European Starling care?

[Chickeria]

On the right side you can see the 'culprit'

 

[Chickeria]

I looked onto the hompage of a reputable wild bird rescue in my country. The European sterling is a natural wild bird here, so they have some good informations, unfortunately the site is not in English.

Here are some of their informations which could perhaps be interesting or helpful:

Feeding in first two weeks of life: only insects (freshly killed insects or fresh thawed insects, no dried insects; put the dead insects in a sieve and rinse them off under lukewarm water, then put them into a little bowl. The remaining water on the insects is enough water for the babies, no extra water neccessary) who can be dusted with vitamins and minerals.

About the third week you can start giving little pieces of cherries, strawberries, grapes, currants but still 50 % insects minimum (better more).

When the little ones start to pick their own food put insects in feeding bowls and put cut fruits in feeding bowls.
It is importand now the young sterlings can have access of alive insects like 'Buffaloes' and mealworms (note: only several mealworms, not many). Very importand is they can eat earth, so you can put the alive insects in deep feeding bowels filled with fresh earth.
They need access to fresh water all the time.

They need to be handfed until they eat completely by themselves/are completey independent.

... I ask myself if watering the insects the first weeks is enough water if you live in a very hot area.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

I think it is a great idea, it would work perfectly until you sell the birds to someone else. I only wanted to make sure you know about that problem before you start.
Keep us updated with how it goes it sounds very interesting .
Something to keep in mind is if you sell intact animals then people can buy them from you and breed them sorry if you don’t want to hear this but I think it is very important you know of all the things which could go wrong so you can think lf ways to fix them.

It's ok to tell me things that could go wrong, I just don't like it when people tell me not to do it. I will keep you guys updated, and thanks for liking my idea
I don't think it's possible to spay / neuter birds but I can research it

 

[KenjiQuacker]

I looked onto the hompage of a reputable wild bird rescue in my country. The European sterling is a natural wild bird here, so they have some good informations, unfortunately the site is not in English.

Here are some of their informations which could perhaps be interesting or helpful:

Feeding in first two weeks of life: only insects (freshly killed insects or fresh thawed insects, no dried insects; put the dead insects in a sieve and rinse them off under lukewarm water, then put them into a little bowl. The remaining water on the insects is enough water for the babies, no extra water neccessary) who can be dusted with vitamins and minerals.

About the third week you can start giving little pieces of cherries, strawberries, grapes, currants but still 50 % insects minimum (better more).

When the little ones start to pick their own food put insects in feeding bowls and put cut fruits in feeding bowls.
It is importand now the young sterlings can have access of alive insects like 'Buffaloes' and mealworms (note: only several mealworms, not many). Very importand is they can eat earth, so you can put the alive insects in deep feeding bowels filled with fresh earth.
They need access to fresh water all the time.

They need to be handfed until they eat completely by themselves/are completey independent.

... I ask myself if watering the insects the first weeks is enough water if you live in a very hot area.

Thank you! I'll definitely be saving this, I didn't realize you could only feed them insects for the first two weeks.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

On the right side you can see the 'culprit'

View attachment 2511411

aww they're so cute

 

[KingD]

It's ok to tell me things that could go wrong, I just don't like it when people tell me not to do it. I will keep you guys updated, and thanks for liking my idea
I don't think it's possible to spay / neuter birds but I can research it

Neutering a bird is not a common practice.
It can be done but it is generally only done in extreme situations, hormone issues ect.
Anesthesia is not a good idea for birds either, very risky

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Neutering a bird is not a common practice.
It can be done but it is generally only done in extreme situations, hormone issues ect.
Anesthesia is not a good idea for birds either, very risky

ohh ok thanks

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Ok I’d rather not argue with anyone trying to do good. Why would starlings be worth saving? How would it be accomplished?

sorry i didn't see this- Sorry if i seemed rude yesterday i was having a really bad day, but my point is that i won't be saving them, just taking them out of the ecosystem.

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Why would you want to do that? If you really want to have a pet bird then get a parakeet of something.
The whole idea of controlling the breeding of invasive species is not to help the numbers grow bit to reduce them.

Maybe I sound harsh but i just don't see the logic.

Sorry about yesterday, i'm trying to apologize to everybody because i was being kinda rude. I understand that you were just curious now ( i think )

 

[KenjiQuacker]

Wow that looks really awesome! What a beautiful aviary! It is very good so much light can get inside
Over the years I have raised (or tried to raise - unfortunately not not every single case ended successfully) rescued babies of nine different wild bird species (to be released back in the wild after being old and/or healthy and prepared enough), but not European sterlings (although I'm in Europe - there was just never a little one in need we did find or who was brought to us) so I have no special advices on raising them. The only advice that could possibly be helpful is to build kind of an aisle between the aviary and the entry to the outside or from the entry to kind of a second door; some kind of safe area inbetween. I did have a young raised swallow who snitched out the aviary-entry when I left the aviary after feeding them. It had heard some grown up swallows circling over the neighbour's property and directly joined them, so perhaps it went well. But if I could have decided I wouldn't have let it out that day (so its younger sibling was left behind and I had planned to release them together). This wouldn't have happened if I had set up a safe space/second door.

ok thank you, I'll do that!