Expert: Roger Lederer - 5/14/2005

Question
Hi, I live way out in the boonies, and there are no propper places to take a bird that are in my local town.

A strong wind blew a nest of baby birds out of a tree in my back yard.  I beleive they are Sparrows, but I'm not sure.  I'm not a bird expert, but I googles for a bunch of bird pix, and the parents look like they could be sparrows.

Anyhoo, One baby died, the other lived. I've kept it alive by putting it in a bundled towel on a reptile rock, and feeding it a blended up mess of peanut butter, rasins, applesauce, cheerios, raw eggs and creamed corn.

I've had it for 5 days and the feathers are just comming in.  It's never stood well on it's own and i just figured out why.  It's leg is broken just above the knee.  I'm not sure how to splin it, and I'm worried about making the problem worse.

Answer
The diet you are feeding it seems ok, but add some liquid baby vitamins to the mix. Often young birds raised in captivity don't get enough vitamins and their bones deteriorate,which could be the source of the leg problem. However, if it is truly broken, it is unlikely that you will be able to fix it. Birds' bones shatter when they break and are very hard to repair. For more information on raising baby birds go to www.ornithology.com/rehab.html. Roger Lederer