[Music]
hey guys welcome back to the channel so
glad to have you here like always in
today's episode i'm going to be showing
you guys how to make a home style hand
feeding formula for your baby birds and
i've done a variety of different videos
of baby birds in the past and the
majority of the times i'm showing you
guys how to hand feed them using
some commercial style hand feeding
formulas that you can buy online or you
can buy at local pet shops
but one of the biggest problems that
we've learned over this past two years
with this pandemic is that unfortunately
things can sometimes be in short supply
they may be hard to find at times they
may take longer than expected to get
delivered or they may not be in stock at
your local pet stores so it is very
important to learn how to make these
home style hand feeding formulas in case
of an emergency that way you're able to
feed these birds and keep them alive now
it's not just because of short supplies
or having a hard time finding some of
these formulas but let's face it people
from around the world have been asking
me and telling me that unfortunately
they just don't have that type of hand
feeding formula in their country now
personally from experience i know what
this feels like because i am from cuba
that's where i was born and i know
firsthand how hard it can be to find
some of these things so if you're in a
country where unfortunately you just
can't find
these commercial style hand feeding
formulas because they just don't sell
them this is going to be a perfect
recipe for you to make at home in order
to feed your baby birds and keep them
alive all right guys now i want you to
meet a very special little bird his name
is pepper now pepper is a society finch
and he is going to be our model for
today he's going to show us
how a little bird should accept food
that you feed him so let's get started
with this on how to make this home-style
hand feeding formula here in front of me
you can see some of the things that
you're going to need in order to make
this happen
first thing that we have here on the far
right is some oatmeal now i grind it up
into very small pieces and i'm going to
use this for the mix if you don't have
oatmeal you can also use cornmeal the
next thing that you see on the table is
a small piece of egg so what you want to
do is you want to boil an egg
and you're going to use this egg in
order to create your home style hand
feeding formula and the last thing that
we have on the far left is going to be
the container where we're going to mash
all of this up to create a paste that
we're later going to feed the baby bird
now there isn't really an exact
measurement to how much of each one of
these things you want to add it all kind
of depends on how many baby birds you
have to feed so just kind of play it by
sight and make your paste once you get
everything into your container and you
mash it up you want to start adding a
bit of water this water is what's going
to give it the correct consistency you
want this to have a soup style
consistency you don't want it to be too
thin that it's going to be runny but at
the same time you don't want it to be
too thick where it's going to get
impacted inside of the chicks crop
remember that baby birds do not drink
water and they get all of their water
from the moisture or the water that you
incorporate into their hand feeding
formula so you don't want this to be too
thick otherwise it could get impacted
inside of their crop they won't be able
to process it and this will eventually
kill the baby bird
once you get these into the right
consistency you want to place it into a
small container so you can store it away
in the fridge once you're done feeding
the baby bird you can keep this in the
fridge for only one day i wouldn't
recommend using this the following day
but if you make this formula very early
in the morning you can use it throughout
the day just make sure that as you pull
it out of the fridge you re-warm it back
up again so that the baby bird can eat
it and add water accordingly because
whether you're adding oatmeal or
cornmeal this is going to tend to get
hard over time so you will eventually
have to re-add a little bit of water to
soften up the formula before you feed it
to the baby bird again but once you get
it into this correct consistency then
we're ready to go and we can start
feeding our baby bird
now by the time that i got this
homestyle hand feeding formula finished
and i went to go pull out pepper from
the nest
i noticed that he was completely full
the parents had stuffed him so this is a
great example and the perfect time to
show you guys what it looks like when
the baby bird is completely full as you
can see once they're full no matter how
much you try to feed them they're just
not going to open their mouth and this
is a good thing i've seen so many posts
and i've had so many comments of people
telling me my baby bird isn't really
opening its beak it's not wanting to eat
or how do i know when to stop feeding it
well just look at them they will let you
know trust me if it's not opening its
mouth it's because it's pretty much full
they are very quick to open their mouth
when they're hungry as you're going to
be able to see later on in this video so
let's put him back in the nest give him
some time to digest some of that food
that he has in the crop and we're going
to retry this again in about an hour
all right so let's give this another try
pepper is back and he has a completely
different outlook on life now he is
ready to eat and he is hungry as you can
see
one hour has given him enough time for
that crop to go down and usually this is
about the time when the parents would be
eating and getting ready to start feed
him again so he's ready to go and he's
more willing to accept this food as you
can see the consistency of this home
style hand feeding formula is not too
thick and it's not too watery you want
to be careful with these two as i
mentioned before if it's too thick the
baby birds are not going to be able to
properly eat the food correctly and if
even if they do eat it it could get
impacted in their crop and if it's too
watery it can also cause a problem
because as the baby bird is swallowing
that egg food it could go down the wrong
way and if they aspirate some of that
water you could have troubles later on
where the bird ends up dying now as far
as how to feed them i'm not going to
focus on the exact methods of hand
feeding i've done a video of this in the
past showing you a variety of different
methods to hand feed and that's going to
be linked in the description below
but for this home style hand feeding
formula the best way to feed it is going
to be with a small spoon or toothpick or
something very similar to the thing that
i'm using here which is a small tool
that we use to ban the birds
this is going to be the best and easiest
method and it's also one of the safest
methods to use when it comes time to
hand feeding baby birds it does take
longer than using a syringe but
unfortunately when you make a home style
hand feeding formula it is very
difficult to use a syringe because this
feeding formula is kind of clumpy it's
not very loose and it can get stuck
within the syringe and if you press on
that plunger a bit too hard could shoot
out and cause some damage to the baby
burger so go slow be patient and as
you've seen in the video kind of tease
the baby bird's beak by touching it or
tapping it slightly so this will
encourage it to open up and start eating
all right guys well this is going to be
the end of another video i really hope
that this tutorial on how to make this
home style hand feeding formula has been
useful for you guys whether it's because
the one that you'd like to order online
is in short supply out of stock or it's
going to take too long for it to arrive
or whether it's because you're in a
different country where commercial style
hand feeding formulas just don't exist
this is the perfect all-around home
style hand feeding formula to have ready
at home in order for emergencies like
this so i really hope that you guys have
enjoyed it if you did remember to hit
the like button consider subscribing if
you haven't done so already and i hope
you guys have a wonderful day we will
see each other in the next video
[Music]
you