Questions and Tips From or For Big Bird!

Please use this post for current questions and tips.

Tips:

Re-Cycle Healthy Hens Who Failed To Produce Chicks This Season

Do you have some canaries who have not produced this season but seem healthy? Get some orlux fertility vitamins (I ordered mine from Bird Supply of New Hampshire) and give as directed daily to unproductive hen and chosen cock until the hen lays her first egg. This product contains a full range of vitamins including higher doses of vitamin E and amino acids, perfectly dosed.

Mario Remembers Big Bird On Mothers Day!

This is one of the best Mothers Day ever for me!! Remember how much I loved Mario, the sweet singing hollow roll German Roller import, who stole my heart while quarantined in my bedroom this Spring? As soon as the light came on at 6:30 AM, I would start counting and many mornings I only counted to three before Mario started his beautiful serenade!

I was really heart broken when he came down with the terrible sickness that killed five of the ten imported birds in the shipment.

As previously posted, I cured five, including Mario, by treatment with Doxycycline 20%, Tylan, and Megamix in sugared (one teaspoon sugar to a liter) drinking water. This went on about three weeks and then I treated five more days with KD Powder. I quarantined an additional week but with the season getting away from me and wanting some chicks from these new imports, I paired Mario with two pure DKB German Roller Hens.

Normally, birds treated with Doxycycline are not bred for six weeks after treatment as one side effect of the drug is temporary infertility. With all the Baytril and Doxycycline and Tylan,, going on for several months, I was worried that it might be June before I got any chicks this season and perhaps I would just have to be patient and wait till next year and be happy five are OK.

The nest pictured hatched four of the five eggs today just in time for Mothers Day. Mario has beaten the odds again and all of the first hens five eggs were fertile and maybe the last egg will hatch tomorrow!


Two plastic eggs which I will move to the middle to help support the newborn chicks.


One fertile egg remains pictured in the middle here.






16:00 Breaking News: 5th egg hatches!

Weak Border Chick

Usually when I hand feed, I leave the chick in the nest and giggle the nest or gently touch the top of the chick's head or under the chin and like magic the chick will open up for easy feeding.

This Border chick , however, was so weak that no matter what it would not beg me or mom to feed it. I expect the chick to start begging by the time it is 4 hours old. So in this case where the chick will not willfully open up, I had to place it on its back in my hand and pry the mouth open to get the feeding started. Chicks will still swallow even when they will not open up. Usually a couple of the forced feedings and it will be strong enough to open up to mom or me in the nest.

Note its bad yellowish skin color.



After being full, I wash the vent with warm water to encourage it to expel fecal material and then place it back in the nest.

So why was this chick that weak? Well, I normally candled eggs but this nest was due on Monday and two eggs were obviously infertile so I broke them, the next egg was partially developed dead chick and instead of candling and water testing the last egg, I broke the shell and oh no a live chick and blood...Seeing blood, I expected to find a dead chick when I check the nest 4 hours later but it had finished hatching but a little premature. Luckily the yolk was absorbed...

Near Fatality - Listless Chick

This Stafford mosaic chick with a dark crest is especially promising.



But the smaller chick on the right is listless!! Neither one open their mouths to beg me to feed them.


Note the red color apparent between its wings. It also felt cold and very lethargic. These chicks seem to be doing well the day before when I banded them.



Turning the chick over, an abnormal yellow/green color was seen especially toward the vent. I washed the abdomen and found that a thin yellow green film was covering the abdomen. Carefully, I peeled it off. This film can seal the vent and result in death.


When chicks are just banded, there is a danger of diarrhea which may be associated with too high protein diet or infection of either parasites or bacteria.

Looking around the cage, I saw pure hard boiled egg which normally I stop once chicks are banded. I also noted just a couple of hours earlier that the other hen sitting on eggs in the same cage, had gotten off the nest temporarily and feed the chicks, so three adult birds where overfeeding them.

E. coli smells and not smelling any odor. I decided to correct the diet and add KD powder to the water. I reduced the concentration of the egg food by adding an equal part of ABBA green 92, added more greens, oatmeal, and dish of straight ABBA green and took away the pure hard boiled egg.



Today the chicks are fine!! I will keep them on KD powder in the water and keep checking the vent and washing it, massaging it to assure it is indeed open. After washing the vent and making sure it is open, I encourage the chicks to walk in my hand, this movement encourages a full chick to expel its fecal material.

Got a Question or Tip To Share with Big Bird?

Please post your current questions or tips here!



I like to use muffin tins with nesting material to store eggs at room temperature till I set the hen. I have so many eggs now I am using a piece of paper to divide each hole. On one side of the paper is one cage number and on the other side the other cage number.

Normally, I set eggs on the fourth or fifth day. In the bottom left, each have six eggs, the reason being that the chicks needed to be moved and I was called in and worked an 11 hour shift at the hospital and just could not get to it before I had to leave...


Do you recognize this plant? Thanks for the fantastic responses! Yes it is canola rape. This is in my front "flower" bed and actually lived through an unusually cold winter.


