Riggan Hatch Update - Maggie

As some of you know, I had taken in a fledgling magpie I found in the yard a few weeks ago. I tried returning her, but failed. And I was too worried about my hound or my cats getting her to leave her alone outside.

So we moved inside and started doing research. We found a good recipe for food from a Magpie Rescue in Australia. As a fledgling, I still needed to hand feed her for a few weeks and slowly teach her to eat on her own.

She was eating dog food, water, hard boiled egg, banana, calcium carbonate, and bird vitamins all blended up together for a nutritious and apparently yummy food. I had to feed her every 1.5 to 2 hours!! Thankfull, she did sleep through the night... or at least until the sun came up.

She was doing really well!! Getting friendlier and starting to enjoy us as much as we did her. We would spend time outside and she was starting to eat on her own (soft foods and bugs I would put in her dish).

Valentine LOVED her! Whenever you would say ‘Let’s go feed Maggie!’ He would run to the bedroom. She really was a lot of fun and we loved her, which is why the next part is hard to write.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Maggie. I was getting her tube that I fed her with, and walked out of the room. Her cage door was shut and the dogs followed me to the kitchen. Some how, in the two minutes it took me to fill her food, Radar figured out how to open her cage and did what dogs do.

I miss her squawks and greetings. And I really am sad about the future we could have had together. Magpies live for roughly 3 years in the wild, but can live up to 20 in captivity.

Its always hard losing a pet, this one was hard because she was so young and I had thought I saved her. I feel like I let her down and she weighs on my heart.

I know, if there ever is a next time, I need to reinforce the cage door so nothing can happen to her! Live and learn I guess, I’m just so sorry it was at her expense.