Re: feeding orphaned bird- throat appears bloated?
Posted by Bird Mom on 6/22/08

Luna, Boo is correct.

First you need to locate some bird formula, several companys
produce it. I also have a parentless bird I am hand feeding (
for over 2 weeks now ). And I'm using a formula called Kaytee
Exact for weaning birds. Since I found the bird on a weekend
there where no stores opened that had the formula, so I started
him/her on jarred baby food & baby rice cereal & then got
the "real" bird formula on Monday.

It was very hard trying to locate any useful information on
raising a wild birds on the internet, which I found to be really
stupid! And after hours & days of searching I finally found a
little bit of info that comfirmed that using the jarred baby
food along with the formula was best for wild birds. I am using
the Beechnut brand because it is more natural & I make sure that
I get fruit mixtures that contain apples ( which helps prevent
sour crop from occuring ) & squash is a favorute of both my cats
& Amazon Parrot, so I keep that on hand pretty much all of the
time. And to feed this guy I am using a 1 CC needless syringe (
they are skinny & long & very safe & easy to use for a non-
hooked bill bird. I have no idea how old this fellow is, he was
fully feathered when we found him ( but definately not old
enough or strong enough to be on his own. ) In the past 2 weeks
he's changed from a quite little ball of soft fluff to a very
demanding little fellow "feed me, feed me!" is what I'm sure
he's saying in his native bird tongue everytime he he sees a
bowl of soft food & his feeding syringe. I have been leaving
fresh water & some seed in his cage, but so far all he's done is
drop stuff in the water & walk/poop in the seed! I have been
trying to convince gim that he's old enough to at least start
eating some foods on his own. But when he's really hungry he
wants the food syringe & nothing else! I feed him every 2-3
hours during the day & make sure he has a full crop at bedtime.
I also have been using a glass jar that I fill with very hot
water & wrap with a hand towel as a hot water bottle to help
keep his cage comfy over night ( which is fully covered for bed
time ). This is my 1st bird ever to hand feed & it's really been
a learning experiance. But I now know how much hard work
breeders do when caring for & weaning baby birds & my hat is off
to all of them. Think I will atick with kittens or puppies from
now on!

Sincerely,
Bird Mom


6/20/08, Boo wrote:
> On 6/19/08, Luna wrote:
>> i'm sorry, i know this board is for parrots, but i don't know
>> where else to look...
>
> That is the bird's "crop" or holding area for the food you are
> feeding it. If it is functioning properly, and it sounds as if
> it is, it should be full as you describe and then empty in a
> few hours.
> Sounds perfectly normal to me.

Posts on this thread, including this one

• feeding orphaned bird- throat appears bloated?, 6/19/08, by Luna.
• Re: feeding orphaned bird- throat appears bloated?, 6/19/08, by Luna.
• Re: feeding orphaned bird- throat appears bloated?, 6/20/08, by Boo.
• Re: feeding orphaned bird- throat appears bloated?, 6/22/08, by Bird Mom.