Raising chick - need advice

[Christina Coughlin]

I posted earlier about the late pigeon chick getting ready to hatch and that my rehabber friend advised me to pull the chick after the second day for hand feeding as he would not likely make it due to our weather conditions and the lack of chick rearing experience with the parents.

The chick hatched monday morning (one week earlier than I thought) at about 6 or 7 am and the parents did okay, not as well though as some of the others, these ones seemed totaly at a loss as to what to do. I did as I was instucted and pulled the chick the second day, the weight was good (25 grams, normally at that age my chicks are about 20 grams). For some reason though the crop has seemed to slow and though the chick is still doing well, gaining weight, acting right, skin color is nice and pink. The first feeding he took 6 cc's of formula (Kaytee Exact Original mixed according to the instructions for the chicks age), everything went like normal. Yesterday it took five hours for the crop to empty so today (at 6am) I decreesed the amount to 3 cc's to see how that worked and the crop is still holding food after four hours. He is not showing signs of sour crop, infection, crop burn (couldn't be that anyway because I the food is fed at 106), yeast, nothing.

This is what happened with my Budgie chicks when I used the Kaytee almost 7 years ago now and I was advised by my vet that it was the corn in the food and to change. When I changed I switched to Lafeber's which is rice based and that passed to quickly so I fed every two hours with 4 week old Budgies. I don't believe the little guy is sick, I think it is food related can anyone help me out and give me some tips? Oh, I also mixed the formula with Pedialite for the first two days to help with hydration since he is so young.

This is not an emergancy by anymeans as I went through this with my Budgie chicks too (and spent way too much time with the vet as I panicked then ), I just didn't figure it would happen again with a totally differant species and younger chick. Tips please???

[cyro51]

Hi Christina,

6 ccs sounds a lot for the first feed.

Did you make the Kaytee thinner than recommended? I have read on this site that it can thicken in the crop.

Probiotics might help speed the crop up a bit.

Karen says that on a baby pigeon's shoulders/back there are two white dots (air sacs) and if these start to increase in size then the pigeon has had enough.

Cynthia

[cyro51]

This is from one of Mary's posts on quantities and frequency of feeding:

At about 1-2 days old the baby only gets 1 cc of food (very thin formula, 1 part powder to 5 parts water + probiotics) every 2 hours by handfeeding (I would not recommend the tube unless you have a very thin one) and it's always best to leave the baby with a foster couple at this age.

-Day 3-4 the amount can be doubled to about 3 cc every 3-4 hours or so and the formula should be a tiny bit thicker.

-Day 5-7 you can feed 10-11 cc every 5 hours and the formula should be thicker.


Cynthia

[Izzy]

Whoa, I'm not expert by any means, but 6 cc sounds like a whole lot to me also. Mel & Misty were close to 2 cc's on day 3 and I did make the formula super thin, close to water consistency. Even then, as the formula sat in the bowl while I fed them, it "still" got thicker. I noticed the warmer the water was that I used to mix the formula, the thicker the formula got also.

I, personally, have been very happy with using the Exact. It's super easy to mix, which I love and the chicks seem to be getting their nutrients.

Good luck with your chick and keep us posted on how he/she is.

Izzy