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Well, yesterday the half-dead thrush baby began to move more, and by yesterday evening the two of them were feeding voraciously. This has been a delightful experience. I'm feeding them every hour or so with a smidgeon of dog food (about 1/4 teaspoon) mashed in a little milk and warmed to blood heat.
They are such a hoot, because when they hear my voice and see me coming, they wiggle their little bottoms as if to say 'here it comes, Mum!', and then lift them up as far as possible to do a little deposit over the side of the 'nest'. If I was a good mother thrush, I'd pick the little gooey bundle up in my beak and drop it over the side. But as I am human, (or, according to one person, a Toblerone), I just lift them out and replace their rag.
Then the feeding frenzy begins, and they strain their scrawny necks and hold up their immense orange mouths and I squirt the mixture in with a little plastic eye-dropper. They finally subside into little squeeks and churrips through their closed beaks, as if they have a mouthful, then fluff up again and their eyes close and they fall asleep again. All in about 20 seconds. In a weird way, the routine 'babyness' of them all is like feeding my own little ones.
Another interesting thing, if you can handle it, is that even their poos smells sweet too, just like breast-fed baby.
And I even feel quite chuffed that they slept for 5 hours last night!