Crow Diet ?

[Leon m]

This morning on my way down to the horse stables I found an injured crow.It appears to
have a broken wing.Normally in this situation
I would let nature take its course, but
considering the temp tonight is going to
be -7 I took pitty and put the poor fella in
a stall(heated)to give him a fighting chance.

I'm wondering what an optimal diet may be
for a crow while trying to nurse him back to health?I already gave him a small dish with bread crumbs and some choped up lunch meat, and water

I was also wondering if I should be concerned
about the West Nile virus this time of year?

Thanks ! Leon M

[Uri @ Amir]

Injured birds are a tough proposition in a home care situation. If you want, you might want to look up a veterinary clinic that has experience with birds. They might want to put the critter on an IV line and stent or pin the broken bone. Otherwise at home, you might want to condensed milk with finely ground meat. But depending on the fracture this could be a sitution best left to professionals (otherwise you could be stuck with a bird that can not fly adequatley and can not survive outside of captivity).

[Leon m]

Uri
The only place that will take him is about
two hours away,and I really don't want to
rack up a big vet Bill,so I think I'm on my
own.
If I can't get him flying again he will be welcome to live in our barn and scare away mice.
...Or is that a bad idea?

[NormMessinger]

In my days of boiling the meat off dead birds I found some rather amazingly healed bones. Never a broken humerus that I can recall but, a broken ulna, the wing bone the secondary feathers connect with, and a tibia-tarsus healed at ninty degrees.

I'd say there is a chance the wing will heal if the bird can be left undisturbed so it does not try to use the wing. It may never be able to fly but it may just become a stable bird and live a long life.

Or maybe I'll have to eat it.

[Uri @ Amir]

It could do OK in your barn. If there's a way you could splint the wing it might help.
Could you feed it with a dropper?

[Tar Devil]

It may never be able to fly but it may just become a stable bird and live a long life.
My neighbors kept crows as pets. They actually were very personable.

Later

Phil

[Leon m]

Should I try and realign the bone
or just leave as is ?

[htom]

I'd call the UofM Raptor Center and ask for advice (I -know- that crows aren't really raptors, but those folk would know where to call.) My fear is that it's now illegal for you to treat M. Crow, and calling them may get you entangled with M. Law. Perhaps a call to the Wisconsin DNR from a payphone?

UofM Raptor Center --
http://www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu/content.asp?page=2010

RSPB bird care (Royal Society P .. Bird?) --
http://www.rspb.org.uk/resources/default.asp

[Leon m]

htom
Thanks for the headsup !

[Rex Fearnehough]

Leon, in my younger days I used to care for injured birds. I had a member of the crow family for a couple of years until it was lured off by a sexy lady.
Splint the break if possible in its relaxed position,ie. bent, if the wing.
If the leg, straight, don't lock the knee.
For both types of injury, the best splints are feathers. For the leg use sticking plasters, for a wing use thread.
Try hand feeding to begin with a cocktail stick.
If it feeds you have a good chance of saving it.
Good luck.
Rex.

[Rex Fearnehough]

Something else for me to worry about, now that Joe is up and running.
Rex. :( :(
I forgot to mention food. Crows, (Corvidae) are omnivores, but a diet of raw meat, fat, bread and raw egg are good.
I put the latin name because I dont know if your crows are our crows.

[ 01-26-2003, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Rex Fearnehough ]

[Meerkat]

Rex; you beat me to it! I was just going to mention that crows are opportunistic omnivores with a preference for meat, not necessarily fresh.

Did anyone see the news item about the tool making crows? They bent a piece of wire to fish little baskets of raw meat out of a tube. I wonder what they could do with an Oyster and a coat hanger ;)

[ishmael]

Leon,

There is a high protein meal, available at most pet stores. I think it's called Monkey Chow. You can mush it up with some water and feed it in a large dropper.

One proviso, don't over feed. I had a baby starling I'm pretty sure I killed with kindness.

Jack

[Rex Fearnehough]

Meerkat. Are your crows Corvus corone?
I too saw the tool making crows.
I refuse to comment on the mollusc and wire story.
:D :D
Rex.
Ish, using a dropper for an adult bird, can cause stress. Force is needed to open an adult birds beak. If it wont eat at first from a stick, it can be tried with a dropper, but it will get you.
Rex.

[ 01-26-2003, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Rex Fearnehough ]

[Greg H]

Birds are difficult.

The wild crows I feed here, are happy with dry cat food, dog food, and any meat scraps they can get. He may not eat if he is too stressed, but make sure he has access to water. Keeping him warm is important, especialy if he is injured. A bird's internal body temp. is over 100deg. If you can, put him in a cardboard box, and cover it with a towel. The darkness will ease his stress. Hang a lightbulb or something nearby, for warmth.

