Hi everyone, i havent posted in a while but i have been reading whenever i havetime, hope everyone is doing great.
So here is the story, 14 days ago i found a baby bird in my front yard, and after failing to find the nest and about an hour and a half of waiting for the parents to show up i decided to take in. It had its eyes open and several pin feathers but it didnt look old enough to out side the nest. Well i raised it on exact baby bird formula and its doing great since is fully feathered now i did some internet serches and Im pretty sure that it is a baby brown thrasher. All the sites i have seen say this birds fledge when they are 9- 13 days old and i am guessing the one i found (Q) is now about 19 days old. Q seems to be progressing normally it is fully feathered, it likes to perch in the highest perches in its cage and it even flies short distances.My problem is i have no idea how to get it to eat seeds, now i have like 6 little containers with seeds in different places around its cage but he/she just ignores them, also for the pas week i being taking it outside for longer and longer periods and now he spends about 90% of the day in a bush outside my window. Another problem is in a week i get a break from school and I am driving home where i will stay a week my hope is that by then q will be independent and he will be able to stay in the yard where i have now hanged a bird feeder and i would leave water available.I am sorry my post ended up being so long, againg my questions are how can i teach Q to eat seeds? and can it be done in a week? Thank you for reading any advice will be greatly appreciated, here are a few pics.

Frome what I just read about it, its a meat eater so you might want to start introducing it to meal worms and baby crickets. http://www.50birds.com/BPBrownThrasher.htm

Aaaw, the love we have for these feathered babies....bravo to you for caring for the baby....yep, it looks like a thrasher.....Wishing you all the best in raising birdie....

Thanks

thanks for the web site that is one that i had not seen, i bought a box of crickets the other day at petsmart, you know the kind used to feed lizzards and frogs, and i fed them to it, i would kill the cricket and the "play" with it a little by Q's feet to see if this would make it want to peck at it, but he/she only cared about me putting it in its beak. i have also read that seeds are part of their diet and so i figured that as long as it knew how to eat seeds he would always have food in my birdfeeder, and he could learn how to eat insects and such by observation later on. Is that a bad idea? should i keep tring to teach him how to eat crickets?

myself, I would attempt the meal worms you can get them canned as well and they are higher in protien than a seed diet. Usually parents will feed grubs and that sort of them and remember they are partly digested to give the enzymes that the baby needs to help keep his digestive system going.

Sounds gross but I think if it were me I'd make a paste of what formula you're feeding and a little seed and some cut up crickets or meal worms and start feeding him that and slowly thing down the formula to where you are just feeding more meal worms and crickets mushed up. crushed up boiled egg etc and then less mushed untill they are pretty much whole meal worms and crickets etc.

Here's a tip for next time you find another little one. Put it back in the nest if you can reach it or if it is intact. If not, Take a small plastic bowl (cool whip or butter dish) and poke a few small holes in the bottom (for drainage). Then nail or screw the container as high up that you can reach in the tree that the baby fell from. Put the baby in it and any nesting material that you find on the ground. The parents will come back for it and care for it - even if its siblings are in the original nest. It is a myth that a bird, or any wild animal for that matter, will abandon its young if you touch it. I work in conservation and deal with countless calls each day about what to do about wild little ones and this is what we always recommend for birds. And it works too! I had a grackle in the yard yesterday whose nest was knocked out by a storm. Mom has been back feeding him in his makeshift nest all day. This way they get raised by their parents and learn how to be birds.

I was trying to feed a baby crow once. I had HEAPS of trouble trying to get it to eat the food (offering food infront of it), then I held the food directly above it's head and it immediately put its beak up and started gobbling, and I suppose it makes sence, it's how the parent's feed them.

Thrashers do not eat seeds, for the most part. They may eat abit of green buds or such, but mostly spiders, bugs, and such.

How do you plan to reintroduce it to the wild? It not only needs to learn what to eat, but where to find it for itself. You should consider searching for a wildlife rehabilitator in your area (do a web search) and take it to a professional. While the hand-feeding formula may have gotten the bird by, it really is not what these birds need to grow up right and can cause long term issues. The rehabilitators will feed it a bug-mash and teach it to forage prior to release.

thanks to all for your advice, i will keep it all in mind