Kathy, she's drinking voluntarily, I rigged up a waterer with honey and vitamins mixed in. She will eat a bit when offered in front of her, but she's not that interested in the food bowl. The egg yolk did seem to taste good though.
Not seeing a need for tubing her yet, I haven't experienced that with a chicken. Horses are actually among the most owner tubed animals, at least around here. When you've payed a couple hundred to get the vet over to stick a tube in it, you probably learn to do it yourself pretty quickly. I have tubed a dog once though. Not to get food in it, but rather the other way around. It had been at a kennel, and when it came home, it started behaving weirdly. They rushed over, and the diagnosis was that it's stomach had wrapped around itself, after it had eaten a huge meal of kibble and then immediately gone out to play. I was in charge of tubing it while Karin opened him up. I tooke a funnel and a tube, shoved it as deep into his stomach as it would go (orally), poured water in, and if you've ever stolen gas from a car, you can guess what I did next. I can tell you, semi digested dog feed is not a nice taste. After we managed to soften the stuff in his tummy up a bit, and get some of it out, we twisted it back the right way, and I held it in place while Karin sutured it to the stomach lining. He survived the operation, but I think we had him open for two hours. It was a very close call. Never feed big dogs right after they've been running, and wait an hour or two after meals before letting them run. This guy was a German shepherd.
CC, I'm still calculating the amino acids, but so far it seems to balance out quite nicely. Minerals seem to be pretty okay too, but I do need to add some salt to their diet, as well as vitamin supplements. I'm not adding any salt to their feed, as they get scraps pretty often which contain salt in higher than needed doses.
Not seeing a need for tubing her yet, I haven't experienced that with a chicken. Horses are actually among the most owner tubed animals, at least around here. When you've payed a couple hundred to get the vet over to stick a tube in it, you probably learn to do it yourself pretty quickly. I have tubed a dog once though. Not to get food in it, but rather the other way around. It had been at a kennel, and when it came home, it started behaving weirdly. They rushed over, and the diagnosis was that it's stomach had wrapped around itself, after it had eaten a huge meal of kibble and then immediately gone out to play. I was in charge of tubing it while Karin opened him up. I tooke a funnel and a tube, shoved it as deep into his stomach as it would go (orally), poured water in, and if you've ever stolen gas from a car, you can guess what I did next. I can tell you, semi digested dog feed is not a nice taste. After we managed to soften the stuff in his tummy up a bit, and get some of it out, we twisted it back the right way, and I held it in place while Karin sutured it to the stomach lining. He survived the operation, but I think we had him open for two hours. It was a very close call. Never feed big dogs right after they've been running, and wait an hour or two after meals before letting them run. This guy was a German shepherd.
CC, I'm still calculating the amino acids, but so far it seems to balance out quite nicely. Minerals seem to be pretty okay too, but I do need to add some salt to their diet, as well as vitamin supplements. I'm not adding any salt to their feed, as they get scraps pretty often which contain salt in higher than needed doses.
