Hello. Thanks again to this forum for teaching me the critical skill of tube feeding. I wanted to share a little trick I learned, that maybe some of you already do. But I finally just figured it out. LOL!
I’m down to seven hens and all of them are molting at the moment. Two of them are completely starving themselves. One of the self starvers also has a bit of a broken beak. She (Minnie) is one who has starved herself to the point of neurological symptoms during a past molt. Anyway, I am tube feeding these two. Minnie takes it like a champ and fully cooperates. It’s almost as if she even likes it. The other one, Flo, fights me hard. She still has a lot of muscle on her, so I might back off as she’s leaving a bunch of feathers on me when I feed her and I can feel her little body quiver a bit when I carry her off to be fed. I don’t want to stress her out too much. This is a hen who usually pecks me on the ankles over and over again until I pick her up. She loves to be held when she is not in molt. Excuse my little side note about my hens’ personalities. Back to the topic I meant to post about…
I can’t believe I finally figured out that it’s WAY easier to push the plunger if you turn the syringe upside down and put the plunger against a hard surface. Then you can pinch/hold the tube onto the tip of the syringe to make sure it doesn’t go flying off. Pushing the plunger has been the trickiest part of tube feeding. Sometimes the tube goes shooting off, sometimes the plunger sticks, sometimes it’s just so hard to push that my whole hand is shaking. Not anymore with my new trick! The only thing is, you have to be next to hard surface. This is a little tricky considering you want most of the tube to be inside the bird. So I do it either sitting on the kitchen floor or, if I’m outside, sitting on a wooden bench. I’ve also done it sitting on a kitchen chair with the bird on my lap, and use the table surface for the plunger. If you didn’t know this trick, you’re welcome. If you already did, thanks for letting me share.
I’m down to seven hens and all of them are molting at the moment. Two of them are completely starving themselves. One of the self starvers also has a bit of a broken beak. She (Minnie) is one who has starved herself to the point of neurological symptoms during a past molt. Anyway, I am tube feeding these two. Minnie takes it like a champ and fully cooperates. It’s almost as if she even likes it. The other one, Flo, fights me hard. She still has a lot of muscle on her, so I might back off as she’s leaving a bunch of feathers on me when I feed her and I can feel her little body quiver a bit when I carry her off to be fed. I don’t want to stress her out too much. This is a hen who usually pecks me on the ankles over and over again until I pick her up. She loves to be held when she is not in molt. Excuse my little side note about my hens’ personalities. Back to the topic I meant to post about…
I can’t believe I finally figured out that it’s WAY easier to push the plunger if you turn the syringe upside down and put the plunger against a hard surface. Then you can pinch/hold the tube onto the tip of the syringe to make sure it doesn’t go flying off. Pushing the plunger has been the trickiest part of tube feeding. Sometimes the tube goes shooting off, sometimes the plunger sticks, sometimes it’s just so hard to push that my whole hand is shaking. Not anymore with my new trick! The only thing is, you have to be next to hard surface. This is a little tricky considering you want most of the tube to be inside the bird. So I do it either sitting on the kitchen floor or, if I’m outside, sitting on a wooden bench. I’ve also done it sitting on a kitchen chair with the bird on my lap, and use the table surface for the plunger. If you didn’t know this trick, you’re welcome. If you already did, thanks for letting me share.
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