Expert: Julia Booth - 7/12/2010

Question
I rescued a house sparrow almost 3 weeks ago. Had hardly any feathers and was near dead. We fed him dry dog food ground up with water to make a paste and fed him with a straw every half hour for a couple of weeks.  He was thriving, kept him outdoors near his family in a cage. All feathers came in, he was on his perch and his mother was on the cage and he was jumping around so we put him in the yard and off he flew. Now he comes back evey day on my deck hourly we we kept him and chirps for me to stil feed him.  I have been doing it, he comes near me and lets me feed him.  Will not eat off the railing where he sits only the straw. My question is am I doing the right thing, will he begin to eat not needing the straw. It seems he doesnt' know how to eat any other way.  He's healthy and flies around all day but comes to me to eat.

Answer
Typically they fledge at around 14 days old, and do not require their parents to feed them past that point. He should not be completely dependent on you for food, once he's old enough to fledge. If you stop feeding him with the straw, he should learn to eat on his own, the operative word of course being SHOULD. Try offering him some small, live bugs. See if he makes any attempt to eat them. If not, he might need a little more time. But he shouldn't be dependent on you indefinitely.

Kudos to you for being willing to do that,

Julia