Handfeeding Techniques

[Bokkapooh]

This video shows how NOT to handfeed.

YouTube - Hand Feeding Hahns Macaw.m1v

Holding the head still, and forcing the food into the baby is not a way to handfeed. You risk aspiration. You really want a good feeding response/head bobbing.

 

[KimKimWilliamson]

I have actually seen this video before.
Im not sure she's actually holding the head still, looks mkore like her thumb is just resting beside his head, but having never handfed before I dont know how its supposed to look - the other videos I have seen usually allow for a few seconds of air between shots from the syringe so thats the only that stands out to me in this vid, but you would deffinitly know better Mercedez!

 

[Juhi882]

IDK this looks quite uncomfortable to me!!! it looks more like she was forcing down the food! i might be wrong but that how i felt. i've handfed mitthu and chhotu and i loved when they "begged" for food
the baby is cute btw

 

[Prince Toasty Buns]

This video shows how NOT to handfeed.

YouTube - Hand Feeding Hahns Macaw.m1v

Holding the head still, and forcing the food into the baby is not a way to handfeed. You risk aspiration. You really want a good feeding response/head bobbing.

Totally agree with you Mercedez . Thanks for providing that video to members here so everyone can see how NOT to hand-feed.

Note: Sometimes for whatever reason, a good feeding response will not happen. In those cases it is a valuable tool to be proficient at crop-feeding.

 

[Billie Faye]

I diagree with you Mercedez...she is not "holding the head still" but using her thumb as a prop...as for the head bobbing...some birds don't do this at times....she is "slowly" giving the food and watch the tongue action the bird is having in taking the food..when the bird moves its head "back/up" she stops the feeding....I feel she is watching that tongue action in feeding which is good...
All in all not a bad video....and she really gets ALL the "dropped" food off the baby and that is soooooo important to do....
Watch her finger in the back of the head scratching the baby...she is also testing at the end (to my mind) if the baby is still hungry by moving her finger around the beak/and sides...birds that will want more will act like they want to "eat" the finger....

 

[Bokkapooh]

Totally agree with you Mercedez . Thanks for providing that video to members here so everyone can see how NOT to hand-feed.

Note: Sometimes for whatever reason, a good feeding response will not happen. In those cases it is a valuable tool to be proficient at crop-feeding.

Im glad youmentioned crop feeding

Often times when I rescue wild baby birds, or when I used to work at the local bird store in down town, we would get babies just pulled from the nest with no human interaction and would not beg. Crop feeding really helped for the first day, and then after that it was like as though they have been handfed since day 1.

 

[Bokkapooh]

I diagree with you Mercedez...she is not "holding the head still" but using her thumb as a prop...as for the head bobbing...some birds don't do this at times....she is "slowly" giving the food and watch the tongue action the bird is having in taking the food..when the bird moves its head "back/up" she stops the feeding....I feel she is watching that tongue action in feeding which is good...
All in all not a bad video....and she really gets ALL the "dropped" food off the baby and that is soooooo important to do....
Watch her finger in the back of the head scratching the baby...she is also testing at the end (to my mind) if the baby is still hungry by moving her finger around the beak/and sides...birds that will want more will act like they want to "eat" the finger....

I dont know. When I saw the video, I thought of how awkward it was by the way she was handling the baby, and how the baby had no feeding response and how she kept on putting food into its mouth to swallow. To me, I saw a risk for aspiration. But then again, I handfeed a lot differently than her, so perhaps I just found it awkward and weird how she was handling and handfeeding.

One good thing I do like about the video is the baby looks nice and full

I personally would not handfeed that way. But each to their own .

 

[Prince Toasty Buns]

I dont know. When I saw the video, I thought of how awkward it was by the way she was handling the baby, and how the baby had no feeding response and how she kept on putting food into its mouth to swallow. To me, I saw a risk for aspiration. But then again, I handfeed a lot differently than her, so perhaps I just found it awkward and weird how she was handling and handfeeding.

I personally would not handfeed that way. But each to their own .

I have fed hundreds of babies throughout the last 15 or so yrs. Mercedez and I felt the same way, while watching the video, as you just described.

I also feel that one of the reasons why that baby did not have a better feeding response is directly associated to how the feeder was feeding and inserting too much food too quickly, you could see it backing up into it's mouth. One finger also appeared to be pressing in on the esophagus also, maybe so, maybe not but appeared that way to me.

