I have an injured crow in my home, and I don't know what to do. (Probably resolved now)

[ZombieHorde]

Last edited Thu Aug 1, 2013, 05:01 PM - Edit history (1)

eta: I finally got a callback from someone who is willing to care for the bird, and was recommended by Fish and Game. I should be able to drop the bird off tonight. Yay!


Some kids brought a crow, which is federally protected animal, to me last night. Its leg is messed up in a bad way, and there seems to be something wrong with its wings, but I don't see any injuries on the them.

I called the animal control, and they said they would most likely put it to sleep.
I called the humane society, and they said they would most likely put it to sleep.
I called the Forestry department, and they said that crows are not trees.
I called Fish and Game, and they gave me some contact information for folks who care for birds.
I called those two people or groups, but they won't answer their phone or contact me.

I just have the crow in a box, and I use baby wipes to clean up its poop. I would put paper under the bird, but I don't want to touch it since it is hurt and frightened.

I am starting to grow fond of this bird, but I don't know how to serve it.

Do you have any bird-care tips until I can figure something out?

What would you do in this situation?

[Denninmi]

1. Warmth, hydration, and food it it will eat.

Don't give up on the wildlife rehabilitation people -- they may work or something, perhaps will call you this evening. How long have you had this bird, anyway.

Try to keep it warmer than room temp - wounded birds respond well to be kept about 80-85 degrees -- their high metabolism means they chill easily if not eating.

If it won't take water on its own, you may want to try to trickle some SLOWLY down its throat, drop by drop, from an eye dropper or similar. You actually would probably be better off using a Pedialyte type solution -- some electrolytes and sugar in there won't hurt.

Keep it dark, calm, and quiet.

If it will eat, high protein food -- some chopped, boiled egg or chicken would be good.

[sarge43]

3. What Denninmi said. Dog food would be another good choice n/t

[ZombieHorde]

5. I was given the bird last night.

Last night was very warm, but today is cool, so I will try to keep it warm. Maybe I should throw some bunched up paper towels in the box, so it can snuggle or nest or whatever.

I do have some eggs, I'll boil one and offer it to the crow. Seems weird feeding an egg to a bird. Kind of like a human eating an ape.

Thanks so much for the tips.

[nolabear]

9. Second on all that. Keep trying.

[AngryOldDem]

2. Could a veterinarian possibly help?

I'm really disappointed that nobody on your list seems willing or able to help.

What kind of food are you offering it?

(Sorry if my questions seem stupid -- I would be just as much at a loss as you are...but at least you're trying to do the right thing by this creature.)

[ZombieHorde]

6. My daughter gave the crow a small piece of bread last night, and it ate it.

She caught a worm for it today, but I don't know if it has eaten it yet. I don't see it in the box, but the crow could be sitting on it. I don't want to move it or bother it if I don't have to.

[graywarrior]

4. Crows talk to one another

Take care of this one and you'll be a legend in crow land.

[ZombieHorde]

8. I'm trying to take care of it, but crows are federaly protected, so keeping them

is very illegal. I would like to find it some legal help that didn't involve killing it. If this goes on much longer, I may just have animal control take care of it.

Unfortunately, my daughter and I are growing emotionally attached to this crow for some reason.

[nolabear]

11. Dog food. Really. It needs feeding and water.

Crows are easy to feed but birds get shocky easily. Is the leg broken or just torn? You can set it with tape or clean it. How damaged is the wing? If it can't fly it can't live independently. Keep trying to call wildlife rehab. Good luck. I've done wildlife rehab and as I hear its gotten harder to get animals accepted over the years. Most important thing is whether it'll be able to fly.

[ZombieHorde]

12. I finally got a call back from someone who can care for the bird.

I guess I will be dropping the crow off there tonight. I am so relieved!

[RebelOne]

13. I have a wildlife rehabilitation source card taped to my refrigerator

should I ever need to call them. I did once when a baby bird fell out of its nest when the mother was teaching it to fly. I called them and was told not to touch it as the mommy would get it back to the nest. I think she did and hope no neighborhood cats got to it first.

[graywarrior]

17. Caw! Caw!

[ZombieHorde]

21. It was cawing earlier.

It was really cute.

