# MacMilk Ingredients - Questions



## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

Sorry about all the questions!

The ingredients in MacMilk are starting to puzzle me. First off, the ingredients are as follows:

In the _new_ recipe:

1 jar (71 grams) strained chicken baby food
1 raw egg yolk (16.6 grams)
1 tablespoon low-fat yogurt (15.3 grams)
1/4 teaspoon corn oil (1.13 grams)
0.62 g calcium carbonate
2 drops cod-liver oil (from gel cap)
1 drop vitamin E (diluted 1:10 in corn oil; see notes)
2 drops fish body (omega-3; not cod liver) oil
1 small pinch vitamin B complex (see notes)
25 mg. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)

Questions about this:

_1 jar (71 grams) strained chicken baby food_

Do they mean baby food, that has chicken in it, or do they mean actually
baby chicken food? I think, from what I see, it's the first one, but I had to know.

Also, it says for hatchlings, days 1-3, you need to add a small amount of feces from a healthy adult conspecific. I can't do this. The only pigeons I now own are these two eggs. Their parents were killed by racoons. BOTH of them.... And the only pigeons now are wild ones.

In the old recipe, it said to add Pancrezyme. I thought that made more sense, but I still can't find it. No veterinarians in my area know about it. The only things I can think of that would substitute are Pancreatin (which is a broader-scale digestive enzyme supplement, but made mostly for humans) and also BeneBac, which I can find simply at PetSmart.

Can anyone help me, please?


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

The chicken baby food is the kind you feed human babies. We used it for baby songbirds - Gerber's #2.

I wouldn't worry about the feces. I'd just go with Benebac which is pretty easy to get at places like Petsmart or through catalogs. This is a product we use faithfully when rearing baby pigeons. I think I've mentioned we use plain yogurt in the formula too.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

The strained chicken baby food is baby food made from chickens for humans. The Pancrezyme is available at several of the on-line veterinary supply houses: http://www.1800petmeds.com/pselect.asp?LV=216&PG=Pancrezyme&AFFID=GG&ID=18957698

Terry


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## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

Thanks, but unfortunately, I can't buy pancrezyme online. It would cost a lot, since I'm in Canada, and take quite a while to get here. By that time, the babies would not require such enzymes. Okay, so I can expect to make a trip to PetSmart, then? What sort of BeneBac is this? The kind specifically for birds, or...?


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

I added this product to my hatchlings formula. It seemed to work very efficiently, and has not only gut flora but enzymes in it. Just a pinch in the formula will do. They are located in Canada also.

http://infinity2.com/product/product.asp


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Hi Vasp

Benebac is described on the bottle as a source of live naturally-occurring microorganisms for healthy birds and reptiles: "Recommended as part of the management program for birds and reptiles subjected to changing environmental or nutritional conditions or after antibiotic therapy". It contains live bacteria.

Hope this helps.


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## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

That all sounds really good, but I really have no idea what to go with, or what would be best for these little guys. BeneBac, I can find at PetsMart any day, and several other digestive enzyme supplements at the health food store, but I don't know which one to go with.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Hi Vasp, I think I have mentioned that we used both the plain yogurt at every feeding of our newborns and Benebac once a day. I have not used actual enzymes but I understand they are very good. We too raised many babies on just plain Kaytee before I started using Benebac a few years ago and more recently the plain yogurt.


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## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

Yeah. Would it be wise to perhaps add a human digestive enzyme (such as pancreatin, which is a lot like pancrezyme, only for humans) as WELL as BeneBac? On top of all of that, I would also add some plain yogurt....Or would that be too much?


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Hi Vasp, I honestly don't know. Hopefully Treesa will see this and respond because she knows a lot about things like this.


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## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

Thanks for your help, though. For now I'm going to buy some BeneBac... Or at least read the back of it and then go and find out more about Pancreatin.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Vasp said:


> Yeah. Would it be wise to perhaps add a human digestive enzyme (such as pancreatin, which is a lot like pancrezyme, only for humans) as WELL as BeneBac? On top of all of that, I would also add some plain yogurt....Or would that be too much?



I have used yogurt/kefir on my youngsters but not with the pancreatin, so I don't know how they would mix in the formula.

There are several other enzymes in the Total Flora , and 12 different strains of beneficial bacteria,which did work well.


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## Vasp (Jul 25, 2006)

I bought pancreatin today at the store. It's a pretty broad spectrum digestive enzyme. It's almost exactly like pancrezyme, which I saw was used in MacMilk. It's in tablet-form, but I will be crushing them into powder using a hammer and a bag. I have faith that these will work. Along with this, I'll be adding in some probiotic, organic plain yogurt with live bacteria. That's not including the vitamin e, b, c, calcium magnesium (with calcium carbonate in it), cod-liver oil and fish body oil (for omega 3s). Unfortunately, I couldn't find the bird and reptile BeneBac; Petsmart only had BeneBac for mammals in stock, and has only had that in stock since they opened. I know all of this combined will be very good for a little pidgie's digestive system. I can't wait until hatch day... Believe it or not, they're still in their shells. I candle the eggs with a flashlight every day, and they're growing every day. Once I get the first sign of an internal pip, or the baby's being big enough to internally pip, I'll stop turning. But for now, I'm turning as much as possible, at best once every hour. I'll keep you guys updated on this. Thanks for your help!


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