help with abandoned starlings?

Question

WE had a nest near our pool house and the eggs hatched last week. We noticed yesterday that the birds were looking for food each time we passed it. There were lots of people over. Today, there was only one actively asking for food. the other two were barely moving/breathing. We brought the nest in and started giving sugar water from a syringe i had from work with a fine tip. After about 3 hours, we moved onto egg yolks mixed with sugar water. The birds have eaten every 15 to 20m minutes and two are pooping normally, one has a diarhea stool. any advice. We stopped feeding 30 mintues ago and have moved them to a bed of old towels as advised in one site surrounded by hot water bottles to maintain some heat source. What should we expect to do for tomorrow and are we doing everything correctly? What can we expect for the next week/two weeks.
Thanks very much

Answer 1

Be extremely careful giving them sugar water - they can inhale it and drown themselves. The best thing to do is not give them any type of liquids at all. For an easy and quick meal, you can go buy a whole lot of small crickets at the pet store (over 100, especially since you have so many chicks) and feed them squished ones with tweezers. Once they start getting used to you feeding them and beg for food, you can get some high protein dry cat food and moisten it with apple juice. I put the kibble in a drinking cup and fill it with juice so that it barely reaches the top of the kibble. Then pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds, and let it cool for 15 minutes. The kibbles should be sqishy, but not drippy. Then, you can feed them small bites of the cat food until they are full. They also like small bits of juicy fruits like apples, grapes, cherries, peaches, and plums. Keep feeding them those three things: cat food, crickets, and fruit, and they should be very healthy and eating well.
If they are still very young and don't have all their feathers, you'll need to keep them very warm. Put a heating pad on LOW in a shoebox or something similar and put a towel on the pad. Then put the birds on the pad and cover them with anothe towel so that they stay above 80 degrees. The hot water bottle thing you are doing works well too, but make sure you remember to reheat the water, and cover the baby birds with a towl to keep the heat in.
You are already feeding them at the right times. At that age, they need food every 20 minutes or so. At night, you should feed them once an hour, so I hope you are prepared to stay up late for a few weeks.
At about two weeks old, they should start getting adult feathers and will still need to be kept warm until they are fully feathered at 3 weeks. At four weeks, they will start practicing their flying, and also pecking at things on the ground looking for food. This is when you need to get them a cage. You should leave some of the cat food mix on a little dish in their cage so they can try to pick it up on their own.
I'm giving you the link to a great starling website below that should give you even more information than I did. Good luck!

Answer 2

Call the local Audubon Society. I did that when I found a baby bird by the windshield wipers of my car. I'd probably brought him home that way without knowing he was there. They asked me to describe the bird, which I did, and then they told me to feed it canned dog food (!) I kept him alive for a few days, but he was alone all day when my husband and I were at work, and he didn't make it. Starlings are very common birds and would not be protected. But baby birds need to eat frequently, so you'd better start feeding them something. PS - A pet store may have some sort of food you could feed to baby birds. Bird breeders would need that.

Answer 3

Put the nest back. Let nature do her thing. Starling chicks have a male and female care giver, they take care of each other. Chances are if mom is dead dad is looking for the chicks. These birds do not live in the hands of caring people. They will die in your house or have a small chance back where they were. Sorry for the bad news.

Answer 4

I know you won't be happy, but do the environment a favor and abandon them unless you can keep them in a cage. Otherwise, keep them in a box with towels on the bottom and follow the other answerers' advice. A good reason to abandon them is because starlings kill parents just to have the nest. They also kill the chicks or break the eggs.

Answer 5

My siblings and I adopted two baby starlings when we were kids, too.

It takes a big heart to expend such efforts on behalf of abandoned babies like that. Two things you need to consider, though, before you do more.

First, if a bird notices one of its offspring won't make it, that parent will often either kick the dying baby out of the nest or simply abandon the nest (if none of the babies are viable). Unless both parents were killed, you are probably working to keep terminally-sick baby birds alive.

Second, nursing abandoned baby starlings isn't all that different from nursing abandoned housefly offspring. Starlings are ridiculously numerous, noisy, dirty, and hostile birds. They have a habit of attacking passers-by and like to drive other birds out of *their* homes. And they are good carriers of diseases. In short, starlings are pests, not pets.

I know it's not the answer you want, but don't waste your time with these.

Answer 6

i was raising a baby bird once and use "exact hand feeding formula for all baby birds" made by KAYTEE i got mine at a pet supply store mix as directed feed with syringe and keep warm ( i kept my in a picknick basket. after a couple of weeks u can move them to a small bird cage, however keep an eye on their craw. look up "how to raise birds" on the internet and it will tell you how much and how often ( or just read the food container

Answer 7

if you can,give birds to a rehabliitator, however, i have had plenty of baby starlings they are hardy birds. get dry cat food,soak it in water until it becomes spongy.then one kibble at a time insent into beak (mouth ) slightly push into throat.when their gullet (throat) starts to get large thats enough . as the days go by ,they will know you as a food source and feeding will become easier. as they get older they will become less dependent for food ,as long as they can come and go. i usually put them in a cage on the front porch with the door open ,the will eventually leave .you can also take them in the yard as they get older and teach them how to fly. hold them in the palm of your hand in front of the cage, they will try to fly toward the cage ,move back farther each day .eventually they will fly. starling are also beggers ... they will feed off you as long as they can .,longer than they need to, you'll know good luck

Answer 8

You need to call a wildlife rehab immediently! The sugar water will have started an infection in the chicks and without medical care they will die.

Answer 9

Something similar happened to me. I would check out this website:
http://www.starlingcentral.net/babystarlings.htm
It had all of the answers I needed. Be prepared for a lot of work and good luck.