I'm sorry Pingo

[talynnsg]

I found a fledgling bird two days ago after work. He did really well yesterday and I was really looking forward to either a successful release or, more likely based on my readings after I figured out he was a starling, a happy life of being a pet (yeah, everyone says they actually like being pets). Anyway, this morning he couldn't balance and wasn't interested in food. He died not too long ago and I strongly believe that it was because I took what turned out to be bad advice and fed him some mealworms. The people who recommended them must not have known that they're very hard to digest and can actually live for quite a while inside the bird that's eaten them, at least if the bird is a baby used to the mushed up food it gets from its parent birds. I found out after I had already encouraged him to eat four over the course of the morning and afternoon. It's my belief at least that if it weren't for the mealworms he would have done great just judging from how well he seemed to have adapted in a very short time to living inside and accepting food from people. Maybe I should instead be learning the lesson to leave well enough alone with wild birds, but I still think he would have had a happy life with us (with my mom actually, we were already in the planning phases of making him an awesome indoor/outdoor habitat) if I hadn't fed him something so dangerous.

I'm so sorry to everyone who read my earlier posts bubbling about the amazing little bird I had found and even more sorry to the couple people who met him yesterday. I should have known better. I know baby birds don't have a great survival rate and my last happy story of my parents taking in a blind cow didn't turn out so great either. Anyway, I've removed the posts because I can't deal with telling you all how great he was and then telling you how I killed him. I feel so wretched right now I can't even describe it. I'm so sorry everyone. I'm so sorry Pingo.