Force feeding baby birds

Force Feeding / Gavage / Tube Feeding

Administering Medication … Hand Feeding Methods … Handfeeding Protocol … List of Handrearing Supplies Needed … Handfeeding Formula for Softbills / Turacos

Force feeding, also known as Tube or Gavage feeding – is a method of feeding, in which the food is pumped into the crop through a tube that has been put down the esophagus and into the crop.

Punctured Crop:

If the tube is pushed too far, or if the baby / bird jumps, the tube may be pushed through the crop membrane and the outer skin to cause a puncture. If this happens, food put into the crop will leak out of the puncture.

The only way to correct this problem is to suture the inner and outer layers of the crop and skin. Antibiotics must be administered to prevent infection. If left uncorrected, infection will set in, and the baby will starve to death because the crop will no longer hold food.

Delayed Weaning / Insufficient Socialization:

Tube feeding bypasses the bird’s natural feeding response and chicks fed this way may take longer to wean and be poorly socialized. Breeders may choose this method as a quick way to feed many chicks. The resulting chicks may develop behavioral problems as the feeding sessions themselves are part of the bonding process.

Tube Feeding Instructions

Provided by Dr. Rob Marshall, Avian Vet – http://www.birdhealth.com.au

Utensils For Crop Feeding:

A syringe and crop needle should be used for crop feeding. In between feeds, boil the utensils, etc., so as to prevent any food spoilage and subsequent infections. The utensils are soaked in a Water Cleanser after cleaning. Any formula must be made fresh and the leftovers discarded.

Amounts and methods for feeding ER formula

The size of crop needle and amount of Formula are as follows:

Bird Type and Size	Crop Needle Size and Length	Amount of Formula Fed
Orphaned Wild Birds	Syringe or small spoon	3ml
Budgerigar-sized	18 gauge, 3cm long	3ml
Cockatiel-sized	16-17 gauge, 5cm long	5mls, 2 times daily
Pigeon and Galah-sized	21-14 gauge, 7cm long	Pigeons: 20mls, 2 times daily. Parrots: 10mls, 2 times daily.
Ducks and Chickens	Stomach tube	50mls, 2 times daily.

Tips for Preparing the Formula

Hold the small cup in the larger bowl so that the hot water keeps the formula warm.Adding a couple drops of hot water from the tap at a time, use the butter knife or back of the spoon to mix the powder into a paste.Use the knife or spoon to squash the formula against the side of the cup to smooth out all lumps.Continue adding a couple drops of hot water at a time until the formula is the consistency of maple syrup.It is best not to make the formula in the microwave. Mix by hand with the hot water and double check the temperature before feeding.Continue feeding for one day after the bird is seen eating seed on its own.

Spilled food around the bird’s face should be cleaned with a warmed cleaned cloth before it dries. A “bib” may help keep the feathers clean, as well as a fine warm water mist spray over the body when weather is hot, but prevent chilling.

The Crop Needle Technique

Some tips when crop needling birds (The crop needle is a blunt needle or crop tube passed gently and directly into the crop.):

Always lubricate the crop needle prior to use. A small amount of spit, oil or Vaseline helps the tube to slide into the fragile and often dry oesophagus.
Make the formula very warm and fresh each meal. Pre-warm the syringe and needle. Use hot water and not a microwave to heat the formula, as this avoids “hot spots” that burn the crop lining.
Clean and disinfect the crop needle and feeding syringe after every feeding.
Extend the neck as the needle is slowly introduced from the right side of the beak into the left side of the back of the mouth. The crop needle is then passed gently into the crop. Check it is in the crop by feeling for the crop needle through the skin on the outside of the crop. Now slowly inject the formula into the crop.
Fill the crop with the formula. Stop when the tongue moves in a swallowing motion and then quickly but gently remove the needle. Medication may also be mixed into the ormula.
Immediately return the bird to the heated hospital cage / brooder.

For sick birds, Dr. Marshall recommends the following to hydrate and provide crucial nutrition to your bird patient.

Emergency Rescue Formula Alternatives
- Glucodin 5% (glucose powder) and hot water.
- Honey 5% and hot water.
- Polenta (corn powder) or rice flour and hot water.
- Strained baby food.

Notes: This formula is used for seed-eating birds and not for Lorikeets. Lorikeets are best fed grapes, apple puree or apricot juice by spoon, rather than by a crop needle.

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Animal hospital vet: baby birds will not starve if you don’t feed them for a few hours

The baby bird says “FEED ME!!” but it doesn’t know that you’re not this momma Cliff Swallow.

One of the veterinarians at the animal rehabiliation hospital recently lamented to me that so many animals she sees are “killed with kindness.” The most common problem by far is that of feeding baby birds. Well-meaning rescuers find a baby bird in need; they search the internet and find statements like “Baby birds must be fed every hour or they will die.” Terrified that the bird will starve before they can get it to the animal hospital—maybe the hospital is closed for the night; maybe it’s a 40-minute drive away—they feed the bird. It makes intuitive sense that babies need to eat, after all. What is not intuitive to us is how easy it is to fatally injure a baby bird by feeding it incorrectly.

“Nowhere on the internet says ‘It’s okay to not feed baby birds for a while, they won’t starve,'” the vet said. “And then they come in fed on milk or something, because the internet said that was a good idea, and they die.”

So: It is okay to not feed baby birds for a while. They will not starve in the several hours it takes to get them to the animal hospital. They will not starve overnight if you find them at 6pm and the animal hospital doesn’t open until 9am the next morning. Baby birds expect to fast the night: their parents sleep, after all. The risk to the bird of starvation is much smaller than the risk of a human trying to feed it without the necessary expertise.

Acorn Woodpecker—who does have the necessary expertise—feeding a chick.

I think the reason that internet resources generally emphasize that baby birds need to eat frequently is that they want to discourage people from thinking that it will be easy to raise a bird. This is a good impulse, and is true to an extent: at the animal hospital we feed the youngest birds every 45 minutes during daylight. That’s because 1) we know exactly what to feed them, and 2) we know exactly how to feed them. In the hands of someone without that knowledge, a one-time fast is much, much safer for the bird than an attempt to feed it.

A few weeks ago, I came across a recently fledged hummingbird who was not yet able to fly upwards. It had gotten itself onto the ground of a gas station on a busy city street. There was little vegetation around and nowhere safe to put it that I could see. After some agonizing—it’s always better to leave a fledgling where it is, if you can—I decided to take it to the animal hospital rather than let it continue hanging out on the concrete with so many cars driving past.

Gas stations are not good hummingbird habitat, little one!

“Shouldn’t you feed it?” A friend asked me as I got my car keys. “I heard hummingbirds have crazy metabolisms. They can starve to death so fast.” It was a compelling thought. Hummingbirds do have very fast metabolisms, to the point that they have to enter a state somewhat like hibernation simply to avoid starving during cold nights. The drive to the animal hospital was 45 mins, and I had no idea how long the hummer had been fasting before I found it.

But the animal hospital, on all of its pamphlets and websites, says: Don’t try to feed the animal before you bring it in. So I didn’t. I drove the bird up, and when I dropped it off, the volunteer who accepted it asked if I had tried to feed it anything. “No,” I said, feeling obscurely guilty, even though I knew I’d just been following instructions. Not feeding a baby animal feels mean. But: “That’s perfect,” she said happily. “That’s what we want. I’ll get him some food right away.”

A week later, the hummingbird—healthy and now able to fly—was released.

Even though it feels mean, don’t try to feed a baby bird if you have an expectation of getting it to a rehab facility within a few hours (or overnight). The baby bird won’t know to thank you, but you’ll know that you’ve done a good thing: quite probably, saved its life.

Momma junco is maybe getting tired of feeding her giant baby (who is actually a cowbird).

(I know the blog has been focusing a lot on if-you-find-a-baby-bird posts lately; if you miss the more sciencey content, I apologize, and I promise there will be more of that too! This time of year I get a lot of Help I found a baby bird commenters, and I’m always hoping that this blog can help them and maybe counteract some of the misinformation that’s out there on these topics. But my favorite thing is still the science of animals, and that will continue to be the main the focus of the blog.)

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How to breed a swift at home

Who fed the swift, God kissed him (proverb)

The swift is a special bird, one of the fastest in the world, which can stay in the sky for months: feed, breed and sleep on air streams. Since all 4 fingers of the swift are facing forward, these birds cannot sit on the branches of trees and walk on the ground, therefore, if you notice a swift sitting on the ground, it means that it needs human help. Just like that, a swift cannot end up on earth, its future life depends only on you.

The first rule: under no circumstances should swifts be tossed or released from balconies or bridges! If he has an internal bruise, fracture, dislocation or some other internal injury, by throwing him up you will provoke him to fly and thereby worsen his condition. He will fly a few meters and still fall.

Second rule: swifts are strictly insectivorous birds, they are fed ONLY with house or banana crickets, Turkmen or marble cockroaches, locusts, ant eggs (pupae), zofobas . (This food can be purchased from us. If this food is not available in your city, we will be happy to deliver it by train, bus or post.) Before buying insects, but not more than a day, you can give the bird balls of low-fat homemade cheese (the so-called " cottage cheese"), so that digestion does not stop. Homemade cheese is the product that you can’t poison the swift and harm it.

The main reasons why swifts can end up on the ground are:

injury
unsuccessful flight of a young swift
a small chick falling out of the nest.

In all cases, the bird should be carefully picked up and examined for injuries. If the bird appears to be intact and undamaged, it should be placed in a box large enough so that it will not get stuck if it opens its wings fully, and left alone. The box must be DARK. It is very important! The bottom of the box must be lined with toilet paper, which is changed as it gets dirty. It is impossible to plant a swift in a cage, as it can break, damage or shatter the plumage. You can’t drink, because if the bird has a traumatic brain injury, then drinking will provoke cerebral edema and death. The swift is one of the few birds that will definitely not die of dehydration within a few days. And since it flies very fast, head injuries are quite common.

Contents

Injury

If the swift has an open fracture of the shoulder, wing, trauma to the eye, body, bruises or wounds, it is necessary to anesthetize with Meloxicam tablets (7.5 mg - whole tablet, 15 mg - 1/2 tablet) - dilute in 0.75 ml of water; then take 0.1 ml (2 drops) of this solution and add 12.5 ml of water to them. The resulting second solution should be given to the swift 0.05 ml (one drop!) 1-2 times a day for 2-14 days, depending on the condition. Mix a new solution every day.

IMPORTANT! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ANESTHETATE (and also bandage, plaster) A BIRD WITH INJURY, even in case of an open fracture, if it does not die from pain shock right at that moment.
If you anesthetize a bird, it will no longer be able to fly, even if the injury was treatable.
Dark boxing (2 weeks), good nutrition and PAIN - 3 components of success. This forces the bird to sit still and take care of the damaged wing.
If anesthetized, the bird will feel able to fly. She will be restless, active. This will most likely prevent the damaged organ from recovering properly. The pain threshold in birds is very high.

If at first glance the bird is whole, you need to shine a flashlight into the eyes and find out if the pupils constrict at the same time, if not, then it has a traumatic brain injury (TBI). One of the clearest signs of TBI is developing swelling (eg, swelling of the eyes, swollen eyes). In this case, it is necessary to give a one-time hormonal preparation on the advice of a veterinarian and in the exact dosage and place it in a dark box for two weeks. Starting from the 4th day, you need to give:

Piracetam ¹ - 1 drop per day, the drug is cumulative, so it is given for a long time,
Mexidol - 1 drop per day,
B1 - 1 drop 1 time per day.

Important! Preparations for TBI should not be used in the first three days!

You can read detailed information about the treatment of the swift on the page dedicated to help, maintenance and feeding VKontakte.

Don't rely too much on the help of veterinarians or bird watchers, the swift is a wild bird, and bird watchers often give the wrong advice on feeding or treating the swift. Moreover, do not give the swift to zoos or bird shelters, often the swift is given as food to birds of prey, since the food of the swift is expensive and it is unlikely that anyone will want to deal with treatment there.

Unsuccessful flight of a young swift

It happens that adult birds fly to Africa, leaving the chick, and the chick flies out of the nest in search of food, but because it lacks strength - it has become thin or not fully feathered - it falls to the ground . In such a situation, it is necessary:

Find out the age of the swift according to this table
Weigh the bird and start feeding according to this chart. If a relatively mature bird weighs less than 23-25g, the bird is emaciated and its stomach needs to be run according to this advice: https://www. mybirds.ru/forums/topic/128929-iz-opyta-vyhazhivaniya-strizhey/.

If the bird is relatively mature, more often it should be supplemented for a short time and released according to the advice below.

Swift in the sky

Little chick falling out of the nest

If you come across a very small swift that has fallen out of the nest, the main thing for him now is food.

Feed the little swift every 2 hours at least 10 times a day. The approximate amount of food according to age (by day) is provided at the end of the article in the tables.

Birds should gain 1–1.5 grams of weight every day! A chick in a nest can weigh up to 55 grams. But before it starts to fly, the chick begins to lose weight, refuses to eat. At this stage, you can feed him less, but so that the weight before the flight is not lower than 37 grams. It is important to feed the chick enough so that he has a reserve for losing weight! A hungry bird does not develop a feather well, and feathers are the whole life for a swift!

As noted at the beginning of the article, swifts are strictly insectivorous birds.

After purchasing crickets and cockroaches, they must be put in the freezer so as not to accidentally infect the bird with helminths (especially if you have to feed wild-caught insects before purchasing specially grown food). Then get the required amount, tear off the legs, mustache, ovipositor (since these hard surfaces can injure the swift’s esophagus; or you can buy ready-made “carcasses” without legs), throw them into warm water, when they are thawed, put them on a napkin and feed. It is not necessary to give a lot of water to the swift, as they get it from insects.

Ant eggs (pupae) can be bought or dug up from anthills. This is a very useful and favorite food of the swift. Ant eggs are also stored in the freezer; before feeding, they must be thawed and washed. Grasshoppers or grasshoppers can be caught in nature, but you need to freeze for at least 5 hours to destroy helminths. By the way, swifts do not gain weight too quickly on fillies, so they need more than other fodder insects.

Do NOT feed swifts meat, bread, eggs, maggots, potatoes, baby food, pet store bird food, vitamins, earthworms, bloodworms, or the like.

If the bird is not properly fed, then when it returns to the sky, when it begins to eat its usual food - celestial plankton (i.e. insects), its metabolic processes will fail, molting will begin and the bird will fall. And this is a very terrible death. By the way, from malnutrition, some birds begin to lose feathers even before departure. Liver disease is also common. Therefore, nothing but insects should be given to swifts! (Below we provide links to the pages of European organizations involved in feeding swifts, which clearly write that nothing but insects should be fed to the swift, and there are also photos of plumage after improper feeding.)

Feeding rules

It happens that the swift feeds on its own, grabbing food from the fingers, but if the chick has already grown up and refuses to eat from the hands, it is necessary to try to find the way the parents fed the chick - to lead the insects along the beak from different sides, provoking to grab food.

If the chick refuses to feed on its own, it must be force-fed. To do this, it is necessary to wrap the swift in a napkin in order not to damage or stain the plumage, and carefully, opening the beak from the side, put the insect into the mouth. The beak of swifts is very fragile, it cannot be opened by the tip, because it can break, it is necessary to open it only from the side, do not use sharp and hard objects! There are many videos on YouTube with examples of feeding swifts - you can watch and learn.

Departure time

Since adult birds do not teach swifts to fly and, leaving the nest, they immediately go to Africa, the chicks begin to train in the nest before the flight.

If you see that the swift has become restless, aggressive, his look has changed, he often trains, it means that the departure time is approaching.

Check before departure:

The swift's wings must be at least 3. 5 cm longer than the tail.
Weight within 37–42 gr.
All feather tubes should come off.
The base of the pen, where the tubes were, should darken.

The bird should be released in a wasteland with low grass, where there are no wires, houses, trees, cars, so that in case of a fall it can be easily found. The weather for the next few days should be sunny, warm and windless.

You need to release it by raising your hand with the bird up. Do not toss, swing or throw. The bird will decide for itself whether to fly or not. It happens that swifts feel the presence of a predator and do not take off from the hand, in which case you can try to release the next day.

Important:

Do not let fly at home, around the apartment.
Do not teach to fly.
Do not take outside.
Treat the plumage very carefully and carefully.

So, feeding a chick in the first days is not so easy, but then, when it rises from your palm into the sky and lives happily there for more than 10 years, believe me, you will never forget the time you spent with this bird, because this a fantastic bird will live forever in your soul. Add to our group in contact, we will always give advice in time and help in this good deed! Good luck!

Swift in flight

Useful links

Determining the age of the swift with photographs
Food selection
The right amount of food
Site "Give the sky to the bird"
VKontakte group

All articles

Notes

You can’t give our (Russian), only the original drug is given - Nootropil (piracetam) ampoule, made in Belgium [↩]

The basics of feeding mulard ducks0001

An incapable of reproduction breed of mulard duck, especially valued by poultry farmers for its high quality meat. The precocity of the breed distinguishes these birds from other representatives of the "duck". This article will talk about feeding mulard ducks.

Immediately after hatching, the chicks, in most cases, do not know how to get food and water on their own. Such factors lead to a high mortality of young animals. In the first days, it is recommended that the ducklings are forced to drink from a pipette. You can use another method: moisten the chick's beak in water, slightly wetting it there, the bird will reflexively begin to drink.

For the first few days the young feed on hard-boiled eggs with a small amount of finely chopped grass in the summer, and green wheat sprouts will do in the winter. The resulting feed is scattered on a hard, even surface of the feeding area.

It is not recommended to give food directly under the feet of ducklings, it will simply be trampled on.

Boiled eggs are fed to mulards only 7 days from the day of birth, finely ground grains are gradually added to it. By the end of the first week of life, mashed boiled potatoes can be added to the mixture in moderation.

Moisture is allowed in feed, but must be free-flowing. This will avoid clogging the beak of the chicks with food.

When introducing new feeds into the diet, it is important to remember that any additions are given gradually.

Clean water is the key to the health of the chicks, it must be changed regularly, must not be allowed to remain musty and food residues in the drinker. It is better to take a container for a drinking bowl deep enough - the ducklings will clean the sinuses of the nose from food from food that has got there. If the weather is warm enough, then 4 days after the appearance of the chicks, it is recommended to take them outside: the presence of vitamin D will help to avoid certain diseases.

In the second week of life, a small amount of algae from a nearby pond should be added to the diet of mulard ducklings. These supplements will help the chicks to develop properly, grow rapidly and be in better health. Beets should be added to the diet very carefully, the bird's stomach may begin to sag. In this case, it is better to remove it from the feed.

It is important to remember that ducklings should have free access to shell rock, chalk or well-ground egg shells. For mineral feed, you need to install a separate container and fill as you eat.