How to raise a baby house sparrow

If you find a baby house sparrow, you can learn how to care for it. However, before bringing it home, you need to carefully observe the surrounding area to make sure it has been abandoned. Birds raised in captivity have a high mortality rate, so the sparrow will have a better chance of survival if it returns to its nest and is cared for by its parents.

Be sure the bird has been abandoned. If the sparrow has feathers, it is a fledgling and is learning to fly. Therefore, it should be left on the ground, and you should only relocate it if it is in danger from predators, or if the parents haven't returned within an hour. If the bird is featherless, it is a nestling, and you should look around for the nest. If you find it, gently place the bird back in its nest.

• House sparrows were originally found in Eurasia, North America, and the Mediterranean region. However, today they are found all over the world. Since house sparrows are numerous, they are not a protected species. This means that it is legal to keep house sparrows as pets.

Protecting your health when interacting with wildlife. Pregnant women and individuals with weak immune systems should avoid contact with baby birds. They may carry pathogens like salmonella bacteria, which can spread to humans.

• Always maintain strict hygiene when handling birds. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before and after touching the bird. Dispose of any waste in a sealed bag before throwing it away.

Avoid leaving a lasting impression on the bird. If the bird interacts with humans too much, it may begin to see you as its parent and lose its natural fear of people. This can make releasing it back into the wild difficult. If you intend to care for the bird until it's strong enough to return to nature, avoid lifting or touching it, especially while feeding, to prevent it from losing its instinctive fear of humans.

• Try not to let the bird become accustomed to your presence. Once familiar, it may confuse you with its species, making its release into the wild very challenging.
• Avoid engaging directly with the bird. Care for it and feed it as an "invisible person."

Avoid giving water to the bird. Baby birds and fledglings eat insects brought by their parents and do not drink water. If you try to give them water, it could cause them to choke as it may enter their lungs.

Keeping the bird warm. Place a heating pad on a low setting inside a tissue box, cover it with several tissues, or use a small bowl lined with tissues, placed on a bottle of warm water, and then put the bird inside. You can also use an overhead lamp to keep the bird warm.

• The ideal temperature should be around 30-32°C.
• Avoid using clothes with loose fabric to line the bird's nest, as the bird's claws and beak could get caught in the material.
• Place the nest in a dark, quiet area, away from children and pets.

Keep the bird's beak clean. After feeding the bird, you should wipe its beak and face with a disposable wet towel or cotton ball. Any dirt on the beak can lead to bacterial infections in the bird.

Track the bird's growth. You can use a small scale to monitor the bird's overall growth by weighing it daily before feeding. A healthy baby bird will gain weight every day.

• If you plan to release the bird back into the wild, weighing it might not be necessary, as more interaction could create a stronger bond with it. However, if you're raising it as a pet, weighing it regularly can help you track its development.

Start feeding the baby bird with soaked puppy or kitten food. Mix in some baby bird food or water-soaked Pronuto cereal. Canned puppy or kitten food has a high protein content and more closely resembles the bird's natural diet compared to adult dog food. After soaking, mash the food into a shallow bowl.

• If the bird isn't old enough to feed itself, break the food into small pieces, about the size of a pinky fingernail, and use tweezers to feed it.

Add as many insects as possible to the puppy or kitten food for the bird. The natural diet of a house sparrow includes dry food like seeds and sprouts, as well as fresh food like spiders, snails, lice, caterpillars, and other invertebrates. Baby birds tend to prefer fresh food over dry food.

• Note, do not feed baby house sparrows earthworms, as they contain a toxin that can kill the bird. Instead, you can feed them very small crickets (available at pet stores that sell reptile food).
• You can also offer clean white maggots from bait shops. Be sure to feed only maggots with clean intestines. The dark stripe inside the maggot is its intestine, so wait until the stripe disappears before offering it to the bird.
• Alternatively, you can give the bird dry insects meant for reptiles, such as beard dragons. These can be found in pet stores.
• If the sparrow is a young chick, simply feed it kitten food without adding insects. Insects like flies can cause severe constipation in young birds, leading to death.

Mix a vitamin or mineral supplement with fresh foods. You can choose supplements like Nutrobal (for reptiles) or Cricket Diet Calcium Paste (IZUG) (for crickets), available at pet stores. Combining these supplements with fresh food will ensure the bird gets a well-balanced diet.

Feed the bird regularly. Depending on the bird's age, you can either feed it directly or, if it is old enough to feed itself, place the food in a shallow bowl. Keep in mind that baby birds need about two weeks to start feeding on their own.

• If the bird is very young and lacks feathers, feed it every 30 minutes. For older birds, feed it every 1 to 2 hours. The bird will chirp and open its mouth when hungry and stop eating once it's full.

Only give the bird water using a bottle with a valve. Baby birds do not yet know how to drink from a shallow water dish and may drown.

Change the type of food when the bird grows. As the bird matures, continue feeding it soaked dog or cat food while also offering a variety of other food options. High-quality seeds for wild birds are ideal, as the bird is now mature enough to choose the seeds it prefers. Place the seeds in a shallow bowl and allow the bird to feed itself.

• To prevent bird droppings from contaminating the food, clean the bird's food bowl at least once a day.

Put the bird in the cage when it starts to learn how to hop. During the day, it is recommended to place the birdcage outside so that other house sparrows can approach. Avoid close contact with the bird and let it interact with wild sparrows to help it adjust better to the wild environment.

• If the bird does not interact with wild sparrows, it will need to learn the sparrow's song in another way in order to communicate with its species when released back into nature. You can play online bird song recordings for the bird to listen to.

Spend plenty of time letting the bird be outdoors. You can let the bird hop around on the grass when it is between 7 and 10 days old. If you want to release the bird back into the wild, try raising it in an open space so it can learn how to fly. Its natural instincts will teach it to fly and encourage it to explore its wings.

• Wait until the bird's wings have fully grown; if it still doesn’t know how to fly by then, it might not be ready. To determine if it’s ready, take it outside and place it on the ground in a safe area free from predators.
• Leave the bird alone for about 20 minutes. If it doesn’t seem interested in flying, bring it inside and try again on another day.

Ensure the bird is ready to return to the wild. Before releasing the bird into the wild, make sure it can feed itself and has minimal attachment to you.

• If the bird has become too accustomed to you, it cannot return to the wild. You will need to continue raising it as a pet.

• Do not feed birds earthworms, as they can cause illness.
• Do not allow birds to drink milk. It will ferment in their stomach and cause death.
• Never give birds water that drips from above, as it can lead to choking.

• Bird Cage
• Heat Retaining Pad
• Paper towels and a tissue box, or paper towels and a bowl.
• Food for puppies or kittens.
• Food for baby birds
• Insects
• Bird seeds