[graywarrior]

22. I love crows.

You're in the crow history books now. What an honor!

[ZombieHorde]

28. I like crows more than I realized. nt

[graywarrior]

33. You'll love this

[ZombieHorde]

36. Wow, that is awesome. I knew they were smart, but that is crazy. nt

[graywarrior]

37. Always be nice to crows

[ZombieHorde]

38. That sounds like good advice. nt

[nolabear]

40. Wonderful! Hopefully it can heal and reunite with its people.

Crows are very much family and neighborhood oriented so it should be let go near where it was found. You might get to see how its life goes. You did good.

[Jenoch]

7. Are you in a small town or large city?

There are wildlife rehabilition centers that take in injured animals such as your crow. Canned dogfood would be the easiest thing to feed it. When I was a kid my brothes and I each had a pet crow one summer. My mother was really pissed at my father for doing such a thing. We fed the crows dogfood and water with an eye dropper until they got big enough to fly. They hung around until about this time and then one by one, they flew off and did not return.

[ZombieHorde]

10. I live in Montana; we don't have cities.

I really like your pet crow summer story.

[Jenoch]

14. Billings and Missoula are

awful close to being cities. I grew up in a small, rural Minnesota town. We would not have had access to any kind of a wildlife rehab shelter either.

All of our crows ended up with broken toes that healed on their own. They never did have any wing problems however.

A few years after the summer of the crows, I raised a pigeon from a baby with barely pin feathers to a pet as an adult, the pigeon that is. I was 14 and I really had fun with that bird. Of course, I felt a little guilty because I had shot the baby pigeon's mother. (There was a 'pigeon shoot' in town where wild pigeons are shot early on a Sunday morning to attempt to control the population. This wasn't one of those pigeon shoots where they are released purposely just to shoot.)

Anyway, I saw the nest on the roof of the building we were on, and rescued the little guy. I fed him corn and gave him water with an eye dropper. When he got big enough, I taught him to fly (I threw him up in the air and he flapped his wings. He softly fell to the grass a few times before he got the hang of it.

That bird hung around all summer. He stood on my dad's head and shoulders while he was working in the garden. My mother's friends would not go into our backyard because 'Bird' would land on anyone who walked back there. (What a clever name...my dad thought I should name him Walter, but I had an uncle named Walter.)

In October, I began to think about building him a box to stay warm in during the winter. His perch was just outside my bedroom window under a patio roof.

I never got the chance to build that little pigeon house. The mailman ran over him and squished him flat.

[ZombieHorde]

20. "The mailman ran over him and squished him flat."

I was not expecting that ending.

[Jenoch]

41. My big brother scraped him off the street before I got home from school.

I was sad for a while, but I thought the bird would fly off at some point anyway. It's not the same as a pet like a dog or even a cat.

[StanGr]

15. Teach it to sit on your shoulder and hand feed it. Protected doesn't mean it should be euthenized.

I've taken in a lot of wild animals (illegal in my state, but so what). They need compassion and care. Languishing in a cage somewhere doesn't qualify.

And the wounds will heal with time. Go with the dog food. They eat garbage anyway (which pretty much sums up dog food).

[ZombieHorde]

23. I think I found a woman who specializes in caring for crows.

I was told that she would be available tonight. The crow will be much better off with her than me, though I did tell my wife that I was interested in keeping it. She loves birds, and was also interested, but we both agree that this bird needs special care that is outside of our education.

[StanGr]

24. Putting it down is not an option. It will mend with time and decide on its own when to take wing.

[ZombieHorde]

29. Finding someone to put the crow down was easy, but no in my family wanted that.

Took a few hours on the phone, but I finally found someone to care for it.

[StanGr]

35. I was going to offer.

Crows have an unusual place in the pecking order (so to speak). Mocking birds flock to chase crows and crows flock to chase hawks. That sort of puts them in the middle of things.

