# Baby Seagull



## Lizard Loft

Last night at around 10pm i got a phone call from my nan reguarding a baby seagull running around the street, still all fluffly that has clearly fallen off its roof top nest, 

my 1st response was leave it alone as the parents will still feed it on the ground, that was that, turns out not, 10pm the phone goes again, the bird has almost been run over half a dozen times as the road is quite a busy one (always cats on the side of the road after being hit etc) and with my nan being 83 and a bit of a worrier me and my brother go round to take a look,

the bird still has all its downy fluff and no sign of proper feathers, so its definately not a fledgling and has fallen out, now normally i would always leave a gull baby, either in a back garden etc somewhere safe and secure or ideally grab a ladder and take it up to the nest, but i dont have a 4 story ladder, as the houses on my nans street are big old 3/4 stories, 

we asked around and no one wanted it in their garden as it has been running round the street for a few days and they where all sick of being dive bombed by the parents when leaving their homes, some people even said if we attempted to put it back and used their gardren for the ladder or the ladder came anywhere near their house they would call the police as apparently itll just jump out again and is a waste of time :censor:... 

so weve ended up taking it, so i emptied my shed out (needed a sort through anyway) made a partiction with work top i was keeping for a workbench, and the little fella is happy as larry in his little pen, 

luckily he eats straight from the bowl so i wont have to have much contact with him, and as my dogs all eat raw meat, i have plently of fish and meat to raise him up on, 

so i figured id start a thread to show his progress, here he is at the minute,


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## 4lph4d0g

Cool, what do you feed it? When will it be old enough to set free? Will it be ok when set free as its not had parents around? Thats shocking the pepple saying they would phone the police.


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## Joeysnake92

update on the baby as ino lizard loft it has eaten well today and seems to be calm and not to stressed out. It is also making the effort to clean itself good signs so far : victory:


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## brittone05

Awww if you lived near me, you could put it in my garden it is cute  Sadly, we have no "sea" near us so it would have to be a country gull lol x


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## Lizard Loft

4lph4d0g said:


> Cool, what do you feed it? When will it be old enough to set free? Will it be ok when set free as its not had parents around? Thats shocking the pepple saying they would phone the police.


Its diet will be mainly fish, meat and cat food, these foods will give it all the protein and moisture it needs as chicks dont drink until they have left the nest, lus it will no doubt be healthier then the foods ive seen the wild ones eating plus it will be plastic bag free lol.

It should be able to fly around 40days old, i would say its around a week maybe 2 weeks now, i plan on putting a raised platform with its food on around 3inches off the ground at first and slowly increase it as it can jump now so hopefully these will encourage natural behaviour of it running and jumping round the roof tops, 

we also have a 1 story balcony in our back garden so when he is old enough to start practicing flying ill start putting him up there and see if he gets the urge, 

the parents will stop feeding so much around 11-12weeks old but some do feed up until 6 months, so once he's able to fly ill start feeding him outside but not alot so he has to go and search for food, and with being on the coast there is alot of seagulls, and as they live in colonies no doubt he will fit into the one around my area, and they all always seem to follow food and squabble so no doubt he will learn from them where to go etc etc 

we are having minimal contact with it, literally just putting food in a bowl for it and water, also scattering food around so it looks for it itself rather then just looking at us for food, also not touching it ourselves, using a long stick to shimmy it where we want it. 

Its going to be hard to keep it so it doesnt associate us with food etc as they are very intelligent birds and arnt really put off by predators as in the wild they live in close proximaty to them, (hence why falconers in towns have nearly no effect on urban numbers) so they arnt nervous infact it is insanely bold and curious, 

i know its just a seagull and the humane thing was probably to put it down, (believe me i thought about it and mentioned it) but i cant see any harm in it, my town and area has thousands of them anyway, they are always in close proximaty with people, and it it ends up as a seagull that hangs around my house looking for the odd scrap, then to me its no different then someone putting out bird feeders for small birds, (which we dont do as we have 6 cats)



brittone05 said:


> Awww if you lived near me, you could put it in my garden it is cute  Sadly, we have no "sea" near us so it would have to be a country gull lol x


haha yea, i can see him no strutting his stuff round the farms in his tweed jacket :lol2:


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## 34531

That's wonderful of you. Last year we had several on the surrounding rooftops, sadly most fell off during a large storm during the night 

Keep us updated!


