Bye
- Thread starter Mz Luv
- Start date
You should never poke a hole in an egg and put water inside the hole.
Never.
If a bird is sitting on the eggs leave them alone.
The less you mess with the bird and the eggs the better chance they have.
Never.
If a bird is sitting on the eggs leave them alone.
The less you mess with the bird and the eggs the better chance they have.
- Thread starter
- #3
Please don't ever do this again. The chick doesn't need water while it is still in the egg.
Are dove chicks different than chicken chicks? Because chicken chicks don't need water before they hatch or for 2-3 days afterwards, and it's extremely easy to aspirate an adult chicken when syringing fluid into its beak; seems likely a chick still in the shell could easily aspirate if water was syringed to them. Could you provide a link where you researched/learned that syringing water to a chick still inside a shell is good practice?
You're basically drowning the chicks before they hatch.
The yolk provides everything they need, and they are not ready to swallow. They're curled up inside a tight space so they can't get away, and they can't vomit it up.
Almost all of the time, animals do better without human intervention.
We have trouble giving birth because our brains are comparatively ginormous relative to our bodies, while animals have smaller heads. Then we use our big heads to try to control everything. But please look again at the picture you posted and realize that baby was not ready to hatch. Just because some survive in spite of your ministrations does not mean they survived because of it.
The yolk provides everything they need, and they are not ready to swallow. They're curled up inside a tight space so they can't get away, and they can't vomit it up.
Almost all of the time, animals do better without human intervention.
We have trouble giving birth because our brains are comparatively ginormous relative to our bodies, while animals have smaller heads. Then we use our big heads to try to control everything. But please look again at the picture you posted and realize that baby was not ready to hatch. Just because some survive in spite of your ministrations does not mean they survived because of it.
The chick in the pic was in no way ready to hatch, not to beat a dead horse or make you feel bad, but the chicks that survive this treatment are doing so in spite of it, not because of it. Hatching is hard work, and not every baby can do it themselves... But in no cases is it because they need to be forcibly given water. It is normal for hatching to take a long time! They have to take breaks to rest and recoup themselves before they make another effort to keep unzipping the egg.
I've worked wildlife rehab for a long time, and I always tell people-- Sometimes the desire to help & all the love in the world can cause so much more harm than not doing anything and letting nature take its course. I don't say this to make you upset. The best thing you can do for animals that you love is to learn how to do better by them & know when to leave them alone. I have lost count of baby birds we have lost because people think they need to give them water and drown the poor things.
In any case, never give water to baby birds still in the shell; you can easily set them up for a case of aspiration pneumonia or just plain drown them. in the case of Altricial babies, like these doves, they will almost never need any external water from you at all. Dove and pigeon parents don't bring water back to them on the nest in the wild, they are well adapted to get their moisture from their diets.
Precocial babies like chickens, can be given a shallow water dish when they are dried and ready to move to their brooder, but they don't need to be syringe-fed water before they hatch either.
I've worked wildlife rehab for a long time, and I always tell people-- Sometimes the desire to help & all the love in the world can cause so much more harm than not doing anything and letting nature take its course. I don't say this to make you upset. The best thing you can do for animals that you love is to learn how to do better by them & know when to leave them alone. I have lost count of baby birds we have lost because people think they need to give them water and drown the poor things.
In any case, never give water to baby birds still in the shell; you can easily set them up for a case of aspiration pneumonia or just plain drown them. in the case of Altricial babies, like these doves, they will almost never need any external water from you at all. Dove and pigeon parents don't bring water back to them on the nest in the wild, they are well adapted to get their moisture from their diets.
Precocial babies like chickens, can be given a shallow water dish when they are dried and ready to move to their brooder, but they don't need to be syringe-fed water before they hatch either.
Mason Farm and Ranch
Songster
I've had a few chicks struggle with hatching. At most, once they pip, if they haven't made progress in 36 hours, I crack the shell in a Y shape from the hole. Don't break or peel any membrane and don't 'help' until the second day.
With that being said, a chick can take 72 hours to break out of its shell. The shell is porous, so they can breathe. The yolk provides nutrients for several days. And provide free choice calcium for your birds, they know how much they need.
With that being said, a chick can take 72 hours to break out of its shell. The shell is porous, so they can breathe. The yolk provides nutrients for several days. And provide free choice calcium for your birds, they know how much they need.
- Thread starter
- #9
Patiocoturnix
Enabler
This the article I believe they were talking about they posted it in a different thread. https://www.melbournebirdvet.com/dead-in-shell-youngsters/
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