You can get a handfeeding kit for baby parrots at most pet stores. Perhaps, if you ask them, they may have one for wild baby birds too. I know that baby parrots need to be fed every 2 hours until they are weaned (yes, even at night), so I would assume its the same with the robin.
A wild bird, especially a robin or starling or other insectivorious bird is nothing like a parrot. Parrots, finches, etc. are seed eaters. Robins, starlings, etc. are meat eaters. Big difference ... like the difference in raising a calf and a puppy. The parrot formula you buy at a pet store might be alright to raise some wild birds on (for example, pigeons and doves can survive on it), but it very wrong for robins. Robins should eat a mixture of soaked dog food, applesauce and poultry mash ... with a good portion of insects, if you can find or buy them. Crickets, moths, and grubs are good, as are waxworms. Mealworms are earthworms are not good.
You don't need to feed a baby robin at night. Mother birds sleep all night ... they aren't up feeding their babies. Feed your baby robin from first light in the morning until darkness, and he'll be fine.
I put all the baby birds I raise in a margarine dish wrapped in a dishtowel and lined with tissues. Make sure to pad the dish with tissues until the baby fits snugly with no extra room. If you keep a baby bird in too large a container for a "nest", his legs will spread and he will develop splay-leg and not be able to stand, walk or perch properly. Keep a heating pad on low under the box you have the bird in until it gets feathers. When birds get feathers or down, they are then able to regulate their own body temperature.
"We give dogs the time we can spare, the space we can spare and the love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made" - M. Facklam
"We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers - thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams."- P.S. Beagle
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." - J.R.R. Tolkien
Bookmarks