ILiveInFlipFlops Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Long story short, we had our trees trimmed two days ago. As a result, now there's a homeless baby bird in my yard, and it does not look like the parents are going to come back and care for it. It's starving and suffering from exposure, and I hate myself for not being able to finish this poor thing off :( DH keeps telling me I need to forget about it and let it die--he thinks I'm being overly emotional about it. So I asked him if he would go out there and kill it for me. He looked horrified and said, "You want me to give up my soul?!" I was like, "But you want me to sit here and know that that poor thing is going to suffer to death?!" :confused1: <_< So I'm trying to work up the nerve to go and do this awful thing :( What's the quickest, most painless way for me to put this poor baby out of its misery? I need to do it soon, before the kids wake up for the day. Thank goodness the squirrel mama came back for the five hairless newborns that were evicted. I think that might have put me over the edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Good grief (re. dh's comment--are you sure he wasn't pulling your leg?) I agree that you don't want the little thing to suffer needlessly when there is another option. Take a shovel and decapitate the poor little critter. If you have a bird rescue person in town, they might be able to raise it correctly, but if it were "my" bird, I wouldn't try to raise it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSOchristie Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Can you call a bird rescue? I don't even know if that exists. I don't think I could kill something, so no advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I know that the bird seems miserable, but WAIT! It is unusual for a baby bird to live more than a day if its truly alone. Young baby birds must be fed every few hours, so its possible that the parents ARE caring for it and you just don't notice them. I had a serious concern for some baby birds on our porch a few years ago, next to the heat exhaust for the AC (some children had disturbed the nest and handled the baby birds and scared off the parents so I really expected that they'd die and had contacted an animal rescue and been told to WAIT before bringing them in)and I thought that they baby birds looked horrible and were wilting, but it turned out that they continued to grow feathers and get bigger. It was about 5 days before I saw the parents, but they had been caring for them all along, so wait it out 2 more days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILiveInFlipFlops Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 I called the bird rescue two days ago, and they said to bring it in if I thought I should, but I really, really thought the parents would care for it. They were hanging around in the tree right above where I resettled the baby, but I guess it was too much human intervention for them. I haven't seen them since yesterday morning (mourning dove parents are usually gone all day and only show up in the a.m. and around dusk). At this point, I don't see how a rescue can save this poor thing. It's now on it's back :crying: I know that baby birds are almost impossible to save under the best of circumstances. The closest bird rescue won't even take babies. The next closest is an hour away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILiveInFlipFlops Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 I know that the bird seems miserable, but WAIT! It is unusual for a baby bird to live more than a day if its truly alone. Young baby birds must be fed every few hours, so its possible that the parents ARE caring for it and you just don't notice them. I had a serious concern for some baby birds on our porch a few years ago, next to the heat exhaust for the AC (some children had disturbed the nest and handled the baby birds and scared off the parents so I really expected that they'd die and had contacted an animal rescue and been told to WAIT before bringing them in)and I thought that they baby birds looked horrible and were wilting, but it turned out that they continued to grow feathers and get bigger. It was about 5 days before I saw the parents, but they had been caring for them all along, so wait it out 2 more days. Oh, I wish I could believe that! We've had mourning doves make nests in our yard before, so I sort of know their habits, and I haven't seen the parents come close at all, and they weren't in the nest last night. Now the baby is on its back, eyes closed, neck bent, but it's still moving. I don't think I have much more hope for this poor thing :( I'm going to be no use at all today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILiveInFlipFlops Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 I had to dispatch a baby robin that had no eyes. We put it into a bucket with a towel partially over the top. We held it at the tailpipe of our car for a few minutes. Sorry you have to deal with this. I am an animal lover and it pains me to see things suffering too. Oh, how horrible! :( Thank you for that suggestion. I think I can do that fairly easily and without the kids knowing. I mean, I think they're handling all of this better than I am, so they know the bird probably isn't going to make it and that we might have to put it out of its misery, but still, I'd rather they not have to face it just yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILiveInFlipFlops Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 Good grief (re. dh's comment--are you sure he wasn't pulling your leg?) I agree that you don't want the little thing to suffer needlessly when there is another option. Take a shovel and decapitate the poor little critter. If you have a bird rescue person in town, they might be able to raise it correctly, but if it were "my" bird, I wouldn't try to raise it. No, he wasn't. I think he was just...compartmentalizing? I think that would have been too much for him to face. I may wake him up and make him help me now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I have no answers, but I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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