Still having slow crop

I had two babies I've written about a few times. The one that is still alive is about 3 weeks old, the other one died a few days ago and was no bigger than it was 2 weeks ago. There was clearly something wrong with it, but the one that's still alive seems to be okay. I do think he's still a little behind where he should be, but he's still eating very good and seems otherwise healthy. His crop WAS having problems getting hard and a few days of lots of fluids and lots of massaging the crop seems to have ended that phase. But the crop is still very slow, and I think it's possibly enlarged and therefore not allowing the contents to flow out near the top.

I've heard of a Quaker parrot having this problem from over-feeding as a baby and they made some sort of "bra" for it's crop to hold it up and keep it from sagging and not emptying. Apparently the crop empties near the top, oddly enough, at least in the parrot. I'm assuming this is true for the pigeon. Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody. I'm currently experimenting with something like a bra in that I hold him wrapped up and sort of get his crop situated up over whatever part of my hand is around him there. He responds to this similarly to just after I feed him and settles right in to sleep, even though moments before he was doing the "I'm starving" cry.

What experience or advise can anyone share about this situation?

Stacey

[Trees Gray]

Hi Stacey,

Is this 3 week old youngster still on formula? How much are you giving him?

Have you tried weening him at all? He may be ready to start a change of diet.

I'll bump this up for others to see who can help also.

Treesa

Madison was born a few days before May 20th which is when I got him. But because I was feeding him too often for his 2nd week (I think I was) his crop wasn't emptying enough and whenever I gave him a more solid formula his crop would get very hard and have to be massaged out. This went on for most of his 3rd week. But development wise he's a little behind. His feathers are coming along nicely on his wings, and starting to come in okay in those fields which fill in first, but he doesn't look like baby Sara's 3-4 week pictures. I've been keeping his formula to the Katyee Exact this week trying to keep the crop from getting hard, which it seemed to do whenever I'd try to put something more solid in there. But has been fine the last several days.

But it still seems like it takes a long time to be empty emough to eat again, although he's hungry. Toward the end of the time between meals, I'll wrap him, sort of gently squeezing up the remaining contents of his crop and holding him in my hands in sort of an upright position and a little while later it seems empty enough to feed again. It's almost like it gets squeezed up and he goes back to sleep in this position because he feels like food is going into his system and he stops screaming. His crop looks pretty large, hanging down. He walks around really well, is very active and alert. His sibling was not growing at all and died last week.

Should I try maybe giving him something like the soak-n-simmer bean and legume mixture for birds that I have ground up, almost pulvarized, which I fed my sick pigeon for a while? That's been a good baby weaning formula mixed with water in the past.

Someone told me that the heat will dehydrate them and that reducing his heat can cause him to loose less fluid in his crop. Does that make sense? How much heat should he be on right now? His body feathers aren't really there yet.

Stacey

[TAWhatley]

Hi Stacey,

Sorry this youngster is having some difficulties, but you are doing a stellar job with all of them that you have been caring for.

I, personally, have not heard of the heat/dehydration problem with baby birds. In my experience, the heat is essential or you will end up with a number of very big problems if not a quite dead baby bird. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on this aspect. If it were me, the baby would be kept quite warm.

You might try a small pinch of baking soda in 1 cc of water syringed into the crop and see if changing the Ph balance of the crop will help with the slowness.

Terry

[Nooti]

Someone told me that the heat will dehydrate them and that reducing his heat can cause him to loose less fluid in his crop. Does that make sense? How much heat should he be on right now? His body feathers aren't really there yet.

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Yes, that's right. But from about 2 weeks old he should not need heat during the day. Perhaps at night, but not during the day I would have thought. If his food is becoming hard and compact that is a sign that the major organs are drawing the fluid because it is needed leaving the formula 'dehydrated', so it cannot be digested properly. Try reducing temperature for him during the day and making the forumla slightly thinner, or when the formula turns hard in the crop, add a little more water to help the remainder along.
This symptom can also be a sign or paratyphoid.

[Karen 210773]

Hi, I have had crop problems in pigeons and cockatiels, I have used lots of Potent Brew and couple of drops of vinegar (malt) and massage regulary. This should break it down and clear it.