# hand feeding newborns



## candle

I am about to begin handfeeding newborn babies, they are hatching right now.

I have handfed before, but not at this early stage. I have the Exact baby bird formula and syringes to use. I am nervous about getting the food in the windpipe. I know that the first few days will be the hardest. I know how fast they grow and that they will catch on and feed well if I can get past the first few critical days. 

After the baby completely hatches, how long should I wait before his first feeding. Should I leave him alone for an hour or should I try to feed him immediately?

I just thought that if anyone can give me advice I would appreciate it. Thanks


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## Feefo

Hello Candle, and welcome.

Is there any reason why the parents can't feed the hatchlings? I know that baby's have been hand-reared from the moment they hatch, but they are so much better off in their parents' care.

I don't know where I heard it, but I think that they shouldn't be fed for an hour after hatching. I hope someone comes on soon to correct me if I am wrong.

Here is a site that has advice on feeding doves, I presume the principles are the same for pigeons. You might find that they will feed themselves if you present them with a simulated crop. The instructions are in this link:
http://www.diamonddove.com/q&a/feedingbabydoves.html 

Cynthia


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## Feefo

THis is from one of Helen (Nooti)'s old posts:

I am in the UK, but have years of experience in hand-rearing pigeons from day one, (I am currently rearing 6 right now). For a first timer it is difficult, but easy once you have done it a few times.
Friends in California tell me they use Exact successfully for hand rearing. We have nothing like that in the UK, but I use poultry rearing crumbs which I soak in hot water for 30 minutes - not boiling as that will destroy the enzymes in the food. Then I liquidise in a blender, and finally strain through a sieve so I have a nice smooth liquid which will flow through the tube. 
I use syringes with a tube on the end which I put straight down into the crop. I have different sizes for different ages. For the first week, while they are so small I grease the tube with something called liquid paraffin, which I gather you people in the States have not heard of, but it is medicinal and often used to shift blockages in the digestive system for both humans and animals. Maybe you have something similar.
The consistency of the food varies with the age of the bird. The younger the chick the more runny the fluid needs to be. Tiny chicks soon get dehydrated.
I have found through experience that the first thing a newly hatched pigeon needs in it's crop is a probiotic and a rehydrant. This introduces fluid and natural flora into the digestive system, without which the chick will die. A probiotic can be obtained from your vet, or natural yoghurt will do if not.
For the first meal, 1ml of natural yoghurt or probiotic is recommended.
For the first 24 hours 1ml at each feeding, every 2 hours including during the night. If you miss feedings the bird will become weak very quickly.
By day 2, 2 mls will be needed at each feeding and by day 3 if they are growing well, you could be up to 5 mls. At 1 week, they should be on 15mls and will only need feeding every 6 hours. Then you can get a nights sleep. At 2 weeks of age if they are growing ok, mine are usually on 40mls every 8 hours. Never give more than 40 mls at one sitting. Mine are usually picking up for themselves - the earliest has been 20 days, but certainly by 4 weeks. A word of caution. By the time they are 2 weeks of age try to use a length of aquarium tubing on the syringe to feed them with. It is very soft, and they are usually so eager by then to be fed that they leap up as you are inserting the tube, the end can then tear the crop lining, you will not notice this, and food will leak out and into an airspace, finally through to the respiratory system, and you have a dead bird on your hands within hours. 
Keep a daily weight record, that way you spot problems immediately and can take appropriate action. Make sure all utensils are sterilised, best using a steam steriliser, however you can dispense with this at 1 week of age, but keep all feeding utensils in fridge in between feeds.
Have some antibiotics handy. Amoxycillin is best. Baytril inhibits bone growth and should only be used in an absolute emergency. Give antibiotics at the first sign of any trouble. I have found you cannot afford to take any chances, at that age they are not as tough as people think they are. A general dose would be 0.1ml per 100 gms body weight twice daily for 5 days. 48 hours after the last dose, give a probiotic to replace the natural gut bacteria which will have been destroyed by the antibiotic, which is not discerning when it comes to killing bacteria. This is vital, as once a bird has had a course of antibiotics it is vulnerable to invasion by any nasties which may be lurking and ready to invade a 'clean' digestive system.
I hope you do well with them. They are easy once you have done it a couple of times.
Helen at Wild-Life-Line


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## Feefo

...and this is a link to a site with more information on hand feeding!
http://members.aol.com/duiven/medical/feedbaby.htm


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## TAWhatley

Hi Candle and Welcome to pigeons.com.

I also am wondering as Cynthia did why the parent birds cannot feed these babies at least for the first few days. This would definitely be the best option unless there is some problem we don't know about.

I could be wrong on this, but I believe the newly hatched babies live off the remnants of the yolk sac for up to the first 24 hours. I would definitely NOT try to feed a brand new hatchling for at least several hours to give it a chance to dry off and recuperate a bit from the hatching process.

If you do decide to remove the babies shortly after hatching, they MUST be kept very, very warm and dry. 

I see that Cynthia has just sent a very good post from Nooti, so I'll sign off for now.

Terry Whatley


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## candle

Thank you for your responses. 

