Tube Feeding Q and A

[casportpony]

With pemission, I am posting what someone on a peafowl Facebook group asked the other day. Please feel free to add your answers or to ask more questions. Their questions are in the bold font.

TUBE FEEDING/GIVING MEDS:

Question - Do you guys prefer a tube or the rigid gavage needles?
For both feeding and giving meds? Why?

• Answer - I prefer the red rubber urinary catheter type because they come in many different sizes and can be shortened if needed. Red rubber tubes are long enough to safely tube even the largest fowl. Metal tubes are too short and too narrow to use on larger birds.

Question - What size? Do you use different sizes for feeding vs medicating?
For adults?

• Answer - For adult peafowl I use a size 30 french for food and a size 18 for water or medications. For most chickens I use an 18.

For chicks?

• Answer - small chicks I use a size 8 French. As they get bigger I increase the size of the tube.

Question - Also, when tube feeding, what amount do you give each time and how many times a day?

• Answer - How much and how often depends on so many things, but it's usually 2.5% to 5% of their body weight 2-4 times a day

For adults?

• Large birds in the 3-6 kg range get 60-120 ml at least twice a day if they can hold their heads up. If they can't hold their heads up, they will get less. How sick they are also dictates the amount. The critically ill one's crops are usually slow to clear, so they will get less than the less critically ill.

For chicks?

• Newly hatched chicks and ducklings are tricky, so they get very little at first. Maybe 0.1 ml to 0.2 ml every hour and increase as crop stretches? Once stretched, increase at about 0.1 ml per feeding as crop allows.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Need to watch this

 

[casportpony]

Need to watch this

Could be fun!

 

[daxigait]

With pemission I am posting what someone on a peafowl Facebook asked the other day. Please feel free it add your answers or to ask more questions. Their questions are in the bold font.

TUBE FEEDING/GIVING MEDS:

Question - Do you guys prefer a tube or the rigid gavage needles?
For both feeding and giving meds? Why?

• Answer - I prefer the red rubber catheter type because they come in many different sizes and can be shortened if needed. Red rubber tubes are long enough to safely tube even the largest fowl. Metal tubes are too short and too narrow to use on larger birds.

Question - What size? Do you use different sizes for feeding vs medicating?
For adults?

• Answer - For adult peafowl I use a size 30 french for food and a size 18 for water or medications

For chicks?

• Answer - small chicks I use a size 8 French. As they get bigger I increase the size of the tube.

Question - Also, when tube feeding, what amount do you give each time and how many times a day?

• Answer - How much and how often depends on so many things, but it's usually 2.5% to 5% of their body weight 2-4 times a day

For adults?

• Large birds in the 3-6 kg range get 60-120 ml at least twice a day if they can hold their heads up. If they can't hold their heads up, they will get less. How sick they are also dictates the amount. The critically ill one's crops are usually slow to clear, so they will get less than the less critically ill.

For chicks?

• Newly hatched chicks and ducklings are tricky, so they get very little at first. Maybe 0.1 ml to 0.2 ml every hour and increase as crop stretches? Once stretched, increase at about 0.1 ml per feeding as crop allows.

Thanks for more great concise information.
If king of time someone found a chicken sitting in the snow and won't get up now it's on the news threads. I didn't know other than frostbite what to suggest they check.

 

[Hope Hughes]

Have not had to give meds yet but this the best place to learn for when i do!!!!
​

 

[casportpony]

Another question people ask is:
How do I know when I should tube?

• Answer - If they have lost 5% of their weight, or if they aren't eating or drinking on their own.

 

[casportpony]

Question - What type of food should I tube?

Answer - A baby bird food like Kaytee Exact would be best, but with a large enough tube a puréed crumble will also work.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I wanted to offer a HUGE Thank You to @casportpony for all the wonderful tube feeding information shared here in this thread and across so many threads here on BYC.
I'll be honest, tube feeding scared me....to the point I had convinced myself that any bird I wasnt able to fix with what I know short of tubing was simply better off being culled (this from a person who performed crop surgery ...yet tubing was too much?)....and then my daughters favorite developed wry neck a few days ago....and I knew she was going to starve/dehydrate before I could hope to bring her around with treatment. So, I poured over post after post with all of Kathy's how to's, tips, tricks, pics & links....and took the plunge, and it's no exaggeration to say she was pulled back from the brink. Now I wonder what I was so scared of. We haven't beat the wry neck, but at least now she has a chance.....and i have another tool in my tool box!
You, Kathy, are such a gift to us here, THANK YOU!

 

[casportpony]

I wanted to offer a HUGE Thank You to @casportpony for all the wonderful tube feeding information shared here in this thread and across so many threads here on BYC.
I'll be honest, tube feeding scared me....to the point I had convinced myself that any bird I wasnt able to fix with what I know short of tubing was simply better off being culled (this from a person who performed crop surgery ...yet tubing was too much?)....and then my daughters favorite developed wry neck a few days ago....and I knew she was going to starve/dehydrate before I could hope to bring her around with treatment. So, I poured over post after post with all of Kathy's how to's, tips, tricks, pics & links....and took the plunge, and it's no exaggeration to say she was pulled back from the brink. Now I wonder what I was so scared of. We haven't beat the wry neck, but at least now she has a chance.....and i have another tool in my tool box!
You, Kathy, are such a gift to us here, THANK YOU!

You're welcome!

I am so glad that you found my tips and suggestions helpful. Now I hope you can figure out what's causing the wry neck.

 

[SarahGfa]

Question for @casportpony - Can you tell me if this calculation is right?

Average chicken eats 1/4 pound dry feed a day, which is 113 grams. Mixed with 3 parts water, and that turns into 452 mL tube feeding per day. Is that right? It seems like a lot to tube feed.