Parents not feeding fledglings

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Trishkelly52
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Parents not feeding fledglings

Post by Trishkelly52 » Thu Sep 26, 2019 1:45 pm

I have birds fledgling and parents aren’t feeding them.
One in particular looks so small, can’t fly
I don’t have formula, waiting for order, what can I give them in the mean time?
Any ideas welcome

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Sally
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Re: Parents not feeding fledglings

Post by Sally » Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:22 pm

What species? Some are easier than others. You could mash some hard-boiled egg yolk, thin with some water, and offer that. If you have one of those tools used to put on split plastic bands, those make excellent feeding tools. Otherwise, you could use a flat toothpick. Or you could get some hulled millet (usually at a health food store), mash it in a mortar/pestle, again thin with some water. If it is a species that feeds insects to babies, you can get some mini mealworms to offer (or any other very small insect). If you can't get mini mealworms, you could chop up larger ones into tiny pieces.

Sounds like you have a runt. Sometimes, larger babies will hog most of the food, leaving the youngest to make do. Good luck with it.
3 Purple Grenadiers, 1 Goldbreast + 1 cat.

National Finch & Softbill Society - http://www.nfss.org

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Sally
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Re: Parents not feeding fledglings

Post by Sally » Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:24 pm

It just occurred to me, are the parents not feeding any of the babies? This is very unusual, for them to feed up till fledging and then stop feeding. It is sometimes very difficult to hand-feed fledglings. Somethng about the fledgling process makes them very suspicious of us, they don't want to open their beaks to be fed, where younger babies still in the nest will readily accept hand feeding.
3 Purple Grenadiers, 1 Goldbreast + 1 cat.

National Finch & Softbill Society - http://www.nfss.org

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Sally
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Re: Parents not feeding fledglings

Post by Sally » Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:27 pm

I just read your other post. Are you sure the parents aren't feeding? It will be very hard to get these babies to accept hand feeding at this stage.
3 Purple Grenadiers, 1 Goldbreast + 1 cat.

National Finch & Softbill Society - http://www.nfss.org

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