# Update on Baby Robins



## Keys & Eyegone (May 9, 2004)

Well, there's a good chance I'm going to have to keep them for the winter and release them in the sping.  
I have started feeding them berries awhile back and all of a sudden they got sick and lost A LOT of weight. One of them lost so much weight that it unfortunatly passed away. When I was trying to figure out why they got sick I found out, the berries I bought had some kind of new more "envronmental" pestaside.  I switched berries IMEDETTLY!! More poor babies had lost so much weight I'm very surprised I didn't notice it when it first happened. 
The 3 I have left are on the road to recovery, but they will not be ready for the first snow fall. Now I have another problem tho, PROTIEN!! The ground will soon be frozen and I wont be able to get any worms!! I'm not sure if I shound go back to their baby food mush to get them protien or not. On the website I did get their baby food mush mixure there was an adult mix; now the website for some reason the site doesn't work anymore so I can't get it!!!
And to make matters worse I got sick again!!!   I'm not having FUN!!
If anyone one has any suggestions please post.
Hilary Dawn


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## upcd (Mar 12, 2005)

*Bugs*

Most pet shops sell live crickets and mealy worms. Sum store sell live bait like worms and night crawlers. Then sometime cat or dog food is a source of protien. Hope you find a protien source.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

How old are they now?


Anyway, Baby Birds need LOTS of Protean, certainly, as well as whatever variety of foods their respective species normally thrives on.

Robins may do nicely on fresh clean Fish guts cut up small, or good quality raw fish cut up small...

Canned Water Pack Sardines, "Two Layer" kind are also a good expedient if suitable live Insects can not be provided them.

Fresh ripe Fruits cut up small..Berries of various kinds, dried Berries even...bits of dried Sea Weed...powdered Vitamines and MInerals sp[rinkled on their food...their food moistened with a little Olive Oil for the powders to stick if need be, as well as ripe Fruit bits and Fish bits are already moist...

If they do not get enough protean while babys, they will not grow as large as they should have, and their Feathers may be poor...

Are they still gapeig to be fed or are they self-feeding now?

How old are they?

Phil
Las Vegas


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Hi Keys and Eyegone - sorry to hear of your problems. Some suggestions:

Meal Worms - can order from Grubco 1-800-222-3563 (Hamilton, Ohio) Great company to do business with. 5,000 mediums cost $18.00 plus shipping. The mediums are best to order and about the right size for robins.

Food - Science Diet Adult small bite dog food. Soak but only until they are soft, not mushy and no hard places in them. Also, Hill's Prescription Diet (PD) canine dog food, broken up.

Berries - I have found that grapes are the best fruit. I cannot stress enough to never, never, ever, give any bird holly berries. They are toxic, particularly in large quantities. I know that birds do eat them but they probably know how much is enough - we don't.

Kale - chopped up in small enough bits for the birds to eat.

Multi-vitamins in their water.

Cuttle-bone shavings sprinkled on their food, or powdered Osteoform.

Hope this helps.

maggie


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## Keys & Eyegone (May 9, 2004)

The babies range from 20 to 7 weeks old.
They are self feeding now and don't like human interaction, which is good and I want to keep it that way until I release them.
As for the bait worms, I can't find anymore around here and when I do it's soo expensive I can't keep buying them (almost $10/lbs  out of season I guess) so I've been digging them up in my backyard. 
But I will try the fish and see if they like it (fussy birds  ). Or, I guess, I could get some canned cat food (flaked/chucked).
Lady Tarheel, I think it would be best to use cat food more because cats for stickly carnivors and dogs are more omnivours. But if worst comes to worst I'd use dog food tho. I'd did check at the local pet stores and they no longer carry meal worms and such during the winter months.  
Right now the berries their eating are my dad's grapes that he grows so I know they're good for them (all the other birds each them too).
Any way I have to go, but I'll post when I have more info on the birds.
Thanks,
Hilary Dawn


PS-SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ANIMAL SHELTER, LIKE:
http://www.gloucesterspcabathurst.freeservers.com/index.html
(this is where I work).


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi Hilary,


Meal Worms in moderation...maybe to the tune of one fifth at most of their diet, maybe less...too much of them makes problems, but forgive me, I do not remember right now what those problems are...something not good anyway...something one does not want.


Oddly, Earth Worms are considered VERY bad as far as I recall, for feeding to any Baby Song Birds...various bacteria...

You mention 'Bait Worms' and I have no idea what that would be.

"Berries" such as Goji Berries (and health food store) will likely have fifty times the value of the usual Grapes one can get...you can cut them into halves or thiurds and or soak them if they are on the dry side...

Ripe Cherries are good...Blueberries prolly...see what grows in your area and pick them for the Babys ( even though yours are older now...)

Generally store bought Grapes are to Fruit what Ice Berg Lettuce is to Vegetables, meaning, it is about next to nothing as for value nutritionally.

Fish, small "clean" ( no Salmonella for example ) ones are as close to many Insects as we are going to get.

Especially the skins and internals...

Now too, these Birds need Chlorphyll which normally they would be getting form the intestines and stomachs of some Insects, so, also then some sort of Chlorophyll source, such as 'Chlorella' is good...and other so called 'Super Greens' ( any Health Food Store...)


The bacteria of many 'Bait Worms' and many 'Earth Worms' will make the Baby Birds ill or kill them, even if you did get away with it so far.

While many Song Birds ARE 'Carnivores' they eat the whole Insects which happen to be Herbavores, thus obtaining their 'Herbivore' elements FROM the Stomachs and Intestines of their Insect meals.

Canned Cat food will not be very good, unless it is Canned, whole, (ideally 'raw' ) small Sea Creatures to which one STILL would add Vitamins-Mineral suppliments, a little Olive Oil, Chlorella, Super Greens, and so on AND feed various worthwhile 'Berries' or dried Berries and so on, as well as bits of seasonal ripe, real Fruit...A little 'Pro Biotics' even...

"Nekton-T" is a nice Bird Vitamine-Mineral suppliment you can get via 'google'...

 

Best wishes, 

Phil
Las Vegas


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