How Much to Crop Feed?

[Msfur08]

I have a one year old Welsummer hen who sustained a leg injury a couple weeks ago. I checked several times for broken or dislocated bones and haven’t found any, so I think a muscle might be pulled. She tries to stand but can’t. She falls over and kicks around.

No other symptoms. Normal poop. I checked for egg binding and there was no egg in there.

Her weight is now down to 3lbs... She pecks a bit but doesn’t eat much and won’t drink.

I have constructed a sling for “physical therapy” because I feel at this point it’s more muscle weakness than injury.

I have been crop feeding her Kaytee baby bird food (and she will peck some apple and sunflower seeds). But I’m not sure how much she needs to have in order to gain her weight back.

She isn’t lethargic (other than some sleepiness that I think is from being awake too much from indoor lighting and not getting enough nutrition). Still preens and “chats”. So, I want to see if this physical therapy and feeding her will get her moving normally again.

So, does anyone know how much I should be feeding her (I.e. how many ounces) to help her gain her weight back?

 

[Wezdin]

what is crop feeding? let her eat as much food as she wants. Is this baby bird food for chickens?

 

[Msfur08]

Crop feeding is force feeding.

Kaytee baby bird formula is a powdered bird food commonly used to crop feed chickens.

The problem is that she won’t eat enough. (She pecks a little bit but isn’t getting enough to keep her weight up.) I don’t want to over or under feed her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a one year old Welsummer hen who sustained a leg injury a couple weeks ago. I checked several times for broken or dislocated bones and haven’t found any, so I think a muscle might be pulled. She tries to stand but can’t. She falls over and kicks around.

No other symptoms. Normal poop. I checked for egg binding and there was no egg in there.

Her weight is now down to 3lbs... She pecks a bit but doesn’t eat much and won’t drink.

I have constructed a sling for “physical therapy” because I feel at this point it’s more muscle weakness than injury.

I have been crop feeding her Kaytee baby bird food (and she will peck some apple and sunflower seeds). But I’m not sure how much she needs to have in order to gain her weight back.

She isn’t lethargic (other than some sleepiness that I think is from being awake too much from indoor lighting and not getting enough nutrition). Still preens and “chats”. So, I want to see if this physical therapy and feeding her will get her moving normally again.

So, does anyone know how much I should be feeding her (I.e. how many ounces) to help her gain her weight back?

Crop feeding is force feeding.

Kaytee baby bird formula is a powdered bird food commonly used to crop feed chickens.

The problem is that she won’t eat enough. (She pecks a little bit but isn’t getting enough to keep her weight up.) I don’t want to over or under feed her.

Poor dear! Do you have Marek's in your flock?

For tube feeding, you may want to read the article below - I believe the amounts are there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/crop-feeding.75454/

 

[Eggcessive]

In the article above, it says to feed adults 3 ml per each 100 grams of weight. So 3 pounds is 1360 grams, so 3 ml x 136 grams is 408 ml in water volume daily. You would want to divide the volume to feed 3-4 times a day. I would start slowly in small amounts to see how they are tolerated. If you can weigh her on a kitchen gram scale initialy and once a day, you can pinpoint the amount more closely.