Hand-Feeding Formulas

Abstract

When Rick Jordan wrote the book on hand-feeding parrots back in the early 80's, he was a staunch advocate of home-made formulas, as many of us were. This was despite the fact that there were several, commercial instant formulas available that were being used on parrot chicks and with good results. But a skeptic he was, and therefore his homemade formulas, despite burning out several blenders annually, and despite that it was probably never consistent in nutrition from one batch to another, was his choice.

Those of you that have been around for a while might remember your favorite handfeeding formula recipe. Many of them had some type of monkey chow or primate chow base, and were topped off with human baby foods, peanut butter, water, and maybe some type of vegetable or fruit. Many formulas had to be cooked to boiling, then cooled or frozen until time of use. I remember freezing baby formula in ice cube trays and then heating what was needed for each feeding. Even though this was a lot of extra work, for many, it was preferable over the instant formulas that we knew so little about. I think the hesitation was that there really was so little actually known about the dietary needs of the baby birds, we all tried to compensate in our own way. Of course that was not to say that our formula were nutritionally better, only that it worked for us and our babies looked good and seemed very healthy.

As the next decade rolled around, many of us got further and further behind in the nursery as out collections grew. Time management gave us the perfect opportunity to investigate some of the instant commercial formulas, and we did. Most of them that were tried worked well, but many of us still had that internal need to "add something" as it was being prepared. So for every different brand tried, we also added our own twists, be it peanut butter or papaya or even vitamin powders. Of course some of us have since learned of the risks involved with overdoing vitamins and even the toxic effects (hypervitaminosis) that some nutrients create when overdosed in baby formulas. So hopefully we all have stopped adding excessive vitamins to commercial formulas where calculated amounts are already present.

Even with the sporadic problems that some companies have experienced, where too much Vitamin D3 accidentally ended up in the final product, it seems that commercial hand-feeding formulas have come a long way, and have revolutionized handfeeding in psittacine nurseries. In fact, today there are even species specific formulas and higher fat versus higher protein formulas being produced. But this too requires some knowledge on the breeder's part, regarding the needs of specific birds, if they are to be utilized properly. We have learned a lot about avian nutrition over the past few decades, but putting that into practice is not always an easy task, especially in a mixed collection.

The one thing that any experienced handfeeder has to admit is that when the parents feed the chicks, they are almost always fatter, grow faster and seem more robust. Despite trying many different nutrients, and many different fat levels or protein levels, parentreared chicks will most certainly grow faster and look better. At weaning time, handreared and parent-reared chicks seem to be about the same in weight and size; but it does take a bit longer for those reared on commercial or even homemade formulas to achieve their adult mass.

These differences have always puzzled us. I've studied the research on "crop milk" which seems to indicate that parrots really don't produce it, not in the sense that columbiformes do. We continue to speculate what the differences are in parent-fed diets and commercial hand-feeding diets. There is a theory that parent birds can force food, and thus, nutrients, up from deeper in the digestive tract when they regurgitate for their young. But collecting and studying crop contents of parent-fed chicks has yet to really uncover any secrets that could be used to close the gap between hand-fed and parentfed chicks.

Close observation of the methods, or better yet, the consistency of foods fed to chicks in the nestbox reveals one very obvious difference: the parents feed chunky foods, not liquids to the chicks. This is not to say there are no liquids, but the consistency of the food fed is not "formula-like" at all. It looks as though they simply chew up their food and feed it to the chicks whole. So, of course we have tried that too, with dismal failures that often included dehydration of the chicks, crop problems, slow or static digestion, and more. The addition of digestive enzymes or probiotics did not help either when trying to feed a diet more closely resembling that fed by the parents. So, what the heck was the secret? What do parrots do that helps the chicks digest normal foods better in the nestbox?

We do know that most parrots will feed mostly liquid for a day or two after hatching. They may feed mushed up corn or some other super hydrated food, but for sure there is a lot of liquid in the crop of tiny, newly hatched baby birds. As the chick grows, even slightly, the parents tend to begin feeding chunkier foods to the chicks. At this point, the crop seems to be full almost round the clock. This led to the suspicion that the parents stuff them full of chunky foods and then only feed liquid until the crop contents begin to digest better. Some of this may be true, but it is not the main mechanism that differentiates between hand-fed and parent-fed chicks. After all, commercial formulas are chocked full of nutrients and vitamins. In fact, when you compare the crop contents of a ten day old nest hatched chick with formula ingredients, the formula would definitely be more nutritious.

 

 

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