 

[Billie Faye]

If you notice, she was was what I call, "tip feeding" at the front of the beak...and letting the food go in slow so it is almost like "lapping" the food and swallowing. Meaning allowing the baby to swallow instead of "shooting" the food in the back behind the tongue and down the throat....I have done lots of different ways in feeding and it depends on how the bird reacts to the food....by having the bird lap/swallow, I don't think it will aspirate because it is controling the throat muscles/air vent while eating (from my understanding)....

Why don't you make a video of how you feed the different birds you have? I sometimes think it is harder to feed older ones than younger!

 

[Billie Faye]

I think this is great on how we each are seeing different things in this video!

 

[Bokkapooh]

From 0:25seconds until 1:21, she is handfeedng. This baby has NO breath until she takes the syringe away. Imagine drinking water or thicker food for almost a full minute without air!

1:43 baby hahns gasps or "burps" after she removed syringe from mouth

1:48 baby turns head away as syringe is put into mouth (baby doesn't like the way its fed?)

1:51, by the look of its tongue, it looks like its trying to block the formula from going down? And afte rthis it looks like its having a hard time swallowing?

2:05, this baby looks like its gasping 4-5xs, or perhaps doing some heavy duty swallowing?

2:16 baby turns his head away, doesnt seem to like this handfeeding(?)

2:27 breeder is holdiong the baby with her thumb and the index and middle finger (to keep it still and to finish hand feeding?)

 

[Juhi882]

but i agree on one thing she was also very caring, the way she kept scratching the back of the baby's head and also cleaning all the dropped food like BF said that is so important.
she definitely was affectionate to the baby

 

[Bokkapooh]

That was just to name a few of the things I saw wrong in the first few minutes, not to mention the formula spilling over the sides of its beak. This baby clearly isnt comfortable with this sort of handling and handfeed technique.

She is cleaning the baby, but to me is being too rough while she cleans the baby, too much pressure on that crop can have the baby throw up.

One good thing I can say though, it looks well fed

 

[Bokkapooh]

Why don't you make a video of how you feed the different birds you have? I sometimes think it is harder to feed older ones than younger!

If I ever breed again, I will take pictures of the babies I raise

My adult birds, well once we have a camera, I will show a video of how I spoon feed and how I syringe feed.

 

[Prince Toasty Buns]

"I diagree with you Mercedez...she is not "holding the head still" but using her thumb as a prop..."

Maybe not "holding the head still" in the true definition of "holding the head" but in effect she is in fact causing the head to remain fairly in place (what I think Mercedez meant?) by keeping it going off to the bird's right by keeping her thumb against the jaw. Optimally it is best to have the bird just have a strong feeding response with no need to have to control the head much at all.

As the other respondents in this thread have also felt, it just doesn't look right and the baby seems to be forced at times to accept more food into the mouth too quickly before it even fully swallows whatever is in there already. And there is nothing wrong with giving the baby a rest for a minute or so and then resuming the feeding after warming the food up some more.

IMO, why this particular bird does not have a good feeding response in this video is because it is getting fed up with being fed that way.

 

[Prince Toasty Buns]

but i agree on one thing she was also very caring, the way she kept scratching the back of the baby's head and also cleaning all the dropped food like BF said that is so important.
she definitely was affectionate to the baby

Agreed that she seemed very caring, as best she maybe knows how I think but a somewhat caring attitude (& wiping of feathers) means nothing if she winds up with an aspirated baby or a baby that develops pneumonia from her method of hand-feeding. Maybe instead of pleasant sounding music, she instead should have clearly explained what she was doing while she was doing it and why she thinks her way is a good way to hand-feed.

 

[Greycloud]

Well, first we must understand that all of us HF differently and each baby eats differently. I have fed many babies that did not have a head bobbing eating response but ate great.
That being said, I tend to agree with Mercedez. I think the lady is pushing the feeding a little fast and not giving the baby frequent breaks. You can see the baby start to stand up straighter and extend it's neck up to allow the formula to go down since it is coming too fast. Also the baby fidgets due to being uncomfortable.
The lady is very attentive to the baby and I do feel is plenty gentle enough on cleaning the baby. The baby looks full and happy afterwards. JMO.

 

[Billie Faye]

Maybe not "holding the head still" in the true definition of "holding the head" but in effect she is in fact causing the head to remain fairly in place (what I think Mercedez meant?) by keeping it going off to the bird's right by keeping her thumb against the jaw. Optimally it is best to have the bird just have a strong feeding response with no need to have to control the head much at all.

