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Re: Food ball stuck on face

Posted by jill on 1/29/09
(7) Comments
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    On 1/25/09, zen wrote:
    > Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove a food
    > ball from from a cockatiels face?
    >
    > Iam feeding a baby 7 weeks old and he has some dried food
    > stuck to his face kind of like in a ball.

    hey zen....maybe i can help. i had this very problem myself.
    the first group i started handfeeding. frankly i was
    surprised they lived at all...had to take my husband to the
    hospitol and we found out his apendix had burst just over 48
    hours before and they went 15 hours without being
    fed....poor little guys....took my kids home at 4 am and
    gave them a crash corse on handfeeding...they did quite well
    for teenagers!

    anyway when i got home...there was this ginormous food
    ball....i tried soaking and it was moving so slow. the food
    ball was causing more problems for the baby's than i deemed
    humane. finally this is what i did...i got a damp rag(really
    damp) and soaked it for a few minutes( don't use on
    nostriles). then i took a pair of needlenose pliers (cleaned
    and sanitized) and put just enough pressure on the sides by
    way of pinching to break the ball.then again with the rag
    and got off what i could.... i had to repeat the process
    several times (being very careful not to pinch or pull on
    the baby's skin) it took about 30 min. per bird but
    eventully all of them were clean again.

    the best way to do it is to avoid doing it by cleaning well
    after every meal!!!lol