Owls not parenting!

[finchmix22]

I am soooo upset. I checked on my owl hatchlings today and only one was alive. Four others were smashed against the side of the nesting material. I thought I only had two hatchlings, but I guess three others hatched and they parents did not feed them at all! Last clutch, I caught them after two hatchlings died and was able to feed the two other chicks daily until the parents took over, but this time, I"m afraid to even leave the lone one in the nest. The parents were sitting so well and I thought they were feeding them because the hen was never out of the nest. Today, I saw her leave to eat and checked. I wish I had checked two days ago! Well, I have the eggs and the lone surviving hatchling in an incubator. I gave one feeding and will continue to see if this one can make it.

[nelloyello11]

Very sorry to hear that your little ones did not make it. Hopefully your other eggs will still hatch and they do well with handfeeding.
Good luck and keep us posted.

[cindy]

Deborah, I can't remember but are these in a cage by themselves? If they aren't I found if other birds (species) went into their nest either with eggs or chicks in there it was often abandoned.

How old where the hatchlings, could they have passed ust shortly after hatching? Perhaps the parents sensed they were weak and chose not to feed them.

[finchmix22]

Cindy,
They all look like a day old at most. I know the ones I saw were two days ago and one of the dead ones looked a little bigger than the others. The survivor is a new hatchling, I think. They owls are in a breeding cage with the two juvies from their first clutch. The juvies do not go in the nest at all, but who knows. I'll probably move them today.

[cindy]

Before you go to set them up again, rest them a little. The young offspring from the previous clutch may have been enough of a distraction. The parents may have felt the competition for food that they came off the nest and did not feed.

It is hard to say why at times this happens, the chicks could have passed by no fault of the parents, there could be other factors involved.

So sorry you lost the chicks....I would remove the offspring and try again in a month or two.

[FeatherHarp]

Sorry to hear about the tosslings Deborah. My Owl pair was good at tossing babies or not feeding them too. Once I got some Societies I was able to let them raise up the tossed Owls.

My male Owl has a new mate now and I am hoping she will be a better Mother than the last one when I do decide to breed them again.

Hope you have better luck next time.

[finchmix22]

Update: The lone surviving owl hatchling is doing well so far. This is day 3 of handfeeding. I took the wee one to work today in the homemade incubator (AKA baby wipe warmer) and everyone thought I was crazy for taking the time and making the effort to feed such a tiny creature. The office manager just chuckled everytime he saw me mix the formula and get my artist paint brush and small bowl of warm water. I fed the chick every 1 1/2 to 2 hours and he doesn't look any bigger than two days ago, but I may not be able to notice the change. He is pink and fuzzy and seems to be doing well. I just hope I can get the hatchling past the five day mark, which is the longest any handfed hatchling has survived in the past. Please send prayers our way.

[ac12]

good luck with the little guy

The trick is to get enough nutrition into the chick so it will grow.
And to do that w/o overfeeding and risk aspirating the chick (which is what I think I did).

[debbie276]

Best of luck Deborah! Hand feeding is NOT an easy thing to do, kudos to you.

[lovemyfinch]

Sending out prayers to you and the little one Deborah

[Sally]

Good luck with the handfeeding, Deborah. At this point, I would switch over to a banding tool, it lets you get more food into the baby. As Gary said, the trick is to get enough food into the baby to allow it to grow without overfeeding and aspirating.

Most babies will continue to beg, even after they are full. So I don't feed until the babies stop begging. In fact, I'm thinking that I probably underfeed, which is the reason my handfeds are behind parent-raised in development (but they catch up once weaned). When I first started handfeeding, I fed until they stopped begging, or I fed until they looked like photos I had seen, with these huge overstuffed crops. For whatever reason, they can handle that much food from their parents, but I found that when I overstuffed the crop and then put the baby to bed, it often aspirated in its sleep. My theory is that it is similar to acid reflux in humans, in that a too-full crop backs up into the mouth at rest, and then the baby inhales some of that food.

The banding tool allows more air into the crop than with other feeding utensils, but it is fairly safe, and the air has never been a problem.

[finchmix22]

The baby is too young and small for the banding tool, but I"ll probably switch to that when it is a little bigger. Right now, I'm using a small, artist paint brush, which holds the water and formula and the baby sucks it off the brush. I feed until I see the crop is larger, not stuffed. This baby seems to be doing well so far. We're on day four now.