Sunday, July 05, 2015

Family hand-rearing kitten's baby bird prey

A reluctant cat owner is teaching his children to hand-rear a baby bird after it was brought home by their new kitten. Rob Frazer, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, agreed they could have a kitten, however, when it came back with a live baby bird, he had a dilemma.



"The cat I didn't particularly want brought a baby bird home with it, so now we are looking after that too." Mr Frazer is hoping he will be able to release the bird when it is stronger. Kitten Theodore joined the family eight weeks ago. This was the first time he had brought home any "prey", Mr Frazer said.



"He just turned up at the door with this chick in his mouth and all the kids started shouting, but we managed to get it out of its mouth fast and looked up what kind of bird it was, a house martin." At first they considered putting it back in the garden, but were afraid the cat would find it.



"I decided to nurse it back to health as the kids would have asked incessant questions about what would happen to the bird all alone in the garden without its mummy and daddy, so it was actually the only option. And they are really enjoying seeing it get bigger and starting to flap its wings," Mr Frazer said. The bird, now named Flappy, is being fed worms and is given water through a small syringe from a children's medicine bottle. "It should be able to survive from what I have researched," he said.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cat collars with single bells don't do the trick. Also, _double_ bells don't do it either. I've found, from personal experience, that to really cut into a cat's carnage, triple-belling is what's needed.

Extra cat collar bells can be found in most pet supply stores.

Lurker111

Barbwire said...

I'm a convert to the idea of keeping cats indoors. We always let ours roam free, and several of them were hit by cars. I thought they needed the freedom, but friends who have indoor cats have convinced me otherwise.

Qualiall said...

outdoor cats are a big ecological nightmare when it comes to wildlife. Keep them inside--keeps the cat safe and wildlife can do its thing.