So I have this crow in the cat carrier.....

dangit! So, they wouldn't let you leave with it? Couldn't they have just turned their back so you could wander out with the little guy?

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If I'd had my wits about me I could have probably found a way to smuggle him out but my wits have abandoned me.

This Noddy thing has me completely messed up..... I'm so worried about her. It's crazy. I feel like it's my mom whose sick.

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You don't ever want to attempt to make wild animals into pets, and especially not wild birds. Not only do wild animals suffer, and sometimes languish even unto death when in captivity, they are a serious health risk for your family and any domestic pets you have.

Birds are hag-ridden by parasites, inside and out. If you had that crow on your hands and it died, you would be able to literally watch a narrow black carpet of parasites leave the corpse looking for a new home. A woman i know in eastern Ontario finally succeeded in driving some birds away from the nest they had made inside her home (an old but largely sound stone farm house, in which there had been, unknown to her and her husband, a space between the eaves and the wall at one end). When they drove off the birds, she said there was literally a black stream of parasites crawling down the wall as the nest cooled off.

I'm sure you feel like hell about this, but anyone without expertise and special facilities attempting to keep a wild animal is just asking for trouble, and probably eventual heartache no matter what you do.

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boomerang wrote:

Poor crow is not going to live.

He was a fledgling and his leg was fractured beyond repair. He would have never survived in the wild. I asked if he could be mended to the point where he could be kept a a pet and was told that it is illegal to keep crows as pets.

I don't have the heart to tell Mo. He took such splendid care of it.

If his poor little leg was so fractured, he must have been in pain.

I agree it is wrong to keep a functional wild bird as a "pet"...but where they can never cope in the wild, I don't think it wrong to give them a life.

I have helped raise a number of wild creatures, including birds...generally to release, of course (the most amazing was a stormy petrel)...but the odd creature was not capable of life in the wild, including a few wild birds, and have adapted pretty happily to domestic life.

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I had several crows as pets and all the great ones were first injured fledges. Id feed it some dry dog kibble, something with a high protein content and low ash. A crow takes to people quite well but they can bite really hard and cause cuts. Let the crow recover and then, if hes still ok, wipe him down with a medicated oil from a vet. this will keep the natural oils from depleting and also will give him impetus to groom and clean any midges or lice offn him.

Both my crows were able to fly but preferred walking around. They have a half walk half hop. They will scurry for maybe 2 steps and then , like skip. Its a comical "silly walk".

Crows are some of the smartest people around and they will do some really evil **** if you dont keep em stimulated. NEVER tie a crow because they dont know tethers and can hang themselsves. (That happened to one of mine and it broke my heart) Either cage em or let em walk around in someplace with nothing that they can hurt themselves with. THEY LOVE MIRRORS AND WILL become aware of themselves after a few pecks "at that other bird guy who keeps comin over toward me"

After they figure themselves out, they will preen in front of a mirror and look at themselves almost admiringly.

Who told you that you cant have em as pets? The issue of "certified" wildlife rehabilitators is some damn gommint bullshit that doesnt confer any special knowledge onto anyone so titled.

Id take im off your hands because they are so cool. Your son should learn to not provoke the crow because, as he gets bigger, he will kick your ass with some serious pecks. (They wont go after your face -least mine never did) but , like a Siamese cat, they will shred your hands. They are all claws and mean ass beak for impaling.

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farmerman wrote:

I had several crows as pets and all the great ones were first injured fledges. Id feed it some dry dog kibble, something with a high protein content and low ash. A crow takes to people quite well but they can bite really hard and cause cuts. Let the crow recover and then, if hes still ok, wipe him down with a medicated oil from a vet. this will keep the natural oils from depleting and also will give him impetus to groom and clean any midges or lice offn him.

Both my crows were able to fly but preferred walking around. They have a half walk half hop. They will scurry for maybe 2 steps and then , like skip. Its a comical "silly walk".

Crows are some of the smartest people around and they will do some really evil **** if you dont keep em stimulated. NEVER tie a crow because they dont know tethers and can hang themselsves. (That happened to one of mine and it broke my heart) Either cage em or let em walk around in someplace with nothing that they can hurt themselves with. THEY LOVE MIRRORS AND WILL become aware of themselves after a few pecks "at that other bird guy who keeps comin over toward me"

After they figure themselves out, they will preen in front of a mirror and look at themselves almost admiringly.

Who told you that you cant have em as pets? The issue of "certified" wildlife rehabilitators is some damn gommint bullshit that doesnt confer any special knowledge onto anyone so titled.

Id take im off your hands because they are so cool. Your son should learn to not provoke the crow because, as he gets bigger, he will kick your ass with some serious pecks. (They wont go after your face -least mine never did) but , like a Siamese cat, they will shred your hands. They are all claws and mean ass beak for impaling.

The crow is no more, Farmerperson.

It done been tooken away and euthanased.

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I took the bird to the Audubon Society. They have a beautiful facility here nestled in Forest Park (the largest urban forest in America!) so I believe what they told me.

When I suggested taking the bird home they told me it was illegal and reminded me of the "deer people" (The people who found a deformed fawn and raised it, which is also illegal. Somehow they were found out and they lost the deer and their vet very nearly lost his license.)

Wildlife is serious stuff here.

I feel really bad about the way things turned out but I watched through the observation windows into the vet area and knew from her sad expression that the bird couldn't be saved.

The Audubon staff explained to me that in the wild that the bird's "family" would feed it for a couple of days and then abandon it to starve so... you know... anyway....

If it would have happened next week I might have been able to deal with it in a way that didn't leave me feeling so crummy, but I don't think I did the wrong thing, just the crummy feeling thing.

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I think FM was talking out his ***. He admits himself that he hung one of his crows, and felt badly about it--imagine how a boy six or seven years old would feel in the same situation. I also see no good reason for his claim that people at the Audubon Society, or with state wildlife management agencies don't know any more about caring for wildlife than your average Joe on the street. I knew a gentleman in Illinois who had a permit to keep wild animals (so long as the purpose was to return them to the wild), and he was only able to do so because he had a degree in zoology and had completed an intensive three month course on handling wildlife and injured wildlife, and was affiliated with a veterinarian who was also licensed.

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So I have this crow in the cat carrier.....

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