Eggs all alone :(

Here's a picture of the eggs she left.

AlanaG,
Even though these eggs may be lost, you might want to consider keeping your cat indoors in the future, particularly in the bird nesting season, and when the young birds are learning the ropes. Even if a bird is freed after a cat catches it, cat saliva can be deadly to them at the infected site. Also, there is a growing campaign to save the lives of millions of birds by encouraging cat owners to keep their cats indoors. Here is a link that may be of interest.

Susan in Minneapolis

http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/rouge_river/cats.html

Thank you Susan for your thoughts. And I wholeheartedly agree with keeping domesticated cats indoors so they are not hit by cars, killed by wild animals, or act as possible carriers of the avian flu or other viruses. However, my cats aren't really domesticated. You see I adopt otherwise unadoptable barn cats who are pretty much feral. I provide shelter for them, so they don't freeze in the winter, and a regular supply of food and water throughout the year. They come to know me as someone who is not going to hurt them, but they will never come in my house or be regular pets. Fostering cats in this way is also a growing movement because the alternative is putting down hundreds more cats each year. On farms this is of course beneficial because the cats keep the rodent population down. A sad side effect is that they catch the occasional bird.

I think you have a generous heart but you said this are unadoptable barn cats. Maybe a few that have been dumped. But they are not vaccinated or, I assume, spayed or neutered so are free to conitnue producing more unwanted animals and spread disease.
So the feral cat population grows untl they are a nuisance.. People kill animals that they consider to be a nuisance and not in a realitively humane way. They use poisons or shoot them.

I am an animal lover but the population of dogs and cats that produced far exceed the number of people who want or need them.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my description. I'm not adopting random cats that find their way to my door. I adopt them through a program in Massachusetts that spays/neuters, vaccinates, etc. and then adopts the cats to local farms. Here's a link for more information if you're interested http://www.dakinshelter.org/barn_cats.html

I'm sure both of you are well intentioned. However, the purpose of my post was to get advice about how to care for orphaned eggs. If you have advice about that I would like to hear it.

Did I miss the beginning of this post somewhere else? I'm not sure why these eggs were abandoned but I'm guessing that they won't hatch unless a bird sits on them. I'm no expert but I'm thinking the nights up in Ma. may still be pretty chilly and without the warth of one of the parents or an incubation box they won't hatch. Anyone else know for sure?

Oh I just found the first part of this post on another thread. Now I understand! Did you ever find a rehab center near you AlanaG?

The nesting season here at my house is so nerve wracking. Its full of the excitement of the care and feeding of the babies and also the fledglings constant exposure to dangers! I have a young blue jay in the yard who has managed to stay safe (thanks to its parents' constant vigilance and me chasing away the neighbor's cat) for the past 4 days. On my day's off from work I am outside constantly gardening and I think the yard birds are quite used to me and even know to enlist my aid in cat chasing lol!

Yes I did! The New England Wildlife Center in Hingham, MA. They're a non-profit and they will take any wild animal in distress. It's a couple hours drive for me but I think it will be worth it. They seem very positive that they'll be able to hatch and raise the "kids." The nights have been cool here, but we've kept the nest warm with a heating pad set on low. The wildlife center people seem to feel that's enough heat for the babies to survive. A happy outcome as far as I'm concerned.

Thats good news Alana! Keep us posted w/updates.


Lily, that Blue Jay fledgling is TOO cute!!!!!

Good for you Alana!! I didn't know you could do that!! I'll be so interested to hear what happens!

Thanks Pell. That is little "Hoppalong" on his first day out of the nest. I have been off from work today and he is so much bigger and livelier today (four days after this picture). I'm hoping he grows up to be a big raucous bossy yard jay lol!

Alana, good work - please keep us posted if you are able to get information from them later on.