Try a google serch for "wildlife rescue" Wisconsin.
They may know a local rehabilitator and should be able to offer some care info. Good luck to you and him.

[Leon m]

The good news is:he has eaten well and
has drank plenty of water.He has tucked his
wing back into its normal position.All things
considered he looks well.I think I will take a closer look at his wing tonight when I put the horses in,I havent looked at it too closely yet
because I did'nt want to stress him too much
right away.I am concerned about over feeding him,
any idea about how much and how often?

[Rex Fearnehough]

Hooray again.
Please don't put a horse in the same stall.(joke).
Joe's drains done. Bird cured?
Next problem.
Rex. :D :D

[Rex Fearnehough]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rex Fearnehough:
[QB]Hooray again.
Please don't put a horse in the same stall.(joke).
Joe's drains done. Bird cured?
Next problem.
Rex. :D :D
The bird if adult will not overfeed, it will shake its beak and splatter you with it.
Talking about splatter, put some straw under it.

[Greg H]

Excellent!
I have never seen a crow refuse food.
I remember now......
Dry dog food is what a bird vet recomended for feeding adult wild birds. It has about the right balance. He would be happy with a roast chicken or a pork bone too.

[B. Burnside]

I haven't been reading many posts in Misc-Non-Boat lately, but I thought this one might be about apologies or something. Better to feed crow than eat crow!

This is why I like the Forum.

Barb

[Rex Fearnehough]

Greg, we have to pay our vets in Britain with money. They wont accept chicken or pork bones.
Rex. :D :D :D

[Dave Williams]

Leon,

I appreciate your concern. I hope she will heal and fly away but if not and as Norm suggests she can't fly and becomes a stable bird you may be a very lucky man. If you have a chance to associate with a Crow or Raven there may be much to be learned. They are much more knowledgable than most of us give them credit for.

Here's to kindness,
Dave

[NormMessinger]

I used to enjoy watching the Ravens play over Grand Canyon. Once saw one drop something that fluttered down. The Raven swooped down and caught it and repeated several times.

Crows eat most anything from road kill to well, I guess evaporated milk if they can get it. I wouldn't worry about overfeeding. Just provied a variety.

I'd worry about doing more damage by examining the wing if I were not equiped to fix it.

--Norm

[ 01-26-2003, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: NormMessinger ]

[Alan D. Hyde]

Good thoughts above.

Aren't there flightless ravens about the Tower of London, whose wings have been clipped to ensure their remaining? Kind of a hedge against an ancient prophecy? Or does my memory fail??

At any rate, birds that can't fly often live, so long as they can find food, and avoid predators...

Alan

[NormMessinger]

Rex, the American Crow is C. brachyrhynchos.

[imported_Snatchblock]

The love scrambled eggs too!

[ishmael]

Yes Alan. There is such a prophecy saying something like: As long as the ravens remain, England will not fall.

The word for it is pinioned. I only bring it up because I think it has a beautiful lilt. It means to cut or bind a bird's primary feathers, the large ones at the end of the wing, which allow flight.

It's most often used today with parrots kept for pets.

[Bruce Hooke]

For a great read about ravens, get your hands on Bernd Heinrich's book Ravens in Winter. It's about the years he spent puzzling out some of the raven's complex social behaviours...

[Rex Fearnehough]

Thanks Norm, I just did a quick check but it doesn't seem to have bothered coming over here. I gather that it has a stubby beak.
Here in Shetland our commonest crows are, hooded crow and Ravens. As in a lot of Europe they are regarded as unlucky and people hate them. This probably came about because they were a cult animal of the Celts, Romans and the Norse. They were associated with the War Gods and Goddesses.
So Christianity had to decry them. Of course they were not averse to eating bits of bodies.
Rex. :D

[Leon m]

Crow Update:
Last evening I conducted a closer exam of the
crow and discovered that it did not have a
broken wing.It turned out to be a broken leg
instead.The reason I assumed it was a broken
wing was because he?she was holding it out to
compensate for the broken leg.

The leg is badly broken about a 1/4" below
the knee (if crows have knees ?).It was bent
at 90 degree angle towards center(not good).
I gently cleaned it and treated it with some
wound medication,and then I ever so carefuly
coaxed it back to its correct position,and put
it in a splint.

It was a real bad break I hope it will heal :(

[Rex Fearnehough]

Leon, I've been up all night worrying about the crow.
You seem to be doing everything okay and it will recover easier from a broken leg than a broken wing.
If you're lucky it may eventually lay back, put it's leg up, wait for its food and think, "I've got a good berth here, I'm going nowhere."
Then he adopts you.
Rex. :D :D

[Greg H]

Ii's a good thing you're doing.

