Need your Liquid Diet Suggestions for a Rooster

[ChooksChick]

I have a bird that must be tube fed 3x daily- been doing it for 7 months. I use either Kaytee or Exact baby parrot formula, switching between the two to try to integrate micronutrient differences that may exist. I also use milk, juice or honey and water as the liquid part, trying to diversify a bit.

A 7# bird needs about 130mL of tomato soup consistency formula. I go through about 120mL of the dry formula to about 375mL of the liquid daily. It's hard to say exactly, as the tube dictates the consistency and I wish I could make it thicker so it wasn't so waterlogged with constant runny poop- but that's how it is.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

I just wanted to add that if you are syringe feeding your birds please be careful as to not squirt the formula in the wrong place. It could be a bad thing. It's gotta go in the crop. Their throat is not like ours and when I was learning to hand feed the cockatiels this terrified me. I spent an entire day shadowing a professional bird lady in her shop and I actually cried when she finally made me feed the little babies. It scared me to death to think if I didn't squirt that full syringe in just the right place they would die in my hand and there was nothing I could do about it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and since you guys are working with much much larger birds I don't foresee a problem but I wanted to just throw that out there to make myself feel better about suggesting the formula.

 

[Country Heart]

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Thanks for the guidance ArizonaNessa. I worry about this every time I have to force feed. I would love to see a diagram of the inside of a chicken mouth - so far I have had no luck in locating one.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Force feeding directly into the crop is called crop feeding and this is what I did with the baby cockatiels. You don't have to do it that way but with the tiny birds the formula can cake and cause issues if you don't in my opinion. For a chicken it would be the same on a larger scale and you could just drop the formula into their mouths and let them do the rest which could take quite a while depending on the bird. You can find crop feeding videos on you tube but basically the hole that the food needs to go into is on the right side of the birds throat. Not your right but the birds right. So you would go in on the left side of its mouth down the throat a small bit pray take a deep breath and push the plunger. For the love of all things good go watch someone do this before you crop feed because it really takes some nerve at first. The reason why I had to go with crop feeding rather than drop feeding is not only because of the size of the birds but when cockatiels, parrots, parakeets and so on are tiny babies the formula has to be an exact temp or you can cause a wide range of problems. I don't think this would be an issue with a grown chicken or even a baby chick. Parrots are different because their mother's feed them whereas chickens eat on their own from day one. Anyway I just wanted to explain crop feeding a bit versus drop feeding. I hope it made sense. If you really want to find a local bird store near you and go in and explain that you have a baby bird at home that you want to see how to crop feed for hand raising. If they carry any type of bird and know anything at all about them they won't mind showing you.

I found this video for you to show just how scary it really is to crop feed. If you watch that entire plunger get shot down in a matter of two seconds and it don't freak you out then you are a stronger person than I and I hand fed four cockatiels just exactly as this video shows. It still freaks me out and she explains why in the video.

I realize this thread is about chickens but a bird is a bird I guess and I have never crop fed a chicken so this is the only experience I can share.

 

[Country Heart]

Thank you so much for the detailed instructions and the video link. I'm at least feeling a bit better about what I might have to do.

 

[ChooksChick]

Yes, it is scary- especially because the crop is only a membrane, which means it is one molecule thick and you could do major damage if you penetrate it.

I use a tube from ValleyVet. com meant for tube feeding baby goats. It goes all the way down into the crop, because if you pump into the food pipe, it can block them up- it needs to go in the mouth so they can work it down, or into the crop itself. In my big boy's case, I put medical tape around the tube about 7" from the end. The tube is made with holes in the side at the end, but a closed, round, blunt tip, so it can't scratch on the way down.

I lean back and have him on my tummy, with my knee up and one foot crossed over him. I wrap him in a towel so he can't struggle. He remains calm and dignified. I feed the tube down until the tape is just outside of his mouth. I hold it with one hand, cupping his whole head, while I hold the other end onto the giant syringe with my mouth- this is either a 2-person or crazy-person job. The pressure from pushing the plunger pops the tube off of the syringe if I don't hold it with my teeth...in lieu of a third arm. Gooey food projectile all over the room...

I have to use 4 of the 35mL syringes each feeding. I fill them all at once and have the set-up ready to go. This keeps me from having to push too hard, as the larger syringes have to have greater pressure applied. I keep the tube in my teeth while I swap out the syringe with one hand, still holding the tube in his mouth with the other. It's definitely a process. I give him 10 mL of water prior to wet his throat and dip the tube in water prior to insertion.

What we do for love, right?

 

[Country Heart]

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You said it ChooksChicks - what we do for love.

Well, I am happy to report that my forced liquid feeding went exceptionally well - he was such a trooper. I could tell he really did not want to eat, but he was so amazingly cooperative that I was able to do it single handedly. Oh it was messy, but we are both washable and it was totally worth it because he really perked up after getting a bit of the yogert and baby bird formula down.

I think tomorrow I am going to try a larger syringe and try and get a couple of meals into him in the course of the day. Wish me luck!

 

[ChooksChick]

I'm glad he's looking up!

Best of luck to you. Email me ChooksChick at gmail dot com if you have any questions.