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## Colosseum

Yeah mate big up yourself on the rescue.


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## brittone05

"Sammy the pheasant hunting seagull" - certainly has a ring to it


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## sasca

We're the local wildlife rescue in this area and had several of these guys handed in this year, similar story of roof mishap. 

Ours are raised on raw fish and a bowl of two raw eggs with eggfood mixed in. Ours eat for England!!! love the eggs and huge source of protein that the parents would be gathering for them. Good luck with him


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## Lizard Loft

Thanks for the comments everyone, he/she has well and truly settled in now, originally he was eating 2 bowls a day, as when we went in there would still be food left, 

today he has had 4 bowls and cleared them all so looks ill ill be upping the feeding, plus it will give me a good excuse to dust the cobwebbs off my old gear and get some sea fishing done :2thumb:


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## Colosseum

Getting his appetite back that is great, so what are your plans for him?

Awesome rescue though pal.


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## Lizard Loft

Colosseum said:


> Getting his appetite back that is great, so what are your plans for him?
> 
> Awesome rescue though pal.


Thanks mate, 

the plan is to feed him up till he's big enough to start flying a bit and not be food for our 6 cats, then he can start staying outside, ill reduce his feedings gradually until it realises there isnt enough food for him to just hang around at ours and he will hopefully go off looking for food and i may see him from time to time in the wild around my local area : victory:


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## Colosseum

Yeah that's cool good luck with him.


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## Colosseum

How is the Seagull shaping up?


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## Lizard Loft

Update on the seagull chick, his feathers are starting to come through more and more by the day, he seems to have grown quite abit too, always amazes me how fast birds mature..


























The hot weather hasnt been doing him any favours as he was living in the shed and i cant leave the doors open due to our cats. Twice now ive seen him kind of panting, so i had a brain wave, if the run my sisters rabbits live in was sectioned again, it would be perfect for him. Now it might not look very big when you see the pics, but bear in mind these birds nest on the tops of chimney stacks where ther is very little room to move about, plus it wont get too hot and he can hide out the way of the rain if it wants to...


















































As you can see some of the cats paid him alot of interest, but he was too busy tucking into these 










So he is doing well, i will keep you all posted through out the week to how he does outside, and i will post more pics in a weeks time so you can see how fast he changes :2thumb:


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## Colosseum

Looking good keep us updated :2thumb:


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## Sparko

Fantastic stuff taking this little guy/girl in - it warms my heart! :2thumb:

Please continue to keep us updated.


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## Colosseum

Any news?


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## feorag

Lizard Loft said:


> i know its just a seagull and the humane thing was probably to put it down, (believe me i thought about it and mentioned it) but i cant see any harm in it, my town and area has thousands of them anyway, they are always in close proximaty with people, and it it ends up as a seagull that hangs around my house looking for the odd scrap, then to me its no different then someone putting out bird feeders for small birds, (which we dont do as we have 6 cats)


The way that I see it, nothing alive is "*JUST A ......"*

He has a right to a life just the same as any other living creature and he deserves the chance, so well done you!!! :notworthy:

We get loads of seabirds, more injured than fledgling, in our wildlife sanctuary and at this time of the year the intensive care is full of "tweeters" as we all call the fledglings.


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## Lizard Loft

The seagull is coming along great and is eating like a trooper, he loves his food! especially boiled eggs goes mad for them lol, 

His feathers are really coming through now and he is being let out twice a day for a supervised roam around the garden, with one person on seagull watch and one on cat watch, he has started to flap his wings and jump in an attempt to fly, and stays slightly elevated for longer and longer each time, at the min its up to aroun 7seconds, anyway heres some recent pics, hope you all enjoy....





































flying attempts,


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## feorag

Aw, bless him! :lflrt: He looks very handsome at the minute! :2thumb:


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## 34531

That is really wonderful. What are the next steps? Will he just leave at some point do you expect?


