I have a baby blue jay in my apartment

[Skittles]

I found him inside when I returned from the store, standing in the corner with my two cats standing guard. He seems OK, has his beautiful blue coloring and white spots across his back but no tail feathers yet. I took him outside but he can only skitter across the ground, and there's lots of cats around here. My plan is to keep him until morning, then supervise him outside near the trees where I know a couple of very noisy big blue jays live. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Pierre.Suave]

1. Pictures?

other than that, I have no advice.

:P

[Skittles]

4. can't load to Photobucket since I got Firefox

keep getting

Image upload failed
Upload failed for HPIM1550.JPG with error: A network error caused your upload to fail. Please try your upload again.

[Pierre.Suave]

7. well then, answer this...

Is it cute?

:P

[Skittles]

8. aw man, super cute

he's sleeping right now (I keep checking and he looks at me every time)- I have him in a shoe box with some soft lining - now I just have to figure out how to keep my asshole cats from him

[TK421]

2. TEACH IT TO KICK ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's what blue-jays do best!

[flvegan]

3. You may want to see if there's a bird sanctuary or rescue near you.

That blue jay sounds like an infant and without knowing where the nest is, he/she may need special care for a few weeks.

Good looking out though, Skittles.

[Pierre.Suave]

5. Now this is good advice...

:thumbsup:

[Skittles]

6. I'm pretty sure the nest is very close by

those big-ass blue jays are always screeching right outside

[Beaverhausen]

9. It might grow enough feathers to fly in a couple of days

I had this happen a few times. They fall out of the nest just flapping their wings before they can actually get airborne.

If you can keep it outside somewhere safe that the cats can't get to it, momma bird might stop by and make sure it's fed and OK.

[Skittles]

10. I'm wondering when they get their tail feathers

been trying to Google it

[XemaSab]

13. Does it have little pin feathers?

It should be able to fly with no/few tail feathers, but jays will sometimes leave the nest a few days before they can really fly.

If there is a rescue nearby, take it there; if not, keep it for a few days until it can really motor on its own.

[cboy4]

11. I wonder if a 24hr vet clinic might have some ideas?

I bet they're used to getting calls like this ..

I found a bird outside that was injured a couple of months ago. It was spinning around in circles with a bad wing on the sidewalk, and it looked like it probably had a broken neck.

I was so sad. Part of me wanted to just throw it against a wall really hard to put it out of its misery, but I didn't have the heart.

So I just decided to pick it up and leave it near some bushes, away from people, and let nature take its course overnight. That was hard. It was gone in the morning :(

[elleng]

12. Blue Jays

vastly prefer peanuts to any kind of sunflower seed. They have a tendency to bury things, and they will do this same thing with food, taking it from your feeder and burying it elsewhere in your yard to feast upon later. They will also appreciate a birdbath and will make good use of it if you keep it fresh and clean for them.

Baby Blue Jays will start to fledge around 20 days after hatching and will remain within the family unit to live and forage for food, as a group, until the start of the fall season.

http://www.centralpets.com/animals/birds/wild_birds/wbd5016.html

Feeding baby Jay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANlneIn5bGM

Some individual nestlings begin to wander as far as 15 feet from the nest 1-3 days before the brood fledges. Even when these birds beg loudly, parents may not feed them until they return to the nest; this is the stage at which many people find an “abandoned baby jay.” If it can be restored to or near the nest, the parents will resume feeding it.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay/lifehistory

Baby Blue Jay images:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=baby+blue+jays&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=E-cUSpamDMWktweKw-XqDA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

[elleng]

14. DU Birders Group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=294

[Mugu]

17. In a pinch they'll eat corn.

[Skittles]

18. thanks for this, elleng

very informative :hi:

right now he is chirping up a storm in the tree; I've tried to get a sighting but the mom keeps buzzing me - screeching very loudly

[elleng]

19. Yur welcome!

Had fun with it. WATCH YOUR HEAD! BACK! ETC! Good that she knows where he is (I guess!!!)

O8)

[boilerbabe]

15. Was it inside your house already??

I found this post when I Googled..not sure if it will be any help, since they seem to advocate putting the birds back out in the wild... Years ago, I found a baby crow and tried to nurse it,but it died, so I have no luck with birds....keep us posted on how you do!

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=36502

[Skittles]

16. I suspect my cat either brought it in or chased it in

I try to keep my cats indoors but one escaped and I had left a window open for him to come back in :mad:

this morning I put Baby B.J. on the ground and watched from a distance -his mom and dad found him pretty quickly and cavorted with him, but there were stray cats approaching so I've put him in a tree. Mom just knocked down a squirrel trying to climb that tree. :o

[rvablue]

20. Put some cat kibble in water and let it get all mushy.

I tried to save a baby bird I found once and was advised to do this.

That way, they get all of the water they need, as they don't need much and get some fuel, too.

Put some of the mush on the end of a toothpick and feed it to him.

Make sure the little guy is very, very snug and warm tonight.

[foxfeet]

21. Buy it a teeny-tiny gun.

Just in case.