Help! Injured Hummingbird!?
March 15, 2011 Hummingbird Bird Feeder
So the nieghborhood cat got a hold of a baby humming bird!!!! I placed him in a little box with twigs, and moss on the bottom, and fed him some sugar water. I don’t think anything is broken, but he can’t fly. After a while of eating the water, he got kinda spaztic, and tried to fly.
I noticed some of his feathers under one of his wings is missing. I read on the internet that a hummingbird can survive about 4 hours with out food, but anylonger and he’ll die.
I don’t know what to do. I called my local animal shelter and they basically said to put him outside (in the cold mind you) and if he was there in the morning bring him in, and they could see what they could do. I asked her if they were going to kill him and she said, "Well if it looks like he won’t recover.." I don’t trust that…
I don’t know what to do!!!! HELP!!!!
Comments (4)
Hummingbirds are fun, entertaining, full of energy and it’s easy to attract hummingbirds.
You need to get a hold of a local wildlife rehab, not the animal shelter..they are usually not licensed to treat wildlife in the first place. A rehab will be able to access the birds chances much better and will start it on antibiotics, as a cats saliva is basically toxic to birds. Look here for a rehab near you:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.htm
In the mean time keep the bird warm in a quiet place. Usually I would suggest NOT to feed a wild baby bird as they can easily choke to death..but in the case of hummingbirds they must eat often or they will die..so if you can get it to take the sugar water continue doing so. Just put small droplets (one at a time) on the top of it’s bill and let the bird get it off by itself. Birds sleep at night so if you have to keep it overnight put it in a dark place and it wil go into a torpor (short hibernation) state and you will not have to keep up feeding again until morning when the bird wakes up.
Hold the hummingbird GENTLY and slide its bill in and out of the feeder port several times. If it drinks, try to release it, if it still will not fly, place it in a dark box and contact a local wildlife rehabilitator or vet for instructions.
Sugar water is insufficient as a long-term diet for hummingbirds, the mix only provides carbohydrates and they need fats and proteins that normally come from tiny insects. You can try crushing up fruit flies and placing them in the sugar water mixture or even better yet purchase Nektar-Plus.
Remember that it is against federal, state, or provincial laws in the United States, Canada, and some other countries to keep a hummingbird in captivity without special permits.
i don’t know if its possible, those little guys are too spastic to be kept captive for long.
BUT here is my advice and i hope for the best
-get him some sugar water, or even better is humming bird food. I don’t know how you would get him to eat it, aside from getting a hummingbird feeder.
- if he gets too hyped up and looks like hes going to hurt himself, turn the lights off, or somehow make it dark. most birds calm down almost instantly when they can’t see.
- don’t let other animals or small children near it, or it’ll freak out and have a heart attack. have as little contact with it as you can.
- it depends how cold it is outside and where you are, because where i am its snowing so no hummingbirds here yet. if its just a little chilly outside he should be fine as long as it doesn’t freeze, its where he lives after all.
- if you decide to keep it and you have a large birdcage you should probably keep it in there, so it has room to try to fly (once it can) but wont fly anywhere its not supposed to (like under foot). Or a small cage might discourage him from trying to fly? I’m not sure, so il say either really big, or really small as long as its enclosed and not made of glass (so he doesn’t fly into it). or if you have to do glass, put some masking tape on it so he knows its solid.
-The animal shelter should be your last resort. My family once found a blue herring on our lawn, it had a broken wing. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with time and effort (speaking from plenty of years of experience), but we thought it would be best to bring it to the shelter.
the next day they told us they had to put it down because its wing was infested with maggots…. there were no maggots when we found the bird. The truth is that injured birds are fragile and hard to care for and few people will spend the time and effort on it.
I have lots of experience with parrots, doves, hawks, budgies, finches, emus, etc. but i never worked with humming birds, i just watch them outside. this is only an educated guess, keep up you research and i hope he(she?) gets better.
Need to keep the bird warm and call local vet or the DEC who can refer you to a wildlife rehabber in area. They will know what to do and it is free. You can go to store and get a standard hummer feeder and food cheap and rig it in the area you have him in. But he needs a rehabber or vet fast as any bird espcially one this small that has gotten attacked by cat needs antibiotics fast.Deadly bacteria can set in from cats saliva. If it is bleeding at all apply flour or cornstarch to wound. Some vets will take in injured wildlife. It is free. Try to keep feeding it as it will die without food. Do not force down throat though. So good of you to help it.