Page 190 - Hand rearing birds second

176 Hand-Rearing Birds

Figure 10.4 Pied-billed Grebe chick being offered small pieces of whole fish from hemostats.
Source: photo courtesy of International Bird Rescue.

or in a dry enclosure with crickets. Be sure to step out of sight to avoid distraction and allow them
to focus on the movement of the food. Food in motion is highly attractive and helps the young
grebe develop its food recognition skills. Performing this exercise before more assisted meals pro-
vides the needed motivation of hunger. Small feathers should be offered alongside food or floating
on the water at feeding time. After the bird has defecated and eaten its fill, allow it to climb out on
your hand and return it to the dry nest container, being sure to keep all enclosures clean between
visits. Even if the chick is being hand‐ or tube‐fed, it requires hourly short swims in order to stimu-
late defecation. Such chicks will only need to be in the water for long enough to drink and defecate,
after which they will call and demonstrate a need to be removed. If cries are heard between swim
sessions, offer food via hemostats, and increase the amount of food being fed. Methods of assisted‐
feeding are described below.

Hand-feeding
Offer food to the bird’s beak with a hemostat, ideally while the bird is swimming or, if necessary, while
in the dry nest box. Allow for some learning time while the bird learns how to accept food this way.
They may shake the food and fling it around while they master maneuvering it from beak into mouth.

Tube-feeding
Appropriately‐sized soft rubber French urogenital catheters can be cut to the required length and
work well for tube‐feeding when attached to a luer tip syringe (see Figure 6.1). Any feeding tube
should have a soft, rounded end to avoid injury; hence, any cut tubing must have its cut end burned
or filed to remove sharp edges. Draw up the desired amount of food, plus slightly more to fill the
tube, and make sure there are no air pockets in the syringe. Depress the plunger to fill the tube
prior to feeding, to avoid introducing air into the stomach. Hold the tube next to the bird to gauge
the length that you will need to reach the stomach at the back of the rib cage, and either mark the
tube or place a finger there. Do not get any food on the bird’s feathers or handle the bird with dirty
hands. Gently open the beak at its tip, and insert the tube at the bill’s commissure (where the upper
and lower portions of the beak meet), down the right side of the bird’s throat, passing over and
avoiding the glottis. Extend the neck so the tube can be gently guided down the esophagus on the
right side of the neck. A correctly placed tube will move easily and can be seen beneath the skin as
it passes down the side of the neck. Stop once you feel any resistance or the mark at the top of the