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Hello, anyone know what to feed baby robins? (2 Viewers)

W

watt012004

New member
Hello everyone. I just joined this website the other day and am really in need of some help. Long story short I have a robins egg as the parents wouldn't take it back (some idiots knocked down the nest and one egg broke the other was ok). I'm currently incubating the egg and have been from the time it was 2days old. It's expected to hatch this friday and I don't really know what to feed it. I have heard that jarred baby food (turkey and such flavours) is a good food for them but am concerned whether that will have enough nutrients for a growing bird. If anyone has some ideas or has been through raising a baby robin before please help me out. Thanks.
 
Hi Watt,

Welcome to BirdForum!

Best of all is to get it to a licensed bird rehabilitator. They'll know what to do, and will have the means to feed it from dawn to dusk (yes, it'll need to get its first feed before 4 in the morning!).

Failing that, buy mealworms at a pet store. If you get them live, you'll need to snip the head off them before feeding to the bird, but most pet stores sell frozen mealworms too (thaw them out as needed).

Definitely NO milk - that is poisonous to young birds.

Remember the bird will need continued warmth (30-35°C) for the first week or so.

One other option is to find another Robin's nest with eggs/young of the same age and slip the extra one in. They can't count and won't realise there's a new addition to the family.

Michael
 
I know I have been conversing with you thru PMs, but let me give you the official welcome on behalf of the staff here at Bird Forum.

I see our resident expert has come up with an alternative to the baby food which I still do not believe will be good for the bird and mealworms will be easier as opposed to digging your own worms ;)
 
Please let me echo Michael's advice.

By far the best chance the baby will have is in the care of a rehabilitator (I assume that Canada licenses its rehabbers? They are federally licensed in the US). Feeding needs to be done around the clock, every couple of hours. And caring for a newborn bird is a very tough go. If you choose to care for it yourself, please be prepared for a little heartbreak.

Thank you for caring so much about what happened. And good luck.
 
Thanks for your help everyone, unfortunitly the town I live in is very small and out of the way, so there's no rehabilitators around here. I'll remeber what you said about the mealworms, and if I see a robins nest around, and they have robins the same age as mine I'll slip it in. Good news about the egg though, yesterday I held it up to the light and it appears I have been doing everything right (turning it, heating it, etc, etc.). When I held it up to the light I was able to see the head move every now and again. Very exciting and it should be hatching any day now. I'll keep everyone updated, bye for now.
 
Hi Dylan,

Because a newly hatched chick is very tender inside, and a mealworm's jaws are very hard and indigestible (designed for chewing up hard grain!). And particularly if the mealworm is still alive, it might even try to chew its way out. Parent birds always kill such insects before feeding them to their chicks, and quite often chop them up a bit too.

It also helps the baby bird digest them, as its stomach then acts directly on the mealworm's insides, rather than have to get through the chitin of the skin first.

Probably the more they're chopped up before feeding, the better, in fact.

Michael
 
Hello & thanks for that info Michael.

I was with Helen & believed it was a myth.

I live & learn!

Dylan.
 
I have always put out live mealworms. Therefore I'm assuming the parent does the business before feeding it to the young?
 
helenol said:
Therefore I'm assuming the parent does the business before feeding it to the young?
Click to expand...
Yep - it is instinctive, as they've been doing so for millions of years. They bash them against a branch or stone, and crush them in their bills

Michael
 
I've seen blue tits doing something like this with the mealworms.

I handreared a Black East Indian duck last year, and when it was about 2/3 weeks old, I gave it mealworms as a treat. At first I would put the mealworms in a bowl of water to drown them, but after a while, the duck was taking them live. It didn't seem to do it any harm.
 
Michael Frankis said:
Yep - it is instinctive, as they've been doing so for millions of years. They bash them against a branch or stone, and crush them in their bills

Michael
Click to expand...

Well our bluetits certainly don't do this now the chicks are 14 days old! I put out the supply, call the birds - who usually arrive then, if not sooner (when they hear the door open). Within seconds they are back in the box and feeding the young. I'll have to look back in our records, because we have noticed in previous years that the parents at some stage have done a sort of "processing" of each mealworm, before taking it into the box.
 
What I don't understand, is that mealworms are vegetarian - aren't they? So why on earth would they want to gnaw at flesh inside the bird?
 
The duck'll be OK as it is a lot bigger and tougher - it is only very young small nestlings that can't cope with them, before their crop toughens up, etc.

A live mealworm will chew at whatever is in front of it - they can't tell what's what untill they've started (and maybe not even then . . . I somehow don't think they're the brightest in the brains dept. ;))

Michael
 
Michael Frankis said:
A live mealworm will chew at whatever is in front of it - they can't tell what's what untill they've started (and maybe not even then . . .
Click to expand...

Maybe I'll stop offering up the mealworms from my hand & go back to holding a dish ;)
 
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