How to Keep Wild Birds? Detailed Guide to Feeding Methods and Precautions
When wild birds are mentioned, presumably everyone thinks of crows, woodpeckers, swallows, and so on, and some people, for fun, will specifically catch some and take them home to keep, so how do you keep wild birds?
1. Settling method
The first thing to do for a wild bird that has just been caught is to give it a quiet environment. At the beginning, if keeping a hwamei, for example, cloth can be used to cover three sides of the cage to reduce the stimulation of light, and most hard-food birds and omnivorous birds can calm down through this method. If the cloth-covering method does not work well, the tips of the bird's flight feathers can be tied to each other with thread, or the flight feathers on one side can be cut off so that it cannot spread its wings and fly, thereby reducing physical exhaustion and also preventing injuries from collisions. For a very restless bird, its feathers can be sprayed wet with water (after spraying, do not place it in a draft), so that it gradually calms down. Be sure to avoid handling it under low-temperature conditions, and do not spray it continuously every day. Otherwise, the bird will feel unwell. An ordinary bird needs only about a week to gradually settle down; at this point the caged bird can be moved to a place with human voices so that it adapts to the environment.
2. Food-luring method
This method can be used for seed-eating birds with strong hard-food appetites, such as hawfinches and yellow-throated buntings. Because these birds are easily approached by the keeper when hungry, they seek food from the keeper's hand, and once they are full they no longer beg for food. When first keeping them, there is no need to feed much hard food. Soft-food birds have more difficulty eating, and at the beginning insect material should be chosen according to the size of the bird's body, for example, for the black-naped oriole, large skin worms or small yellow worms can be used; for the blue-winged pitta, pupae can be used; for the red-flanked bluetail, yellow mealworms can be used. At first, whole worms can be fed, because the worms wriggle and have a good luring effect. Once the bird can peck at food, the worms are then cut into pieces and placed on egg powder, and afterward the insect material is gradually reduced to force the bird to eat egg powder. For flowerpeckers and white-eyes, bananas and soft apples can be used to lure feeding, and then egg powder is gradually increased.
3. Force-feeding method
After holding the bird with the left hand, insert the left index finger and thumb respectively into the left and right corners of the bird's bill, and firmly pinch the upper bill, then use the right index finger and thumb to pinch the lower bill and open the bill. Quickly insert the left index finger and thumb into the opened bird's mouth so that it cannot close, withdraw the right hand to take some worms, dip them in a little water, and stuff them deep into the bird's mouth, then release the hand and let it swallow. After the bird swallows, feed it a second time (if it eats too hastily, the food may all be spat out). Note that it should not be fed too full. At the beginning, feed 3-4 times a day, 2-3 worms each time, and after two days this can be changed to feeding once in the morning and once in the evening each day, forcing the bird to peck for food on its own. A bird that has already become emaciated can be fed 1-2 more worms each day.