)))Meet FRED(((

IMPORTANT: If you ever rescue a bird, never try to give it water, you can easily get it into their lungs and drown them. Go to a pet store and buy food, follow the mixing instructions.
6/12/07 On the way home, I asked Jimi to swing into the liquor store for some water. Got out of the car and on the ground was a baby birdie, at first I thought it was on it's way "out" but then Jimi came along and the birdie started squakin. So, we took birdie down the street to the vet's office which turned us away and told us to go to the pet store. Birdie was sitting up with its mouth open for food. The pet store gave us baby birdie food, I mixed some up with the water I had using a key and the lid to the bottle and used the key to feed birdie. So, on our way home, birdie starts squakin again and I started squakin back... and he replied!! So, birdie and I talked about how he was coming to live with us and he said ok. In my studio now, I have the 3 kittens and 1 baby bird... oh, and the birdie is a pigeon which the pet store guy said "OH", as in good grief. Guess we didn't rescue a good enough bird. Anyway, he's as cute as can be. I can't believe he's alive after the fall he took... only time will tell now cause one thing is for sure; he's got a full belly.
At home, I have a lot of pet tanks from when I had lots of lizards. I put birdie in one of the tanks but he kept falling over. Well DUH, he needs a nest. A bowl and a towel worked and I can tell he is happy. I read that they strengthen their legs by bracing themselves against the nest walls.



I was going to name him “Bungie” but then my friend Jane came up with F.R.E.D.

Fernando
Rodriguez
Eduardo
Domingez

6/13 I noticed a lump on Fred's neck, it goes down after he rests for a while and then when he chirps it puffs back up. I thought it was an infection at first, don't know what it is now.

6/14 Ok, the sack fills up with food! Weird. This is fun, I'm his mommy. Fred does the cutest things, before each bite of food, he chirps! Then once he starts chewing, he stomps his feet!!

6/23 Fred flew around my room



6/24 Fred gave me ringworm - to rid yourself of ringworm, use anti-fungal cream (athletes foot cream).

6/28 Fred grew up so very fast, amazing that in 4 days he had all his feathers out. He's beautiful… a small bird, maybe a finch. Teaching Fred to eat worms and seeds was interesting. Took him 2 days of staring at the seed branch to figure it out. It also took two days to get him to eat worms on his own.

Well, one day I had only about 5 little worms and there was no more baby bird food for him, Jimi would bring some home after work. What a noisy day I had… Fred squaked in protest. I went to the kitchen and we had some honey wheat berry bread so I tried that. Well, Fred didn't like it and he spit it out! I looked for oatmeal but we didn't have any, then I saw corn flakes. Fred spit them out. I had fish food so I tried that. Fred spit it out. I took the corn flakes and soaked them in water, made a mush like his bird food. He spit most of it out. The UPS man showed up with the package of gourmet almonds I ordered and as I was enjoying them it dawned on me to try giving Fred some almonds. So, I chewed up a bunch and I spit them out!! Sure enough, Fred loved it. Finally, Jimi came home with worms and seeds.

I've been opening the lid to the enclosure that Fred is in. What a smart bird. He jumps up to the stick I put in there and then hops out onto the lid. Then he will jump back down to the stick and into his house. He does this all day. He's flown around a few times but it looks like something is wrong with one of his wings. Most likely from when he fell as a baby. He has a hard time flying up. If he doesn't improve, we may just have to keep him. I'm not one that likes to keep wild animals locked up, I rescue and release but in this case, I may not have a choice. Our other option is to bring Fred to my Father's house and let him live in the front yard. My Dad doesn't have any cats and Jimi works there so would be able to feed Fred as needed. We thought we could make him a bird-house.

I had a lot of fun with Fred yesterday. I was taking photo's of my jewelry and put Fred in the photo with me. He sat on my hand, nice and still. What a bird!!



Ahna

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