[ishmael]

Reminds me of "The Snow Goose", a little gem of a novel by Paul Galico.

Have you contacted a local wild rescue society? They would have some veterinary advice.

Crows get a bad rap. They are the only NA bird it is legal to kill.

Thanks for your kindness Leon.

[Wild Dingo]

Ive been reading this and am amazed... you fellas go to all this trouble for a crow?? amazing!!

And here I thought we were gonna be sharing recipes again too... sigh :rolleyes:

Now okay so the American crow is different from the Shetland one is the Aussie crow different again or the same as the American one or is it the British one or then again is it a unique critter??

Crows?? :rolleyes: ...Eagles and hawks I can understand but crows?

[Greg H]

An odd mix, we hamericans are. :D

Henry Ward Beecher
"If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid47/p98c5293914d68e06af4082a051473dfe/fcc38f89.jpg

A recent thread: w/ poetry
http://media5.hypernet.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=007468&p=

[Donn]

Leon...here's a source for more.

"14,000 Crows Live on College Campus

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)--There are about 39,000 students at the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. And about 14,000 crows.

Experts aren't sure what has caused the noisy birds to congregate in such numbers. But two things they make in large quantities--droppings, and a racket--are causing them to wear out their welcome.

Entomologist Dale Hodgson, head of the campus pest management division, has been the point man for seven years in the effort to disperse the birds.

Hodgson has been trying to scatter the crows using ``Bird Bangers''--fireworks that scream and trail flames after being launched. The goal is to scare them away, not hurt them.

``They're a fascinating bird,'' Hodgson told The Detroit News for a Tuesday story. ``Their adaptability is incredible. It's amazing how they've adapted to an urban environment.''

Hodgson most recently has focused on the area around the President's House, which is unoccupied during renovations. President Mary Sue Coleman has been on the job only since last July, but she already knows what to watch out for.

``I am very, very careful to cover my head when I walk in that area of campus,'' Coleman says. ``It beats me why they find the President's House so attractive.''

AP-NY-01-28-03 0817EST"

Should be good for a few one-liners from Buckeyes.

[Leon m]

To all
I would just like to thank you all for your
advice, stories,and book/web site suggestions!
I could'nt have done it without you.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!
Ish
I talked to our horse vet today
she said everything sounds good so far.

I'll try an keep everyone posted on his
progress.

[Wild Dingo]

Personally Id be more interested in the horses Leon :rolleyes: ...seriously!

[Leon m]

Wanna here an interesting story...?

Today my wife and I decided to tell our boys
about the crow(now that he seems to be alright).
So we took them down to the stables to let them
have a peek.When we got down there my oldest son
Forest(age ten)looked over the stall and said
"THATS SCRATCH"!!!

Before I go any further I should tell you a little something about Forest.He's always been
a little different than most,He was born gifted
in many ways he was reading and wrighting at
a colledge level at age five(Lord knows he
did'nt get that from me :D ),he had his entire
geography memorised,and on and on,but more than
that he has this gift of seeing things that
others don't see.

Back to Scratch...Scratch was this crow that
hung around close to our house about two summers
ago .He would spend alot of time in a pine tree
just outside our living room window entertaining
our boys.In our front yard we have a lot of Oak trees and a couple of Scotch pine.When we would
go outside there would be a number of crows
flying from tree to tree and Forest would pick
one out and say thats Scratch.I never gave it that much thought at the time I just thought
he was picking a crow at random,and I thougt it
was an interesting name for a crow.

So today when we came back from the stables
and we were sitting around gabbing,my wife asked
Forest why he named that crow Scratch...He said
"Because when Scratch flies through the air he
leaves long orange scratch marks in the sky
behind him and he is the only bird that does
that".

Now I don't know what it means or if it is
just the wonderful imagination of a child,but I
found that image intensely intriguing.

By the way I will now refer to the crow as
"SCRATCH"

[Leon m]

Wild dingo
Part of my job is taking care of my bosses
retired race horses from Kentucky
(thoroughbreds of course)he has one running now
that may make it to the derby this year,its
name is Champ Ali. I can tell you more tommorow
but now I must go and catch a wink ;)

[ 01-29-2003, 08:22 AM: Message edited by: Leon m ]

[Wild Dingo]

MORE!!!!!!!!!! dang this time lag thing... sheeesh thoroughbreds and he goes to sleep?? :eek: ...mmmmmm sigh ahhh well will wait perhaps when he wakes he will find a couple of pics to thow up!! HA!! ;) no worries mate sleep well :cool: