Baby bird food is good, but one should *never* tube food to a moderately dehydrated bird. Since we have no way of knowing how dehydrated the bird is, it would be in the bird's best interest to tube fluids *first* then fluids w/baby bird food. Think about it for a minute... if someone goes into the hospital, what the first thing they do? They get an IV, right? Same applies to birds and other mammals, except most can't do IV's, so the next best thing is oral hydration.
From: http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/07_emergency_and_critical_care.pdf
FLUID THERAPY
Oral Administration
Oral administration is the ideal method of giving fluids. This method is more commonly used in mildly dehydrated birds or in conjunction with subcutaneous (SC) or intravenous (IV) therapy. Oral rehydration (30 ml/kg PO q 6-8 h) also may be used in larger birds (eg, waterfowl) that are difficult to restrain for parenteral fluid therapy.
Subcutaneous Administration
Subcutaneous fluid therapy is probably the most common method of administration, although administration in very critical patients must be done judiciously. With experience, warm fluids can be given over the dorsum in very depressed birds without restraint or altering of the bird’s position within its incubator. Studies have shown that adding hyaluronidase to fluids (150 IU/L fluids) greatly facilitates the absorption of these fluids. Subcutaneous fluids are most commonly given in the intrascapular area, the flank, and the area over the pectoral muscles or the axilla. Maintaining fluids on a heating pad or in an incubator, so they are available at the correct temperature for emergencies, is important. Warm fluids are both an adjuvant treatment for hypothermia and less painful on administration. However, as in mammals, a severely debilitated or dehydrated bird will not absorb SC fluids.
The link also says this in bold "A sick or debilitated bird should always have its hydration corrected prior to attempting to initiate oral gavage-feeding."
This link also has good info on fluid therapy, everyone reading this thread should read it:
http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/15.pdf
Tube feeding baby bird food to a dehydrated or hypothermic bird can kill it! Same applies to mammals.
-Kathy
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