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## Colosseum

Yeah looks nice and health and has more colours coming through well done you.


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## Lizard Loft

Thanks for the kind comments guys, just fed him and i swear he has grown over night lol!, i didnt realise before how many birds nest around my house, ive spotted 2 seagull chicks, one crow chick which never shuts up and is always on a different roof everytime i see it, we have two house marten nest one on each side of my house (they have been coming for the last 10years) and there is finches nesting under a loose slate on the roof, springwatch would be proud : victory:



forever_20one said:


> That is really wonderful. What are the next steps? Will he just leave at some point do you expect?


Im not too sure tbh, im letting him out more and more, he cant fly yet and i expect wont be able to until all his 'fluff' has near enough gone, i expect he will fly around the house perhaps nest on the roof/roofs, ill put out one serving of food out on the bath room window ledge every day, make sure he is eating for the 1st week or two, them mayb reduce it too every other day, i suspect he will always pop by from time to time to look for food, which would be nice, dont know how id go about identifying him though.


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## feorag

Lizard Loft said:


> Im not too sure tbh, im letting him out more and more, he cant fly yet and i expect wont be able to until all his 'fluff' has near enough gone, i expect he will fly around the house perhaps nest on the roof/roofs, ill put out one serving of food out on the bath room window ledge every day, make sure he is eating for the 1st week or two, them mayb reduce it too every other day, i suspect he will always pop by from time to time to look for food, which would be nice, dont know how id go about identifying him though.


:lol2: That's the way :2thumb:


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## Colosseum

Excellent :no1:


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## Colosseum

Updates?


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## RickDangerous

Lizard Loft said:


> dont know how id go about identifying him though.


Why not put a cable tie (loosely to allow for further growth) around his 'ankle' lk they tag pigeons lol get 1 the same colourish so it doesnt stand out too much and single him out lol


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## 34531

RickDangerous said:


> Why not put a cable tie (loosely to allow for further growth) around his 'ankle' lk they tag pigeons lol get 1 the same colourish so it doesnt stand out too much and single him out lol



I think this is what I would do. But would you Want to ID him? If something happened to him the future, it would be ever so upetting.


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## RickDangerous

forever_20one said:


> I think this is what I would do. But would you Want to ID him? If something happened to him the future, it would be ever so upetting.


True, hard one. I know i would though, cos every time i saw a seagull id be wondering, and just cos u dont see him doesn't mean you have to think the worst!


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## Lethalinjection-x

My friends had a baby gull fall into their garden a couple of years back, so they put food out for it as the parents weren't bothering with it. He grew up and flew away - only to come back pretty much daily to hop into their kitchen and steal the cat food :lol2: They didn't hand feed him or anything, just left the food out, he just got quite used to them. His chicks come as well now, I believe


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## Lizard Loft

Hi all, sorry ive been slow with updates, ive been crazy busy havnt had time to take any pics but will put some up tomorrow, 

the seagull chick is very big now not far off the size of some adults tbh, he is still yet to fly he has a good go but yet to make any real success lol, ive noticed other babies in the area of similar size some even smaller are able to fly short distances etc, 

but i expected him to be behind on the flying front as he hasnt had the same exercise oppurtunities as others or parents to watch, i do plan on putting a ring around his ankle in order to identify him, mainly so for the 1st week or two he is flying and no longer with me so to speak i can keep an eye on him and if one was hit by a car etc i would like to know if it was him or not, 

but overall its looking like he will be ready to fly soon enough, hes spending alot of time in the garden pottering about, as he is now too big for the cats, but im still putting him away at night just to be safe, the best news is he is still not 'tame' he hates being picked up, and will not come within 10ish yards of any person, which i think will be great when he is wild as not all people treat these birds very well, 

thanks for all the support and requests regarding his progress btw guys really appreciate it : victory:


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## feorag

Great to have an update! :2thumb:


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## Colosseum

Cheers for the update sounds like it won't be long before he takes off and moves on sad in one way but good in another, I suppose you have built a strong bond with him.


