❗️Urgent Info for When You Find a Gull Chick on the Ground ❗️
The first thing you need to do is to alert us on the “Help and Advice for Worthing Wildlife” Facebook group, or via Sompting Wildlife Rescue, or via our Contact page. We can then start to support you before a volunteer can come out.
When you have notified us that there is a gull chick on the ground, we will do our best to get to you as soon as we can.
However we are all volunteers with jobs, so it may not happen quickly. If this is the case, please follow the instructions below, all chicks will require some initial care by you when they have fallen.
Emergency Care for a Fallen Gull Chick:
✅Take the gull inside into a small box. The best way to pick a chick up is with both hands, one on each side, keeping the wings against the body. It is better to minimise handling the chick once it is in a box.
Keep away from all predators, cats and dogs. You may make a little nest for it from a tightly rolled up towel made into a doughnut shape and it can sit on there if it wants to.
✅ If the chick feels cold to the touch, or has been on the ground on a cooler day, it will need to be warmed up as a priority. This can be done by placing a hot water bottle under the box it is in. Or, put the box into the warmest room in your house and cover with a towel. Chicks can jump! So make sure escaping isn’t possible.
✅ When the chick is warm, it will appear more lively and vocal. A small spotty chick may need hand feeding. Mush up wet cat food or wet dog food and use tweezers or a plastic spoon or coffee stirrer to offer to the chick when it opens its mouth. They can take a while to get going, so please persist. Don’t drip water into the chicks mouth, it can aspirate this and become very ill very quickly.
✅ A chick with less spots and fluff and more feathers should be able to feed itself. A small dish like a glass ramekin is perfect for food in one, and water in another. Again, mush the food up. The chick will eat little and often with naps and times of alertness in between, and help itself to water if it needs it. Please keep the bottom of the box clean. And ensure the food and water dishes stay fresh and clean with no seagull poop.
✅ Chicks don’t eat at night, their parents wouldn’t feed them after dark in the wild, so don’t offer them food at night.
Thank you for looking after this little feathery bundle. With your willingness to help, this chick will have a much better chance of survival until we can reunite it with its parents or take it to a rescue centre. A chick just brought inside, not warmed up or not offered food or drink, will have a very slim chance of survival.
The first thing you need to do is to alert us on the “Help and Advice for Worthing Wildlife” Facebook group, or via Sompting Wildlife Rescue, or via our Contact page. We can then start to support you before a volunteer can come out.
When you have notified us that there is a gull chick on the ground, we will do our best to get to you as soon as we can.
However we are all volunteers with jobs, so it may not happen quickly. If this is the case, please follow the instructions below, all chicks will require some initial care by you when they have fallen.
Emergency Care for a Fallen Gull Chick:
✅Take the gull inside into a small box. The best way to pick a chick up is with both hands, one on each side, keeping the wings against the body. It is better to minimise handling the chick once it is in a box.
Keep away from all predators, cats and dogs. You may make a little nest for it from a tightly rolled up towel made into a doughnut shape and it can sit on there if it wants to.
✅ If the chick feels cold to the touch, or has been on the ground on a cooler day, it will need to be warmed up as a priority. This can be done by placing a hot water bottle under the box it is in. Or, put the box into the warmest room in your house and cover with a towel. Chicks can jump! So make sure escaping isn’t possible.
✅ When the chick is warm, it will appear more lively and vocal. A small spotty chick may need hand feeding. Mush up wet cat food or wet dog food and use tweezers or a plastic spoon or coffee stirrer to offer to the chick when it opens its mouth. They can take a while to get going, so please persist. Don’t drip water into the chicks mouth, it can aspirate this and become very ill very quickly.
✅ A chick with less spots and fluff and more feathers should be able to feed itself. A small dish like a glass ramekin is perfect for food in one, and water in another. Again, mush the food up. The chick will eat little and often with naps and times of alertness in between, and help itself to water if it needs it. Please keep the bottom of the box clean. And ensure the food and water dishes stay fresh and clean with no seagull poop.
✅ Chicks don’t eat at night, their parents wouldn’t feed them after dark in the wild, so don’t offer them food at night.
Thank you for looking after this little feathery bundle. With your willingness to help, this chick will have a much better chance of survival until we can reunite it with its parents or take it to a rescue centre. A chick just brought inside, not warmed up or not offered food or drink, will have a very slim chance of survival.
