Thread: Raising a magpie chick - any tips

Fellas

I found a fit and healthy magpie chick this arvo whilst out rabbit shooting. It had fallen out of the nest.

Still got some minor fluff but the tail is nowhere near grown, and it can't fly.

Caught it, shot Mum (or Dad) after getting seriously swooped multiple times, and put it in my box on the back of the quad. By the time I got home, it was fast asleep. It's now in a dog cage for the night.

I want to try and raise this as a tame magpie as a decoy for magpie control. If any of you fellas have got some tips as to how to go about this, that'd be great.

Have got a limitless supply of worms (worm farm), but insects are a lot harder to procure.

Cheers

Dog food. And talk to it. It will possibly cure you of shooting magpies, they are a fantastic pet!

They’re pretty keen on leftover cooking lard, at least once a little older.

Originally Posted by Tentman

Dog food. And talk to it. It will possibly cure you of shooting magpies, they are a fantastic pet!

Dog food - dog roll I assume?

Talk to it - ok. I already talk to myself a lot so talking to a bird is probably a step in the right direction.

It will possibly cure you of shooting magpies - if this bird cures me of that then I shall surrender my .22LR and air rifle and take up bonsai tree growing.

They are a fantastic pet - so are the two Staffys that heard the bird squawking at me in the shed, and immediately arrived in the expectation of killing it. When I told them not to kill it, the look I got was priceless. Pure canine WTF?????

I've just realised I've got bags and bags of the band saw "dust" from the butcher. Heaps, all frozen. That'll do I reckon.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Fellas

I found a fit and healthy magpie chick this arvo whilst out rabbit shooting. It had fallen out of the nest.

Still got some minor fluff but the tail is nowhere near grown, and it can't fly.

Caught it, shot Mum (or Dad) after getting seriously swooped multiple times, and put it in my box on the back of the quad. By the time I got home, it was fast asleep. It's now in a dog cage for the night.

I want to try and raise this as a tame magpie as a decoy for magpie control. If any of you fellas have got some tips as to how to go about this, that'd be great.

Have got a limitless supply of worms (worm farm), but insects are a lot harder to procure.

Cheers

yes all the best with it - be interesting to see how it turns out - my mate in Gisborne had a pet magpie years ago - wing clipped it so it could not fly - my impression of it - a very nasty little bitie turboed attack weapon - took to ones feet as soon as you entered the property and had no off button at all - so be keen to know how you get on

Pestoff wheat.
Save a lot of trauma in the long run.

Just been into the shed to slip a bowl of butcher food into the cage - fast asleep on his broomstick perch. Cautiously optimistic it'll survive the night.

(This photo was taken earlier)

Chicken neck minced fine
Don't give them fatty foods, birds can't digest it. Kidneys will give in
Take it from a wa bloke . Ms reared over 20 of em
Sounds like a bloody orchestra in the mori ing anD arvos around our place
Couldn't believe people shooting em here ( hedgehogs as well) they are extremely personable
Some will bully others, some will wait, sing a lil song then wait to be fed
And we got 2 runts who will wait for dark. Then start warbling. Get fed. Then sleep under the pergola. One of ghe reasons o hate cats, caught a few where ms leaves em food

I would think that one is at the point of being too big to tame. If it is naturally quiet all good. We had all sorts of pet birds as kids, including magpies. Mashed up hard boiled egg is great feed for young birds as you would expect ....

When hand feeding it use tweezers,then they won't rely on you too feed them as they get older.The old man had a few pet magpies when we were young fellas.Lot of hard work when they young.

Righto, well I gave it to a neighbour down the road to try and raise. It was never gonna work here. See the animal in my avatar to the left.... No chance. One squawk this morning was all it took to create a riot.

There's a Youtube channel called Peggy & Molly. That is not representative of my Staffies...

You got lucky, that's a female. They are generally the ones that bond with humans, the boys (no grey just black and white whereas the females have the grey saddle) are more likely to get territorial and stroppy and that translates to the biting and chewing everything. The boys tend to form packs of like minded individuals and can end up like a bunch of pissed yobbo's cheering each other on into doing more and more stupid things like the good game of 'who can swoop the cat the lowest'.

Cat got pissed off with that eventually and scragged one out of the sky on a swoop, dragged the limp carcass over to the tree the sods were swooping him out of and spat it out onto the ground underneath them. "Next...".

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Fellas

I found a fit and healthy magpie chick this arvo whilst out rabbit shooting. It had fallen out of the nest.

Still got some minor fluff but the tail is nowhere near grown, and it can't fly.

Caught it, shot Mum (or Dad) after getting seriously swooped multiple times, and put it in my box on the back of the quad. By the time I got home, it was fast asleep. It's now in a dog cage for the night.

I want to try and raise this as a tame magpie as a decoy for magpie control. If any of you fellas have got some tips as to how to go about this, that'd be great.

Have got a limitless supply of worms (worm farm), but insects are a lot harder to procure.

Cheers

Don't swear around it! It might turn into a foul mouthed little shit! Lol

Also if you can get past the chaos and drama while the bird is young it will be a crackup with it around. I can confirm one thing, the bird is much smarter than the dogs and will end up setting little 'traps' for the dogs - for example the bird will line them up to chase it but it will hop behind something new where the gap behind is completely blocked and fly straight up and sit at the top. Once the dogs sprint around the corner and end up stacked in a pile of turds on whatever is blocking the way behind the object you'll hear a magpie laughing it's tits off... Sneaky bastards.