Injured Magpie

[NinaPeas]

Hi Everyone,

One of the babies that I have been watching over the past weeks in my garden, I found injured yesterday, it has a limp and was quite under weight. I'm going to hold onto it for a couple of days, and if there is no improvement I'll take it to the vet.

I'm just wondering, what should I feed it. I don't want tot give it process foods, but all I could do this morning was give it some raw bacon, and small pieces of bread soaked in egg.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Shiv1]

My grand parents started looking after a little magpie which had a brocken wing they fed him on beef mince and surprisingly he grew better and mated the year later now they have to look after a minature coloney

[Just_Joshin]

Originally Posted by NinaPeas

Hi Everyone,

One of the babies that I have been watching over the past weeks in my garden, I found injured yesterday, it has a limp and was quite under weight. I'm going to hold onto it for a couple of days, and if there is no improvement I'll take it to the vet.

I'm just wondering, what should I feed it. I don't want tot give it process foods, but all I could do this morning was give it some raw bacon, and small pieces of bread soaked in egg.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Worms!! Go give a section of your garden (a small one) a good soak with water, come back in 30 minutes to one hour and have a little scratch around. You should find a couple of worms.

[SnakeWrangler]

Was it feeding itself prior to the injury? If it wasn't you might need to mash its food up. If it were me I would gather worms and a range of insects for it. I have no doubt mince will be fine for it, however you will want to release it and you want it to know how to feed itself, it isn't going to find mince in the wild, but it will find worms and insects.

[moosenoose]

Yep I reckon the worms are also the go. A few mashed crickets might be good?? I think the trick is keep the food coming every few hours during the day, but in very small amounts. I've managed to look after a little Magpie over the past 5 days and it seemed to be thriving (mind you it wasn't injured) I also used a water dropper to give it little amounts of water a few times a day to keep its fluids up. Good luck

(ps: If I was a bird I'd be scared being looked after by me, my past record with them is appalling By the way, I've given the bird off to a registered native bird carer in the area, I figured it would have a much better chance of survival with them than me )

[Jonno from ERD]

They will eat pink mice and rats like there's no tomorrow, too.

[NinaPeas]

It's a resident family, and it was fine yesterday. It's not a baby baby, it has all it's feathers, and has been eating small amounts on it's own, and also being fed by the parents.

The parents have been picking on them a bit lately (time to find their own way), so I thought maybe it had been picked on too much, but now I think maybe it's been attacked by something or flown into something.

I'll get some preservative-free mince to try and fatten it up a bit, and a variety of insects as well. Do you think a few mealworms would be ok?

[Inkslinger]

Wombaroo make an insectivore mix add that to lean beef mashed egg cheese and parsley.

[NinaPeas]

I think cheese would be too fatty, and I want to stay away from human food (even though that's what the parent's have been feeding them their whole lives lol)

Does anyone know how to tell the sex of a magpie when it's still young? I know the males backs are while and the females grey when they are older

[Inkslinger]

http://www.birdcare.com.au/magpie.htm

This should help and no cheese is not too fatty

[nuthn2do]

Take it to the vet there's obviously something wrong with it. If you choose not to it needs a high fat diet of cheap beef mince and insectivore mix like wombaroo or vetafarm. Feeding young birds lean meat is like giving a baby skim milk.
Don't give it dairy or bread unless you want to kill it

[Inkslinger]

This is the html version of the file http://www.birdcare.asn.au/pdf/magpies.pdf.
G o o g l e automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

Google is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content. These search terms have been highlighted: feeding magpies Page 1 BCCS FEEDING ADVICE FOR MAGPIES
(and other insect eaters- Ravens, Currawongs etc)
The Bird Care and Conservation Society Inc. discourages the public from feeding wild
birds. We advise that native trees should be planted that provide nectar, pollen, seed
and berries, and attract insects. This will be a permanent food source that will never
go on holidays or move house leaving the birds who are relying on a food source to go
hungry.
Different birds have different dietary needs and generally eat a wide variety of food.
Table scraps do not provide good nutrition for adults birds - or parent birds who are
rearing young.
Magpies should never under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be fed raw meat. NOT even as
an occasional treat.
Insectivores such as magpies need a protein-rich diet with lesser amounts of
carbohydrate and fat and they have extremely high calcium requirements.
If you feel that you must feed wild magpies we recommend the formula below. Only
feed a small amount per day so that the birds will rely on natural food sources that
will provide ALL their dietary requirements.
Formula
1 can Pal puppy food
Wheat germ
Heinz High Protein baby cereal
Wombaroo insectivore mix - (available through your vet, or pet shop)
One tablespoon chopped parsley
One chopped hard-boiled egg
Half a cup of grated hard cheese ie- Old Bitey
One tablespoon of calcium carbonate
All of the above ingredients must be used.
If any are left out nutritional deficiencies can occur
Add equal amounts of Heinz high protein baby cereal, wheat germ, and Wombaroo
insectivore mix to the can of Puppy pal (one spoon of each at a time) until the mix is a
moist crumble. Add the grated cheese, parsley, egg and calcium carbonate.
This makes a large supply that can be frozen in small amounts with each days supply
being defrosted as necessary. All food must be fed fresh or freshly defrosted daily.
All feeding dishes must be washed in hot soapy water daily to prevent disease.

Also too if you take the animal to the vet (well in Victoria anyway) they will put it down.

[NinaPeas]

Originally Posted by nuthn2do

Take it to the vet there's obviously something wrong with it. If you choose not to it needs a high fat diet of cheap beef mince and insectivore mix like wombaroo or vetafarm. Feeding young birds lean meat is like giving a baby skim milk.
Don't give it dairy or bread unless you want to kill it

I wont feed it lean meat, but I will get preservative free mince. The parents have been feeding it bread, and it's all I had in the house, so better than nothing.

If it doesn't improve by tomorrow I'll take it to the vet, I'm just concerned they will put it down, some vets will because they have no-one to charge to costs to. And I don't think there are any wildlife carers in my area (I've tried before with injured possums, birds etc)

[nuthn2do]

Originally Posted by Inkslinger

Magpies should never under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be fed raw meat. NOT even as
an occasional treat.
Insectivores such as magpies need a protein-rich diet with lesser amounts of
carbohydrate and fat and they have extremely high calcium requirements.
If you feel that you must feed wild magpies we recommend the formula below. Only
feed a small amount per day so that the birds will rely on natural food sources that
will provide ALL their dietary requirements.
Formula
1 can Pal puppy food
Wheat germ
Heinz High Protein baby cereal
Wombaroo insectivore mix - (available through your vet, or pet shop)
One tablespoon chopped parsley
One chopped hard-boiled egg
Half a cup of grated hard cheese ie- Old Bitey
One tablespoon of calcium carbonate
All of the above ingredients must be used.
If any are left out nutritional deficiencies can occur

Wombaroo is complete apart from the fat content needed for young birds, obviously they have not done much research.

[Gregory]

Or you could do the right thing and hand it over to one of the Wildlife Rescue organisations and have an experienced carer rehabilitate it. It'll stand a fighting chance then.





Greg.