Questions:

Monday

1. Mary is concerned that her chicks may be starving:

Hello again:

These seems like strange questions for me to ask, after raising canaries for 45 years successfully. My brand new parent birds now have 3 of their 5 eggs hatched – two yesterday and overnight.

They are both gathering food, and the cock feeds the hen diligently when she is on the nest -- and the hen appears to be feeding her young while sitting on them to keep them warm…but I have not seen her stand on the edge of the nest to feed them. Also, I am not HEARING the peeping of the youngsters, nor do I see much egg food in their crops when the hen is off the nest. They do raise their heads…but I am worried that they are starving.

I am contemplating supplemental hand feeding. I purchase a 1 ml. syringe with which to feed and made some eggfood up with boiled water mixed in it…but I find that I cannot load this tiny syringe with the food. The water seems to separate from the eggfood and run out, and the food itself is just not going into the syringe. It is extremely frustrating.

The questions that I have are: why am I not hearing the peeping of the chicks? And What is the best way to put food into a syringe? The little beaks are so small that this is really the only thing that I can find that would go into their mouths. I have had absolutely NO luck trying to find a glass medicine dropper!! I have tried practicing with the two flat toothpicks that you mentioned using, but I am just not adept in holding the food with them.

Again, thanks for your help –

Mary Roberts

Mary

One of our blogger's gave me a small aluminum tool that is used
for putting split bands on canary legs. It is a small light
weight scoop and is easier to handle than my toothpicks.I think
they got it from Red Bird. Help blogger's?



Check comments for a tip on improvising a small spoon from a straw from Debbie!


I doubt if you can get an egg food to go through the syringe even
if you cut off the tip a bit. Get either sonic or exact hand
feeding formula. If that is not possible use some powdered
vegetable protein powder from the health food store. Not as good
but will work.

I would not worry about a hen feeding on the nest or off nor
whether she feeds less in volume and more often or is a stuffer.
Both ways work..I go by seeing a fluffy chick and pink not yellow
skin tone. When the chick is not fluffy or has a yellow skin tone,
I hand feed.

Questions and Tips From or For Big Bird!

Tips - Providing Variety Stimulates Feeding



Especially when chicks get banding age, it becomes a big job for the hen to keep them fed. Seems like they are always begging her for something to eat all day long!

Continuous feeding of nestling food can be a problem if it is too rich. When it is too rich, the chick's skin tone will become red instead of light rosy pink and if not reversed they will develop diarrhea, sealed vent and die... Adding plain dry nestling food, greens and oats are helpful to reverse the problem but I also like to add some alternatives to egg food.

Cous cous with poppy seed is a real favorite. I just add some olive oil to cous cous and poppy seed, cover with boiling water and stir occasionally. Birds love poppy seeds so no wonder they love this dish.


Another favorite is quinoa (keen-wah). Quinoa is a grain that is especially balanced in amino acids.

I rinse the quinoa well and place in a rice cooker and cover while cooking. When it is nearly done, I turn it off and let it finish cooking just setting covered in the rice cooker. It should be light and fluffy. If it is a little sticky the birds will not like it. In that case, simply mix with some of the cooked cous cous and poppy seed and serve that way.

I also add both cous cous/poppy and quinoa to my egg food.



Questions:

Thursday

I have a year old hen, mated and sitting on five eggs in her first nest. She has just begun to incubate them in earnest, but is sitting so tightly that she will not come out to eat or drink. I have tried tempting her with a boiled egg, carrots and greens. No luck. Then I tried a bath, which she loves. Equally no luck. The cock bird is a 4 year old that has never been bred before, and he doesn’t feed her much at all while she is on or off the nest. Otherwise, he is behaving well and does not harass her, or the nest, so I have left him in the cage, hoping that he would learn to feed her, and then be a good feeder when the chicks hatch.

I am concerned about the health and general welfare of the hen..do you have any suggestions?

Thanks so much…Mary Roberts, Templeton, IA

Answer:

Typically good hens just set and set and set. They refuse most extra foods, even their previous favorites and baths. Since they are compatible, I am sure when the time is right she will beg him to feed her and the chicks.

I like to feed sitting hens hemp seed. It is high calorie and they will eat it even when nothing else does the trick. Either dry hemp seed in hull or hulled hemp which is available at health food stores will help keep the hen from losing weight.

Is The Smaller Chick Getting Enough To Eat?

Normally, I take the eggs out as they are laid and put one plastic egg in the nest after the first egg is removed. The eggs are replaced after the fourth egg is laid. With chicks hatching on the same day, they all have an equal chance to be fed.

Here the eggs were not removed and the fourth chick is so small compared to the largest that it might not be getting fed well. I supplement it with Kaytee Exact Hand Feeding Formula for all birds.




When chicks are doing well, they have a nice rosy pink color and around the rump you see a fat layer being deposited just under the skin. Click on this photo and note the fat layer.



What a relief to see a small fat layer forming on the small guy on his rump (click on photo and look carefully as the fat layer is visible in photo on the left side), he is doing well in spite of his small size.