As the other respondents in this thread have also felt, it just doesn't look right and the baby seems to be forced at times to accept more food into the mouth too quickly before it even fully swallows whatever is in there already. And there is nothing wrong with giving the baby a rest for a minute or so and then resuming the feeding after warming the food up some more.

IMO, why this particular bird does not have a good feeding response in this video is because it is getting fed up with being fed that way.

So what do you do when a bird "doesn't" have the "head bobbing fed me now" response but is waiting for food...some do this at times (just don't feed them until you get the response you want???)

Agreed that she seemed very caring, as best she maybe knows how I think but a somewhat caring attitude (& wiping of feathers) means nothing if she winds up with an aspirated baby or a baby that develops pneumonia from her method of hand-feeding. Maybe instead of pleasant sounding music, she instead should have clearly explained what she was doing while she was doing it and why she thinks her way is a good way to hand-feed.

Why do you "suppose" that a baby would get aspirated or develops pneumonia from this way of feeding? From my understanding of how a bird feeds naturally, when swallowing from the parents, the air way is closesd off so the food goes into the crop...( it is humans who shoot the food into the back of the throat, not giving the baby the time to "set its' feeding response up" that makes the food go into the trachea.....
"The tongue, just as the beak, is adapted to the type of food the bird consumes. Woodpeckers have a long narrow protrudible tongue which functions as a spear - allowing them to extract insects. Parrots, birds of prey, and finches have short, thick, fleshy tongues which allow them to manipulate their food. Fowl and pellicans have nonprotrusible tongues with caudally-directed papillae which allow the food to be easily shoved to the back of the mouth for swallowing. Birds do not have an epiglottis to prevent food from entering their larynx. Instead, the opening of the glottis closes during swallowing."
Taken from:
Winged Wisdom Pet Bird Magazine - The Avian Digestive Tract - Pet Birds
and this give more info on taste of foods:
"At the base of the tongue, the glottis and the laryngeal mound are located. The larynx of mammals is used for vocalization, but it is the syrinx, located down much further, that is responsible for sound production in birds. The glottis is the opening to the windpipe, or trachea. The choana is located on the roof of the mouth. It is a slit that connects through some passages to the nostrils. One really neat difference that birds have is that the glottis will fit snugly into the choanal slit when the bird closes its mouth, and the bird will then have a closed connection from the nostrils to the windpipe. When a human breathes through the nostrils, the air goes through the back of the throat, which is an open area, to the trachea through the larynx. There are little projections, called papillae, that normally are found at the edges of the choanal slit. Other papillae, pointing towards the back of the throat, may be found in the oropharynx. A second, smaller slit is located behind the choanal slit. This is the opening to the middle ears, the infundibular cleft, of birds, connected by a tube, called the pharyngotympanic tube. Birds with middle ear infections often have a red, swollen cleft. This cleft is important for birds that fly at great altitudes, as it helps equalize pressure in the middle ear. I'll bet you never thought that birds ears might pop when they ascend during flight, like ours do when we humans fly!
In the past, it was thought that birds had a poorly developed sense of taste. Taste buds lie at the base of the tongue, in most species of birds. Some birds have taste buds on the inside of the tip of the lower and upper bills and there are several sites on the roof of the oropharynx, near the choana. In parrots, the taste buds are on the roof of the oropharynx on either side of the choana, and on the floor of the oropharynx at the front end of the laryngeal mound. Mallard ducks have less than 500 taste buds, compared to the 10,000 of a human and 17,000 in the rabbit. Birds do have a sense of taste, and do show definite taste preferences, as we all know!"
Taken from:
Avian Anatomy
Reason for putting this together here is to explain why the baby would be using his tongue to "taste" what he is eating....
I personally don't think the baby would end up dead from the way she was feeding it compared to other ways of feeding babies...

 

[mariec]

That poor baby is not at all interested in eathing....

 

[Jally]

I recently got a 4 week old lovebird (but I didn't know she was only 4 weeks old!) and got a crash course in handfeeding. I said that I saw a video of a man holding the head of birds and shooting formula down babies throat. The video is the Birdsitter video. Anyway, she told me that that was not a proper way to handfeed and that my baby was too old to aspirate.

My baby is now 8 weeks old and only takes a smidge of formula at night. She doesn't have that bobbing head action, but I allow her to sip at the tip of the syringe.

Now the conures...!!! Even Buddy who is 10 years old does the bobbing!