How I feed newborn chicks

[MisterGribs]

Babs I cut a very thin strip of plastic wrap, like for food, and then dipped my fingers in alcohol. I wrapped the tip of the syringe first, very tightly, running it through my alcohol fingers and stretching it tight, to give the existing tip some grip and a bit of thickness.

I then unscrewed the pencil end and sterilized it in alcohol before shoving it tightly onto the tip I'd just wrapped and giving it a twist, so that the screw threads inside the cap would bite into the plastic.

Once that was on, I cut another strip of cling wrap and wrapped the joining area using the same method as before. Once the joining area is secure, go over the wholrele thing frim midway down the pencil tip to about 1cm doen the syringe. Secure the end with regular scotch tape. I used a lot of wrap in the last step, about 2 feet long by 1 cm wide. I'll try to get some pix for you soon!

[MisterGribs]

I forgot to add, don't use any kind of glue or clay instead of cling film!

And getting the wrap tight is important, it should be stretching a little as you put it on. This makes it airtight and doesnt give bacteria a chance to find a place to hide in there.

The plunger stops at the syringe, so there will inevitably be some food still in there that you can't use. It has to be cleaned right away, and very thorough, in case there is a nook inside that food could get stuck, and bacteria could colonize.

I clean them by getting a cup of warm, clean water and pumping the syringe plunger up and down until it's rinsed out. With a second mug of cool water and a tsp of bleach, I fill up the syringe and put it in the fridge.

[Babs _Owner]

Chrismurdoch3

Ohhh! Can you make a video of him. Id love to see it!

[MisterGribs]

Babs Here is one of the finished syringes, next to a discarded dummy egg the same size as a finch egg for reference.

I didn't secure this one with tape, so you can see it has rolled up a little... But you can feed incredibly small chicks with this. You still have to be very very careful, as the liquid can come out fast, and you have to use very very fine/smooth food to prevent a small piece getting stuck and then firing into the chick like a slug.

[Babs _Owner]

I love the idea! Yeah I can see how putting too much pressure will cause a problem

When you thicken the formula you will have to cut the tip off. That will help with the flow of formula.

[MisterGribs]

Babs Luckily the really tiny tip is a lot easier to remove than put on.