[haele]

16. Crows are damn smart critters and can understand visual and verbal cues.

Best thing to do is to check and see if you have a wildlife rehab group around. It's okay to keep a crow in a large box or rabbit hutch type set-up with shredded paper that it can create a nest with.
I used to take care of injured wildlife when I was younger before it became illegal. Loved the movie Thomasina, and wanted to be her when I was seven.
Keep it in a place where it can observe it's surroundings. Approach it as calmly and gently as you can; it's okay to talk softly to it; just make sure you keep the same tone when doing something every time. Move slowly so it can see what you are doing, including backing off slowly if it starts to act panicked.
Observe the eyes and if it hunches in it's feathers; if the eyes are cloudy, and the crow hunches up, it's very sick and will probably die within a day or two. Any blood around the nostrils or the cloacae (the butt) is also a bad sign.
If it shows interest in grooming itself or is worrying at a wing or foot, it is probably injured but will not usually die. Crows can get sick with West Nile Virus and are very susceptible to flus. Injuries usually take a month or so to heal, and if the wing is broken between the elbow and the shoulder instead of strained or broken nearer the tip, it will probably heal but the bird will not be able to fly, so you'll be stuck with a crow for the next five/ten years if you can keep it and it decides living with you is better than trying to make it back in the wild.
Another thing to do is watch for the crow's social group. They're probably observing you and your interaction with the injured bird.

Crows are omnivorous, so a little bit of mushed fruit (pears, apples, peaches), smooshed beans/peas, mashed potatoes, broken up homemade mild tamale (with maza), seeds or bread like items made with seed flour (not white wheat or processed corn flour), shredded plain chicken, or scrambled eggs with mild cheese placed in the corner of the box would probably be okay for now. Don't feed leftovers until it's well enough and comfortable enough to interact with you. (I forgot, low-ash canned dog or cat food is also okay if it's decent quality...we didn't have a dog in the family until I was 14, so we fed it what we had in the pantry) Organic baby food is also good. Water is also important.

Those small paper bowls are good containers for food and water.
Birds usually eat their weight daily, so you'll be looking at feeding around a cup of food a day.
They also like toys once they settle down and accept that you're helping them.
Be aware that you'll probably get no thanks from either the crow or his/her social group if you do help the creature heal up...maybe some respect, but no thanks...

Again, the best thing to do is find a wildlife rehabilitation organization - or check in the pets section; I think there's a wildlife rehabber there. If not, the above has worked for me in the past.

Haele

[ZombieHorde]

25. Thank you for the great advice, but I believe I have founda woman who

specializes in caring for injured crows. She was recommended to me by Fish and Game, and I finally got a hold of someone that knows her. She should be able to take the bird tonight.

[haele]

27. Best thing for the crow.

Perhaps she can give you some pointers for "next time" - it sounds as if the neighborhood kids have already pegged you for the softy to bring hurt critters to.

Haele

[ZombieHorde]

30. Ha! I guess so. I didn't think about why they brought the bird to me. nt

[femmocrat]

18. Happy ending!

Glad you found someone to care for it. Crows are such smart birds. We used to have one that would sit on the deck and wait for us to toss it some popcorn!

[magical thyme]

19. so glad you found a place for the crow...

When I first moved here, I found a cardinal with an injured wing. Drove it a couple hours to a locally known, licensed wildlife rehabilitator/avian sanctuary.

I told them the wing was broken. They told me people always thing that and it probably wasn't. Then they x-rayed and confirmed it was broken. It healed and they released the bird back near where I found it.

Which reminds me, if you know about where the crow was found, let the rehabber know. It's best to release nearby so they have a decent chance of finding their flock...

[ZombieHorde]

26. "if you know about where the crow was found, let the rehabber know"

I do and I will. The crow was found in my backyard.

[magical thyme]

32. great!

I found the cardinal driving home and couldn't remember exactly at what point I was at. So I had to give a general location, Rte one, between Loews movie theatre and the concrete plant...

Back yard is nice and specific.

[ZombieHorde]

34. I even know the tree it was in. nt

[In_The_Wind]

31. I'm so glad it worked out well for the Crow & your family.

Birds are so sweet, so fragile. It was a heartwarming experience for your daughter.

[UtahLib]

39. That sounds like a lovely bonding experience

for Daddy and daughter. There's nothing more important than encouraging compassion for all earth's creatures.

Short story: Several years ago, I was watering flowers when a crow swooped down to play in the water and peck at my bare toes. I'm always overjoyed and honored when an animal chooses to befriend me in some way.