I raise white racing pigeons. I have been raising them since late last winter. I have one pair that just aren't good parents, they love to breed, nest, and sit on eggs, but once they have babies, they quickly tire of them. During warm weather I can leave them with one baby and they will take care of it fairly well, although not nearly as well as most pairs do. Since it has gotten cold, they have continued to lay, but their babies aren't making it because they don't keep them warm or feed them very well. Usually when it is warm out I give one of their babies to a foster couple and all is well, but I have no fosters right now. Twice in the last day I have gone out and found their eggs with no one sitting on them, and just lukewarm. It is very cold out. I live in the midwest. I decided to take them because even if they hatch, this pair just won't take care of them. I know it is strange, I know that pigeons are typically excellent parents. My other pairs are good parents. I don't know why these birds are such bad parents. I got them as a mated pair at a swap meet. They have beautiful white babies (if I can foster them out and keep them alive) and the young I have raised from them are good homers. 

I have the eggs on a heating pad on low (not directly on the pad) and they are in the process of hatching. I don't know if they will hatch or not, since they are not in an incubator, but they are alive right now, and trying to hatch. I have Exact baby bird formula, and I am not going to try to feed them immediately. I have some pedialite and I will pick up some yogurt as I don't have any probiotics right now. I have used probiotics in my lofts before in the summer. I periodically give anti-biotics in the warm weather, and I follow with probiotics when I do this.

This will be the first newborn handfeeding experience. I have successfully handfed some pretty yb's, just not this young. I hope I can do it. I will keep you posted. I am optimistic, but not too hopeful since they are so delicate for the first few days.


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## TAWhatley

Hi Candle,

Thanks for filling us in about Mom and Pop not being the very, very best of pigeon parents. I think you will do just fine in hand raising the babies assuming that they do hatch (and I certainly hope they do).

Just keep them very, very warm and dry and go slowly and carefully with the feedings. If you are not familiar with feeding needles, I would strongly suggest investing in one or two. These are stainless tubes that attach to the end of a syringe and allow you to quickly, easily, and safely crop feed babies or sick/injured adults. They are available from http://www.feedingtech.com .


Terry Whatley


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## maryco

I posted this for another member....I find the soaked seed method to help alot when they are about 12 days old. I like using an eye dropper too when they are young with the formula.

They will grow very fast too! On the forth day the eyes should open, it's such a special moment!









Keep us posted!

Mary


"Get a clean eye dropper and make up the formula into a soupy consistancy (Make sure there are no hot spots anywhere or it will burn the crop)
You can feed with the eye dropper it's very easy, take the baby gently and put them on a towel, open their beak with your left hand and squeeze abit of formula with your right hand from the eye dropper, you do this and they will swallow it. Feed until the crop is full but not hard or they will aspirate on the formula (Also don't get any formula in the hole behind the tongue (Windpipe) or they can quickly die.)
keep them warm in a container lined with a soft cloth so they won't get splayed legs.
Also you can feed formula up to about 10 days then switch to soaked baby millet seeds. At about 12 days I usually feed soaked wild bird seed that has been in water for min 5 hours.
You will have to hand feed the seeds, just open the beak and slowly put some seeds on the tongue he will swallow it and that's about it.. At that age you can leave little dry seedsies around to teach them to peck on their own."


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## candle

First egg hatched at about 2:30 am, I had the eggs in a terrarium beside my bed. I woke up at 2:30 and saw my cats staring at the terrarium (I do have the top covered) so I figured they must have been hearing sounds. I uncovered the eggs, I have a wicker bowl over the them to hold the warmth closes to them. Low and behold, baby one had hatched. I went back to sleep and woke to peeping about two hours later. I got up and prepared some food. It says to mix one part food to six parts water the first day, so I used one tsp added two tsp of pedialyte elctrolites, four tsp water, and a smidge of of yogurt for the probiotic effect. The baby seemed to be swallowing it, I didn't stick the syringe way down, I just parted his beak and put a few drops at a time in. I didn't give him very much as I can't tell how much is in his crop at this point, he is so tiny. I waited about 15 minutes and gave him a bit more. He went back to sleep, so I figure he must have felt a little better. At 6:30 his nest mate made his grand entrance into the world. I will feed him at 8:30, or sooner if he starts to peep alot. I hope I can pull this off.

I don't have the tube-needles someone sent me a link on another post but I think I should get a couple. I will probably end up doing this again sometime and that way I'll be prepared. I think by the time I would get any now my babies (if they survive) will probably be used to the syringe alone. If they are like the other babies I have handfed they will catch on quick. 

Last year my dad brought me some babies that were about a week and a half old, they were from his loft and the hen had been killed by a hawk. He had to go out of town and wasn't sure the cock would feed them enough. I started out grinding seed, using cooked egg yolk, and baby cereal and making a mash. I made balls out of the mash and poked them down the babys, after the first day all I had to do was grab a handfull of the mash and hold my hand around the mash loosely, the babies stuch their heads into the circle I made out of my thumb and finger and gobbled the food up. They sounded like little puppies eating. I hope I end up having a similar experience with these babies.


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## candle

Just a quick note. One of the babies did a little poop and pee,it looks normal. I hope that means that something must be going in the right place!!


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## TAWhatley

Great news, Candle! I'm so glad both the babies have successfully made their way into the world. It sounds like things are going well thus far. Please keep us posted. 

Terry Whatley


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## maryco

Um... Do baby squeakers that just hatched poop? 
I have never seen it and actually I've only seen them poop from about 3-4 days old..

Mary

[This message has been edited by maryco (edited January 17, 2003).]


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## candle

These babies are pooping. It even has the white part.


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