HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

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LTRIGG
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:06 pm

HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

Post by LTRIGG »

Hey guys,

I'm bee to this site is this topic may have already been discussed, but,

I have a 6 week old IRN called Zeus. He has never been hand fed and as a result is extremely hard to feed, and I'm terrified of him starving!!

He won't eat from a bent spoon and I have to carefully "force feed" him. I don't want to traumatise him by force feeding him but I don't want him to starve!!

Please help!!!
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

Post by InTheAir »

Bump
LTRIGG
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:06 pm

Re: HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

Post by LTRIGG »

Haha what's wrong with that?? :)
Johan S
Posts: 1215
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:24 am
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Re: HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

Post by Johan S »

molossus wrote:why in heaven would you want to feed a parent reared 6 week old bird?
1) Because the parents died from a bacterial infection in the crop (heaven knows how the chick survived).
2) Because there is an extremely dominant sibling starting to kill and/or starve the other chicks just prior to fledging.
3) ?

Not common, but it has happened to us over the years.

To answer the original question, you will have best results using a crop needle. Most people are not fond of them, however. Throw a towel over the wild baby bird, wrap it up like a new born human baby with just the face sticking out, and use the needle.
LTRIGG
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:06 pm

Re: HELP!! Hand rearing/feeding

Post by LTRIGG »

Thank you for all the replies.

I have him just because my friends mum breed them as aviary birds and when she said there were babies in the nest I asked if I could have one and rear him. The parents are both alive and well, as are the siblings.

I have had success with a tube on the end of a syringe (indented for crop tubing) and let him play with the moving tip, as he put it in his mouth I just give him little bits at a time until he finishes his food
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