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Message: <blockquote data-quote="janine13" data-source="post: 154052" data-attributes="member: 1683">Congratulations on successfully raising the young magpie. You did a wonderful job, raising babies is tough! Definitely put it in a cage outside as soon as possible to minimise human contact and so that it can get used to the outdoors. Make sure it is out of reach of predators and that there is someplace the bird can hide/shelter in case of bad weather or if a raccoon climbs on the cage. You can get the bird to start eating on its own by gradually feeding it less often and providing it with a dish of food. Make sure you add some live insects to the dish to get its attention. When you feed it, feed it from the food dish so that it recognises the dish as the source of food. You can pick up bugs and berries and stuff with a hemostat or tweezers and gently place the food in the bird's mouth. The pieces should not be too big and never hand-feed live insects. Also give a shallow water dish. It may be a good idea to supplement the food and water- magpies have a protein rich diet, and the kaytee formula doesnt have enough protein, it is meant for parrots. Maybe sprinkle some protein powder onto the food dish, or mix some in with the water.  Keep up the good work! But don't adopt every baby you find, every kind of bird requires different care, and some are more difficult to raise than others. It is best to leave it to the experts. But if you find that you enjoy working with wildlife, you might want to volunteer at your local wildlife center, they always need the help, especially during baby season!</blockquote>

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