watt "moon glow" light that was being used for our reptile cage. The birds immediately began to squirm in the warm light. These birds were hairless and approximately one to one and a half inches long.
We made up some oatmeal and combined it with some creamy baby food and carefully placed small amounts of the soft food into their gaping mouths with a plastic coffee stir stick. To our surprise they began to respond as if starved. We continued this diet every hour all the first day. During the night, the "runt" of the group, died, and four remained ok. We suspected the runt would not make due to its small size and we figured that it suffered the most duing the cold rainstorm.
We searched the internet and read that moist cat food (beef flavor) contained a lot of protien so we gradually moved from baby food to cat food. The birds loved it!!! We learned that the plastic coffee stir stick idea was actually recommended by someone else to serve the food directly into their mouths. We acquired a cage and a new, larger wicker basket lined with soft bedding material to serve as the nest. The four birds traveled with us to work for two weeks and everyone there helped out with the feeding schedule on one hour intervals. Everyone was surprised at how fast, from day to day, the birds were growing and developing personalities. Their eyes opened and feathers formed rapidly. As they saw our faces with the "food stick" they would squawk loudly !! Really a sight to see and hear.
Last week, one of the four, began to appear "matted" looking and it's eyes looked tired. We fed it the cat food as per the others, and although it was the most vocal at feeding time, we awoke the next morning to find that it died during the night for reasons we were not sure of. It had plenty to eat, so we are not sure why it did not make it. The remaining three were very healthy. Nonetheless, we were very sad that it died considering the success we were having since the day the nest fell from the tree. It was so happy and vocal the night before.
This past weekend, we acquired a much larger cage, approximately 36 inches long by 26 inches deep by 26 inches tall. We added perches, water dish, finch seed dish, and a dish for a soft moist food mix containing eggs, fruit, and insect parts (from a bird store). We still continued to feed cat food while introducing these new foods. The birds were now flying around the cage and appeared restless, like they wanted out. So, we gradually let them out to see what they would do. They flew out to the mesquite trees in the yard and experimented with flight all day. Each time we walked out in the yard, all three birds would fly down to us and either land on our heads or on outstretched hands and they were chirping for food. The rest of the wild birds in the yard would scatter at our presence, but ours flew to us!!! So, we fed them their favorite - cat food on the feeding stick.
For the past three days the birds have barely touched the finch seed or egg mixture we have placed out (in abundance) and will only eat the cat food served on the stir stick. Fearing that they would starve all day while we were at work, we were able to coax the three back into the cage last night so we could more closely monitor their eating and social habits before letting them go for good. Our concern and question is, after almost four weeks of raising and hand feeding (cat food), will these wild finches eventually learn to eat by mimicing other birds or have they become dependent on us and the cat food? What should we do now? We would love to keep them in a cage due to our fear of them not finding their own food, but they are wild birds and we know that they need to somehow be with other wild birds doing what birds do.
We would appreciate assistance from those more experienced. This has been a very rewarding venture because four weeks ago, these birds would have died had we not found them and rescued them.
My wife and I found five just born House Finches three weeks ago in a nest that had fallen out of a small tree in our back yard after a very violent rain storm. Three of the birds were in the flooded nest and two were on the ground nearby. All were soaked, cold, gasping, and barely alive. We placed them in the nest and took the nest inside and placed it under a 10 watt "moon glow" light that was being used for our reptile cage. The birds immediately began to squirm in the warm light. These birds were hairless and approximately one to one and a half inches long.
We made up some oatmeal and combined it with some creamy baby food and carefully placed small amounts of the soft food into their gaping mouths with a plastic coffee stir stick. To our surprise they began to respond as if starved. We continued this diet every hour all the first day. During the night, the "runt" of the group, died, and four remained ok. We suspected the runt would not make due to its small size and we figured that it suffered the most duing the cold rainstorm.
We searched the internet and read that moist cat food (beef flavor) contained a lot of protien so we gradually moved from baby food to cat food. The birds loved it!!! We learned that the plastic coffee stir stick idea was actually recommended by someone else to serve the food directly into their mouths. We acquired a cage and a new, larger wicker basket lined with soft bedding material to serve as the nest. The four birds traveled with us to work for two weeks and everyone there helped out with the feeding schedule on one hour intervals. Everyone was surprised at how fast, from day to day, the birds were growing and developing personalities. Their eyes opened and feathers formed rapidly. As they saw our faces with the "food stick" they would squawk loudly !! Really a sight to see and hear.
Last week, one of the four, began to appear "matted" looking and it's eyes looked tired. We fed it the cat food as per the others, and although it was the most vocal at feeding time, we awoke the next morning to find that it died during the night for reasons we were not sure of. It had plenty to eat, so we are not sure why it did not make it. The remaining three were very healthy. Nonetheless, we were very sad that it died considering the success we were having since the day the nest fell from the tree. It was so happy and vocal the night before.
This past weekend, we acquired a much larger cage, approximately 36 inches long by 26 inches deep by 26 inches tall. We added perches, water dish, finch seed dish, and a dish for a soft moist food mix containing eggs, fruit, and insect parts (from a bird store). We still continued to feed cat food while introducing these new foods. The birds were now flying around the cage and appeared restless, like they wanted out. So, we gradually let them out to see what they would do. They flew out to the mesquite trees in the yard and experimented with flight all day. Each time we walked out in the yard, all three birds would fly down to us and either land on our heads or on outstretched hands and they were chirping for food. The rest of the wild birds in the yard would scatter at our presence, but ours flew to us!!! So, we fed them their favorite - cat food on the feeding stick.
For the past three days the birds have barely touched the finch seed or egg mixture we have placed out (in abundance) and will only eat the cat food served on the stir stick. Fearing that they would starve all day while we were at work, we were able to coax the three back into the cage last night so we could more closely monitor their eating and social habits before letting them go for good. Our concern and question is, after almost four weeks of raising and hand feeding (cat food), will these wild finches eventually learn to eat by mimicing other birds or have they become dependent on us and the cat food? What should we do now? We would love to keep them in a cage due to our fear of them not finding their own food, but they are wild birds and we know that they need to somehow be with other wild birds doing what birds do.
We would appreciate assistance from those more experienced. This has been a very rewarding venture because four weeks ago, these birds would have died had we not found them and rescued them.
