stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) (04/02/91)
In article <1313@optima.cs.arizona.edu> cliff@cs.arizona.edu (Cliff Hathaway) writes: >The bird was supposedly 5 weeks old. It seemed to be fully fledged, and >could fly across the room. We fed it with an eye dropper at 8 am, 3 pm, >and 8 pm with Lafeber's Nutri-Start baby bird food, on the advice of the >breeder that we bought the bird from. First off, you were using the best hand-feeding formula that I have encountered. We have successfully raised many lovebirds on Nutri-Start and it is an excellent product. So you were doing the first thing right! We add Lactobacillus to the formula to increase the 'friendly' bacteria content going to the bird. Also, three times a day is enough feedings, although you don't say, but at that age it should be starting to eat on it's own. Food (seeds,millet, pellets,soft-foods) should be made available. >-- the bird got too cold at night (but it seemed ok on its last morning, > and didn't seem sick until around noon, and expired around 2 pm) That temperature won't kill a 5 week old lovebird, but it would leave it suceptable to illness. Also, it would burn off calories faster at a time when it needs them. >-- birds can catch illnesses from humans (like the flu) Not likely the flu. >-- the eyedropper that we fed it with should have been sterilized between > feedings Yes ... bacteria grows at an astonishing rate in a non-sterile environment. We leave all our hand-feeding tools soaking in Wavicide (mixed 1 part to 4 parts water). Wavicide is the state-of-the-art in sterilizing solutions and should be prefered over Nolvasan. Note that you must wash the solution off well or you risk killing friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract. >-- we handled it too much That's basically impossible. You can handle the bird improperly and hurt it, but that's a very different thing. >-- we didn't warm it enough after we washed it following its feeding (it > ate in a most voracious manner, and got the food all over itself, so we > washed it with warm water after it ate, as the breeder told us she had done) I hope you mean you washed the bird off with a damp kleenex or face cloth. It would not be wise to get a young baby soaking wet without drying it off (with a hair dryer or something). >-- we didn't prepare the food properly Possible. Nutristart normally mixes up correctly when put boiling water is added to it, but sometimes it needs to be cooked (even 5 seconds in the microwave) if it appears that the water hasn't been absorbed by the powder. ------------------ It's hard for me to speculate about what caused your bird's death. Bacterial infection brought on my non-sterile hand-feeding tools which developed because the bird was in a some-what chilly environment IS POSSIBLE, but it's no more possible than that the bird had a congenital defect and suffered a stroke (or some such thing). An infection would likely have had some external symptoms such as (a) loose (watery) droppings (b) nasal discharge (c) lethargy in the bird I generally suggest that someone getting there first bird (especially a small one) should get the bird once it has been weaned. In any case, I hope this doesn't put you off, because hand-fed lovebirds do make delightful pets. Hope some of this was useful, Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: stewartw%cognos.uucp@ccs.carleton.ca Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Illiger's Macaw CANADA K1G 3Z4