Raising starlings.....

[sssaucey]

So I haven't been very active on the forum lately because I have been raising two starlings that were found in my cousins attic, before taking them I looked to see if I could find their nest, but had no luck. I have had them for about a week and a half and they have grown very quickly.

They were about 11 days old when I found them(googled age pics haha) and now they are about 22 days old. They are also starting to fly.

Now the dilemma should I let them go when they are old enough? Technically I'm not allowed to let them go since they are a non native species.

Or should I keep them? they're not overly tame but they do jump on my hands while trying to feed them.

also I think it was Icywolf that was also raising a starling so I wanted to know what she ended up doing with him/her

 

[IcyWolf]

Yes, it was me, we had him for about a week, was eating great, growing, gaining weight, no obvious problems, then it was a saturday morning, we went to feed him and he was gone I have no idea what happened, friday night he was chirping away as happy as can be, eating like a little piggy and then saturday he was gone. The people that brought him to me said that they had originally taken him out of their dogs mouth, he didn't have any punctures or anything but I don't know if there was any underlying problems or anything. I called my vet when we first got him and they told me they didn't see starlings so I really couldn't have him examined or anything. We originally intended on releasing him but he became so tame that we were planning on keeping him or finding him another home where he would be a pet. I was so shocked that he didn't make it, the first few days I was kind of prepared for the worst but when we had him for a week I figured we were in the free and clear and he was going to be fine. I was also very irritated that about 3 weeks after he passed I found a semi local lady that takes in non native species and rehabs them since none of the licensed wildlife places can. She did tell me that all of the ones she takes in never end up wild again though. I talked to her for a little bit and she told me that what we were feeding him was fine and that everything sounded right so she wasn't really sure why we lost him either. I guess sometimes they just have problems that you can't really do much about unless you have a vet that is willing to see them "under the radar". I did save the womans number just in case I ever end up with any more wild babies. I wouldn't mind raising them myself if I was a little more trained in the field and I didn't have all of the parrot babies but it's just too big of a risk for me to bring outside birds in near my flock. When we had Jeremy, the starling, I had to keep him in a completely separate part of the house and scrub my arms and hands everytime he ate, and I would even change my shirt after feeding him which is quite a hassle since he ate every 2 hours!

It sounds like you have things pretty under control, personally, I would keep them if they are pretty tame, I would feel differently if they were native birds but these birds are from europe and really have no business being here, even though I'm sure taking two out of the wild isn't going to make any ecological difference in the broad spectrum of things.

 

[cdog]

I'd say keep them, starlings are actually very good talkers so you could have two einsteins on your hands!

 

[sssaucey]

Aww that's to bad, he must have had some internal injuries

I saw videos of them talking on youtube, not going to lie it's a little creepy lol

I know what you mean about washing your hands poor Jewels hasn't had much attention from me since I got them, even though I wash my hands and arms(I don't change my shirt unless they touched me). Just nervous about any diseases they could have.

They now get fed every three hours, if I feed them every two hours they eat barely anything so I added an hour and that seems to be when they start screaming for food now. I couldn't imagine hand rearing parrots since I find starlings difficult and you don't have to feed them through the night.

 

[cdog]

You don't feed parrot through the night, you give them about five hours of sleep which gets longer and longer as thy get older.

 

[sssaucey]

Ohhh ok I always thought it was the same as during the day for them, but compared to a starling being able to go without a feeding for 12 hours during the night that's still pretty tiring haha

 

[IcyWolf]

Aww that's to bad, he must have had some internal injuries

I saw videos of them talking on youtube, not going to lie it's a little creepy lol

I know what you mean about washing your hands poor Jewels hasn't had much attention from me since I got them, even though I wash my hands and arms(I don't change my shirt unless they touched me). Just nervous about any diseases they could have.

They now get fed every three hours, if I feed them every two hours they eat barely anything so I added an hour and that seems to be when they start screaming for food now. I couldn't imagine hand rearing parrots since I find starlings difficult and you don't have to feed them through the night.

I actually thought it was harder to raise the starling. The food takes longer to prepare, they eat more often and he was kind of a messy eater so I was constantly cleaning his tank. I think it was the every two hour thing that I didn't like, even three hours is rough, unless I pull them really young, my parrot babies start off at every three hours then move to four pretty quickly.

 

[sssaucey]

Well I can't really compare, I've never raised baby parrots lol. From what I have read on here it seems more difficult, but I find everything does when you read about it.

either way I have respect for anyone who does it full time, I knew they were going to be completely dependent on me but I didn't realize how much I would miss out on. You really can't do much during two hours haha