Carol, So glad you had a good time at the sheep & wool festival. I'm sorry we didn't get to see you while you were here.
Today, Linz & I headed south to the Sussex show. We saw some incredibly beautiful birds and I have now fallen in love with pigeons! The frillbacks, fantails and the ones with the feather "collars" were all amazing.
We met Dr. Brown and found him super nice and very helpful. Bought his Emergency Kit plus a few other goodies. We also met Roberta and Vera, who were very sweet and showed Lindsey a beautiful baby parrot. Here are a few nice pictures that we took of the ladies...
Here is a pic of our poor splash that has neurological damage from the shipping delays. He is getting ready to be tube fed, all wrapped up in a sleeve from a sweatshirt.
Oh that's brilliant! Do you mind if I copy that picture for the article I am (very slowly) writing on caring for cross-beaks?
So glad you guys had fun at the Sussex fair! Aren't those pigeons just divine? I would love a real dove-cote full of fan tails, but then I would also like peacocks and swans and wood ducks and well, I guess I have to start drawing lines somewhere or we'll just be buried in feathers.
Oh that's brilliant! Do you mind if I copy that picture for the article I am (very slowly) writing on caring for cross-beaks?
So glad you guys had fun at the Sussex fair! Aren't those pigeons just divine? I would love a real dove-cote full of fan tails, but then I would also like peacocks and swans and wood ducks and well, I guess I have to start drawing lines somewhere or we'll just be buried in feathers.
Oh that's brilliant! Do you mind if I copy that picture for the article I am (very slowly) writing on caring for cross-beaks?
So glad you guys had fun at the Sussex fair! Aren't those pigeons just divine? I would love a real dove-cote full of fan tails, but then I would also like peacocks and swans and wood ducks and well, I guess I have to start drawing lines somewhere or we'll just be buried in feathers.
Sure! Dr. Peter Brown (First State Vet Supplies) suggested this to me. He also shared an important point that chickens don't have a diaphragm like humans, so they can not be wrapped tightly or they will literally suffocate.
I'm having trouble getting my food concoction into the syringe and smoothly down the tube. It's either too thick to draw up or when i thin it down to a slurry consistency, the syringe gets clogged easily with small particles. I'm using a 12cc syringe with aquarium tubing. May I ask what you use for tube feeding?
Oh that's brilliant! Do you mind if I copy that picture for the article I am (very slowly) writing on caring for cross-beaks?
So glad you guys had fun at the Sussex fair! Aren't those pigeons just divine? I would love a real dove-cote full of fan tails, but then I would also like peacocks and swans and wood ducks and well, I guess I have to start drawing lines somewhere or we'll just be buried in feathers.
Sure! Dr. Peter Brown (First State Vet Supplies) suggested this to me. He also shared an important point that chickens don't have a diaphragm like humans, so they can not be wrapped tightly or they will literally suffocate.
I'm having trouble getting my food concoction into the syringe and smoothly down the tube. It's either too thick to draw up or when i thin it down to a slurry consistency, the syringe gets clogged easily with small particles. I'm using a 12cc syringe with aquarium tubing. May I ask what you use for tube feeding?
I don't have to tube feed Tiana luckily but I did summarize the really awesome stuff from the crossbeak thread. PM me your email and I'll send it to you or just look it up. I'll check for the direct link if I can.
Awww, your gals are so cute. They look really good! I love the way they were eating yogurt, you could almost hear the 'numnumnumnum' sounds.
Earlier you asked for a tube-feeding tutorial, and I'm here to deliver!
TUBE FEEDING TUTORIAL
First, you will need supplies.
Pictured: olive oil, 20-ml syringe, feeding tube (it's in the olive oil), and Polyvisol.
The feeding tube can be bought from a vet (that is where I got mine) just make sure you mention chicken size. Mine was $3.00. The tube is also known as a red rubber tube and come in sizes called French (Fr.). Most standard sized chickens are probably going to be about a 10 or 14 Fr. Also, the larger the diameter of the tube you can get, the less likely you are going to have to deal with clogs.
