Scandal!! Genetic and handfeeding questions

[MisterGribs]

Is it genetically possible for two cfw parents to produce a black offspring? Or did my white hen cheat with my black cheek roo?

I found a single baby in the coconut nest today while cleaning. Half starved, of course, this pair have proven to be horrible parents, the father killed their only surviving chick a few months back.

I put this little foundling in the brooder and have set my feed alarms. He eats like a hog and looks about a day or two old.

I no longer have kaytee handfeeding formula, so I have been feeding very thin rice gruel, and cooked, creamed egg yolk both with a tiny bit of acv and honey. I'm not sure if this will sustain him till I can go to the store, I don't get paid till the 16th, but he was barely able to beg and now he can lift the front of his body and eats aggressively. He's lightened up in color, so he may have been dehydrated.

I have tons of other kinds of grain and am prepared to make flour from the birdseed for gruel if he can digest it. What can I do, feedwise, to give this unwanted soul the best shot until I can grab some more formula??

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Scandal indeed! What has that young lady been up to?

I think your doing as well as you can with this infant.

I have used egg yolk mash to feed Porky along with the handfeeding formula, and he did fine with it. In fact, he preferred it to the handfeeding formula (the wee glut).

I wonder why these two are not feeding their infants. It's really odd, seeing as most Zebras are usually very good parents.

Here's a picture of Porky as an infant to compare skin and feather colour (he's a white Zebra).

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs Yep, mine is as black as black can be on top, but pink on the belly. He hangs from the paintbrush now, getting stronger.

I have no idea either, I tried to give jyvä back to them to let them practice while I kept an eye on the feeding, but then Hiro bit her head so badly that she died soon after. So this time, finding another weak baby at least a day old with empty crop once again, I don't think I'll be handing this little accident over so soon.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Nasty Hiro!!!

I wouldn't give him another baby to murder.

Might your old pair be interested in raising a chich, seeing as it might be....uhem....how shall I put this delicately? Half theirs???

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs I'm afraid to try, in case they murder the little guy.

They could at least pay me child support.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Take them to court, lol.

[MisterGribs]

So today I locked Hiro out of the cage and put the neonate back into the nest.

It seems to be getting weak again and its crop has not emptied after 4 hours despite being in a forced-air brooder at 38 c, so I gave it some honey water, let it swallow the end of the paintbrush and mixed things about in the crop a bit.

Vilu saw the baby in the nest, returned and sat on it, but didn't make any effort to feed the chick. I will check up on the baby in three hours and see if its crop has emptied. If it has, I'll give Vilu a chance to feed it for an hour before I intervene again.

The baby digested the rice just fine, but the yolk feeding stayed in the crop, I hope I didn't doom it from this feeding.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

I really hope she figures out what she needs to do.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you over here, and my ties as well.

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs the baby got SOUR CROP! I had to vacuum out the poor baby's crop and do a saline rinse to kill the yeast.

Its crop is still emptying super slow, but no more fermenting balloon neck, and no more green poo, so there's that at least. 3 hours after the last feed there was still a ball of yolk pudding that had been sitting in there.

I did a honey-vinegar-water feed at about half the usual amount, stirred the crop contents, and turned the brooder temp up a little.

I named the little accident Re-Tweet.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Oh no, not sour crop.

How on earth did you clean him out?

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs With my latest invention, lol.

I took an insulin syringe, ripped out the hollow needle with pliers, heated a sewing needle with a lighter and made the insertion point for the hollow needle just big enough to accommodate a tiny, tiny, tiny vinyl tube. I shoved in the tube before the gummy rubber at the insertion point cooled, so I had to be really fast.

I got the tube as follows:

I found the thinnest wire I could in my hardware junk, cut a short length of it off, stripped part of it, and pulled out the tiny copper wires from inside leaving just the vinyl coating, the smallest tube I could possibly find/make at such short notice.

It's basically a really really tiny version of the tube crop feeder people make for their cockatiels and such out of aquarium hose. I stuck that into his crop, SLOWLY sucked out the contents, discarded it, sanitized the tube, and replaced it with saline. I did this twice, and on the final time instead of saline I replaced with honey and vinegar water.

Green poop plus LOTS of air inside the crop is a sure sign of impending stasis.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Wow, that's genius

How is the little fella doing?

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs He's a fat sausage with a slow crop, but it's slowly speeding up to normal. This is him, in the brooder.

And here's my tiny crop tube.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

He is a dark sausage, isn't he ? But the fuzz on him is white....

That crop vac is really quite amazing, lol.

Sending good thoughts and wishes winging your way for this little tiny tot. I really hope all goes well with him.

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs Yeah I was really surprised! I was hoping someone could tell me if this child's dad was the neighbor, or if CFWs can produce a black colored offspring.

Don't all zeeb babies have white fluff?