yet another hand feeding question

steelysioux · Post by **steelysioux** » Sun May 04, 2008 8:31 pm

Okay, so it says everywhere that I've read that the chicks require the formula to be warm. I've offered it to them when it's cooled down to room temperature and they don't seem to notice the difference. What is the purpose of making the formula warm if they don't care either way?

TammyS · Post by **TammyS** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:57 am

I'm no expert at handfeeding - but my understanding is that the food needs to be at the proper temperature for digestion. If it is too cool, the crop will not empty as fast and/or you risk infection (sour crop or the crop becomes impacted).

Post by **Sally** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:58 am

What Tammy says is what I have read, too. However, I killed a Star finch baby by having the formula too warm once, so I would rather have it cooler than chance that happening again. Hilary has been handfeeding, and she did not heat up the formula, figuring that the heat from the Societies that were sitting on them would give enough warmth for the formula. I wouldn't feed it cold, but room temperature may be OK.

Post by **Hilary** » Sun May 11, 2008 11:31 pm

Sally's right - I just aimed for room temp, figuring that as long as the chick was kept warm I wouldn't have to worry about digestion. In this case it worked fine.