My Feathered Friend - Malaysia
Salima/Salim, 25 February - 19 March, 2023
By Hootoksi Tyabji, Shah Alam
“Time heals some wounds, but love heals them all” - Matshona Dhliwayo
Shaima & Mohammed our Yemani friends, invited us to lunch at their apartment on the 25th Feb 2023. As we got out of the car in the parking lot of their building, we saw this baby crow on the ground, injured and thirsty. His little feet were up in the air, one wing was at an angle and his beak was wide open, he was clearly traumatized and quite thirsty. We squeezed a few drops of water into his mouth and left, hoping his parents would find and rescue him, but there were no trees around, only tall buildings and the wide-open sky. We thought he may have been stolen from his nest by a bird of prey who then accidentally dropped him to the ground.
We decided we would take him home to give him a fighting chance at survival if he was still there when we got back from lunch and sure enough…………he was.
We put the creature in a paper bag and brought him home convinced he would not make it through the night, but to our surprise & delight, he was on his feet, wobbly but hungry and ready to face the challenges of living with humans who hadn't a clue about raising him!
Robert decided to call him Salim if it was a boy and Salima if a girl, he/she responded to both! She wormed her way into our hearts very quickly and turned out to have a mind of her own, a fierce spirit and a trusting heart.
None of us in the house including our dog Nala, knew anything about birds, we all learned on the job with the help of the internet and Rez, and we made things up as we went along.
As we had no cage to put the bird into we made her comfy in our laundry basket lined with newspaper, a bowl of water and a wooden pole Rob pushed in from one side to the other which served as her perch. She loved her space, and that basket was her nest and her home at night. I would feed her for the last time around 9 PM turn off the lights and shut the door of the room she lived in. She immediately knew it was bedtime and would happily go off to sleep. The first few days she stayed all night in the basket but as soon as she began to fly, we would find her early in the morning on top of a cupboard or on the table cawing loudly for her first feed of the day!
At the start, I fed her wet kitten food (a google recommendation) which I pushed down her throat with my fingers. That was clumsy and difficult, half the food fell out and I couldn’t find a syringe large enough to use to push the food through. Rob came up with a brilliant solution, a marrow spoon which worked very well till we graduated to pincers. I hand fed the bird several times a day till finally she ate on her own for the first time on the 17th of March, 20 days after we first got her!
Salima's first morning outside on the grass was filled with excitement for her and for Nala our dog who had never experienced such a creature up close!
Every hop of the bird put the dog on high alert and the first time she flapped her wings Nala went berserk and tried to catch her but she soon learned that the strange being was friend not foe and her mothering instincts kicked in! Salima was totally unfazed by the dog and ignored her except when she wanted food, then she would open her mouth wide and caw at the dog, or bite her ears, dear sweet Nala forever perplexed, indulgent
and protective.
Nala constantly kept an eye out for bird and stood guard at the bottom of a tree the first time the bird flew up one! There was a symbiosis going on between those two which was a delight to experience.
Around day 5 I found Salima’s tail feathers were falling off and she was itching quite a lot! She wasn’t eating well so I called Rez, a new found friend and animal lover and asked him for advice. I was thrilled when he told me he had successfully hand-raised three crows and he made it sound like it had been a breeze and was an easy thing to do!
He suggested many changes to the birds diet and asked me to immediately stop feeding kitten food because of the preservatives in it which were clearly affecting Salima. He asked me to give her scrambled eggs rather than egg yolk and he wanted me to feed her fewer meal worms which she loved but which were too heaty for her. I was to give her a lot more fruit especially papaya which fortunately she loved. She did not like bananas. Within a few days of making these changes in her diet, her feathers grew back on her tail, and she looked a lot better.
Salima-Salim was a fast learner and NOT a scavenger as crows are known to be! Her preference was worms, raw chicken, oats, papaya, egg and banana in that order. When she learned to eat on her own and I offered her options, she would pick the food she liked best, first.
One day she flew just a foot or so off the ground so Rob picked her up and threw her in the air and we were elated to see her fly almost to the top of the roof! but then she couldn’t figure out how to come down. She landed on an awning near the TV satellite dish halfway down the side of our house. She began cawing for help, she could see me and hear me calling and wanted to fly down, but she didn’t know how!! Robert prodded her with a long pole giving her a little nudge and that prompted her to come swooping down and she landed close to my feet!
She loved being able to fly and on Sunday 11th March she flew off on one of her adventures and ended up on top of the mango tree in our garden. This time she refused to come down so we left her and were out all morning. On our return around 4 PM we found there had been a terrible storm and it had been pouring with rain. She had been left alone for hours and was sitting on a higher branch pitiably cawing and shivering. I called and called, she knew where I was but again, couldn’t figure out how to fly down to me. Rob managed to give her another little prod with a long pole only this time she was so exhausted, she lost her footing and tumbled out of the tree, flew a bit, and fell in a heap of feathers at my feet. When I picked her up she was soaking wet and I felt her little heart beating furiously! I wrapped her in a towel,loved and sang to her and put her on my chest, her favourite comfort spot. She closed her eyes and was fast asleep in that exact position for well over an hour! I comforted her just as I would have comforted a human baby and she responded in exactly the same way!
The next morning Salim clearly had caught a chill from the previous days adventure! He wouldn’t eat and seemed to have a sore throat as he couldn't swallow, not even his favourite worms! everything I put into his mouth he spat out and he kept cawing pitiably because he was hungry. Two days later I was at my wits end as I knew he was getting weaker by the hour, and Rez was not answering my calls. I managed to get some orange juice down his throat and fed him lots of water and on day three in the morning, he was fine again and ready to take on the world.
Salima learned to eat and drink on her own just two days before she took off on yet another adventure, only this time she flew away for good, we haven't seen her since!
I fed her at 7 PM on the 19th of March not knowing that it would be the last time I would see her! Both Rob and I were happy to see her eating and drinking so well on her own! She chose chicken over papaya and worms over oats that evening for her last meal with us.
When I saw her last, she was looking splendid sitting on her perch on the table that Rob had made for her. Her feathers were shiny, and her crop was full. Hazel our maid, went out to bring her in for the night around 7.15 pm but Salima flew off in the direction of our pond and we never saw her again! We had all wished for this outcome, I miss her terribly but hope she is happy wherever she is!
Salima-Salim was such a wonderful gift to us! She sat on my shoulder and my head, gave me lots of love bites on my neck, slept on my chest and enjoyed sitting with me on the swing! She was gentle, smart and trusting and a part of our lives for 22 precious days. Farewell sweet friend ………………….