Advice on Baby Birds?

[rascalboy]

Hey everyone! I'm new here. At my barn we have a lot of birds that nest in the rafters of the arena, and usually there are a couple babies that fall and get squished by the horses eventually. There was one in the arena yesterday, so some one gave it to me to do something with. He seemed rather feisty so I figured I'd attempt to take care of it rather than just killing it. (We can't put them back in the nests, since they're in the roof and twenty feet in the air, and they can't stay in the general area because the horses will trample them). So right now he's in a 'nest' indoors over a heating pad (temp seems to be around 85degrees), and he ate very well yesterday (fed from about 9pm every twenty min until about 10:30pm) but after I fed him around 5:45am this morning, he's decided he doesn't want to eat. I've convinced him to take two mouthfulls, but that's about it.
He's a nestling. He's got pin feathers, but other than that he's naked. His eyes are open, but they seem extremely small. Maybe 1/16th of an inch open. He seems to have trouble moving around, but that's probably because his legs aren't strong enough to do anything and his wings aren't incredibly useful either.
He doesn't want to eat, but he's very good at shrieking at me when I try and get him to eat...
Any advice on care/feeding would be great.

[Roscoe's Mom]

Since this was written a week ago, chances are your bird friend has either received rehab or has passed away. In the case of the latter I am truly sorry. However I thought I would lend my personal advice since there is a strong chance this will happen again where you are, and I know that if I were in your shoes I couldn't watch baby birds be trampled to death or starve to death, myself.

If you use your phone book and ask local agencies, perhaps starting with the Humane Society, if they know of any wildlife rehabilitation organizations, you can take the birds there. They would much more likely survive under such care, since a wildlife rehab would have specific information regarding the care and dietary needs of your native species. At the very least, a vet may tell you how to provide care for the birds: when handfeeding a bird, all you have to do is aim wrong once and the baby will aspirate the food into its windpipe. Typically such deaths are fast, but sometimes they are unfortunately long.

[Roscoe's Mom]

Sorry, duplicate post

[crish]

Hi dear i have a question about baby bird we found a baby bird and accidentally cracked the eggshell and a little wormlike thing is crawling around and we think its the baby bird. Can we save it and see if it stays alive.

[Petronela]

These are dangerous signs, first sign of illness, you should contact your veterinarian immediately."There are a few things you can keep on hand to save your bird. Most bird handlers have a special first aid kit kept near the bird's cage"