The vet gave me the syringes as well for free (no needles to go with them obviously, just the syringe) and the rest can be bought at the store. The bigger the syringe, the better since you don't have to draw up more often. If you can get a 35cc syringe most women with average sized hands find these easiest to work with. Most vets would be able to get you a 60cc syringe, but unless you have large hands these are a real pain when they are full and you're pushing the food through. If possible, many people find catheter tip syringes easier to use with a red rubber tube. The 20cc syringe shown in the tutorial is a leur-lock syringe, leur-lock syringes have threading at the tip that helps hold needles in place. It doesn't do much for a red rubber tube but will work if you have nothing else.
I use the oil to grease the feeding tube and also the plunger on the syringe to make it go down smoother.
Blending the Food
I use a cheap, Walmart blender that cost maybe $13. If you have a nicer blender, that will work too! The only important thing is that it have a liquefy setting or something similar. Do not use a food processor as in my experience they do not work for this.
I use a different mixture depending on what I have handy, but generally here is what I put in:
chicken crumbles
very hot water
yogurt or heavy whipping cream
mayonnaise
olive oil
I then blend the bejesus out of this mixture, leaving it on liquefy for 5 minutes and adding hot water if it is too thick, and then blending some more. The blender is your friend. You want the end result to be a velvety-smooth goop that will flow easily through the syringe. However, you will get clogs no matter what you do. I advise NOT trying to force it because I did once and the tube popped off and I squirted goo all over my poor fiancee. Just pull the plunger back and forth until it frees up, or if it is really bad, disconnect it from the tube, poke a needle through the tip to see if the clog is there, and try again.
Velvety goop! (I dropped poly-vi-sol on top so I could make sure she gets some in her.)
Inserting the Tube
I need my fiancee' to help out at this point. It's very hard to insert the feeding tube alone. So grab a buddy, wrap your chook in a towel or shirt, and have them hold your chickeny friend like this:
Holding them like this, they can't escape and your buddy can feel the feeding tube going down into the crop. The first few times you will be terrified of getting it in the wrong hole, but after a while you will be a pro. Another tip, make sure the chicken's neck is extended. Chickens and other birds have a sort of S shaped neck when they are holding it naturally, and this can make it more difficult to pass the tube. If you look at the pictures in you can see that my fiancee has Bird's neck extended so that it is more or less straight for the feeding.
You want to aim the feeding tube down the LEFT side of the chicken's mouth if you are facing her. The crop goes off to the chicken's right side. You can feel the crop and jiggle the feeding tube to be sure it's in the right place. When you are sure it's down the right hole, attach the syringe to the feeding tube and fill your chicken with goo! Do not overfeed or you'll have a chicken squirting food out of her mouth.
Important note: Don't force the tube! It should slide down the esophagus into the crop smoothly and without resistance, especially if you are using olive oil to lubricate. If you have to force it, you're in the wrong place and you need to pull out and try again. If you stay to the right side of the mouth/throat (your left if you are facing the chicken while doing this) then it should slide in easy and you'll be fine. Red rubber tubes are a very safe way to tube feed. Some people also use metal gavage tubes, but these can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing because they can cause tears to the crop if force is used, the red rubber tube doesn't have enough substance to it to cause the crop to rupture unless you are using what will obviously be too much force.
Bird fights a little because I think the feeding tube feels weird and a little uncomfortable, but she settles down after a while. She is able to take 6 1/2 syringes full from the 20 ml syringes I have.
I would like to thank AinaWGSD for her contribution to this tutorial and Bird for being patient while I took pictures.
I don't have to tube feed Tiana luckily but I did summarize the really awesome stuff from the crossbeak thread. PM me your email and I'll send it to you or just look it up. I'll check for the direct link if I can.
I just emailed Doc Brown, as he was e-mailing me.
He asked if anyone here would like to attend a seminar on poultry diseases.
He quoted me a $50. price per person, and said if we could get around 20 people together, he would consider it.
I would like to see our VETERINARIANS attend this, and that price would be pocket change to them.
He would give out a poultry anatomy and disease poster for all attendees (I checked, he sells that for $15)
Please let me know if you or anyone you know would be interested, and if I had flyers made up, if you could post them in your local feed store.
I really hate to sound like I am selling something, but a few of us have had heartbreak knowing the outcome of our flocks.
We need to make this happen. We need to educate ourselves, as sometimes our vet does not know the answers.
I can attest to that, as I just killed 4 of my babies because my vet said it was not Mareks, and it really WAS.
Roberta