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## alcopops

any update on how the story ended ?


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## Lizard Loft

Hi all, 

just an update, the seagull is still with us :lol2:, he was getting let out for regular exercise daily, and trying to fly, then due to our dogs having a huge fight, i had to build another dog run at the bottom of the garden for my terrier, 

and as the bottom of the garden is where the seagull was roaming around if he was to fly and fall end the run somehow, and as my terrier is a working terrier there would only be one outcome which doesnt bare thinking about, 

the only solution was to put him in next doors bigger garden, obviously i cleared it with the neighbours, and its not a problem, one of my neighbours is disabled and always picks dandelions for my sisters rabbits, he was made up about the seagull living in his garden, and said he will feed it too : victory:, 

he has a big bird bath, load of room to stretch his legs and wings, tbh his supervised exercise wasnt enough for him to strengthen those wing muscles in order for him to fly, and he had out grown his run, 

i will throw food over to him every day until he starts flying then lower it to every other day etc etc until i no longer have to feed him, im sure my neighbour will put food out for him for the rest of his life no doubt, but i dont see the harm in that, im going to scatter his food around so he had to look for it aswell try to encourage some natural behaviour,

i will update with some pics tomorrow of him in his new home, and let everyone know how his 1st night not in his run gets on :2thumb:

Thanks for the interest through out it all guys, and sorry for the recent lack of updates, new job had hardly any free time but i will update regulary so no1 misses his flight debut lol


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## Colosseum

No worries I have just snapped my ankle so I have plenty of time to wait for updates, glad he is doing well.


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## feorag

Ouch!! :gasp:


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## Colosseum

Very ouch


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## Lizard Loft

Hi all, 

so i promised photos..................... and i have none :whistling2:, the seagull seems to have flown off sometime yesterday morning, and as of yet hasnt returned, which is great news i suppose lol, 

hopefully he will bop in when the novelty of flying wheres off and hunger becomes a factor, im just hoping he hasnt followed my neighbour into the house and is locked in somewhere, as being disabled he isnt exactly fast so the bird could easily sneak by him, luckily i dont think he is bold enough for that, 

so thats my update may be the final one if he appears long enough for a pic i will defo put it on here, thanks to everyone for watching the thread and for the tips and support :2thumb:


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## connor 1213

Lizard Loft said:


> Hi all,
> 
> so i promised photos..................... and i have none :whistling2:, the seagull seems to have flown off sometime yesterday morning, and as of yet hasnt returned, which is great news i suppose lol,
> 
> hopefully he will bop in when the novelty of flying wheres off and hunger becomes a factor, im just hoping he hasnt followed my neighbour into the house and is locked in somewhere, as being disabled he isnt exactly fast so the bird could easily sneak by him, luckily i dont think he is bold enough for that,
> 
> so thats my update may be the final one if he appears long enough for a pic i will defo put it on here, thanks to everyone for watching the thread and for the tips and support :2thumb:


He will bring all his new friends round for some woodland you'll end up with a garden of 100 seagulls...:lol2:


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## Lizard Loft

Hi all, 

no signs of the seagull returning for food as of yet which is a good thing i suppose, 

every morning and evening however we do a get a young seagull flying over the house making one hell of a racket which has been happening everyday since ours left, so it may be him, maybe just a coincidence who knows lol 

im thinking he has took up hanging with the 5/6 other young brids that all fly around together around my street, it started of with one and every few days while they where all fledging the numbers would go up by one, if he has then no doubt he will be following them and now know where to go for food etc 

thats my theory anyway, but at the end of the day its just that a theory


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## YOGI BEAR

connor 1213 said:


> He will bring all his new friends round for some woodland you'll end up with a garden of 100 seagulls...:lol2:


that sounds like my garden, seagulls are the only animals i hate


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