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you can produce a good seed-eater diet yourself: In a bowel, mix one cup of corn meal, one cup of instant oat meal and two cups of grated whole, hard boiled egg. To this mixture add six crushed 750mg calcium Carbonate antacid tablets (Tums or generic equivalent), 1000 iu of vitamin E, 500mg of vitamin C and any multivitamin/mineral tablet that contains among its other constituents, approximately 5000 iu of vitamin A and 400iu of vitamin D3. Since many vitamins do not specify vitamin D isomer, I use as a vitamin source one teaspoon full of Plex-Sol C (Vet-A-Mix) multivitamin, or one Mazuri 5M24 tablet per batch of food. I feed young birds every hour during the day with forceps or tweezers. Taping the tweezers on the side of the container or brushing it over the bird's beak will cause it to open its mouth (gape). Feed until the bird no longer trembles it wings when it opens its mouth. Do not feed a healthy chick to the point where it only half-heartedly opens its mouth. When you are done, clean the bird's beak and face with a moist facial tissue. Do not give the nestlings water until they are moving freely about the bottom of their cage.

As the birds mature and begin walking and hopping about, sprinkle very small amounts of oyster shell grit and wild bird seed mix on the floor of the cage as well as raisins, diced apple grapes and berries. Also place jar caps of water in its cage at this time. Be sure the bird is in a secure cage when they begin to test their wings.

Fledglings are reluctant to stop begging for food in captivity and in the wild. When they are fully feathered (fledged) they should be able to eat on their own. To be sure the bird is eating adequately and loosing only moderate weight, a postage scale is helpful.

. A good judge of your feeding technique is the absence or near absence of stress bars on the tail and wing feathers (primaries) of the fledged nestling. Multiple stress bars or band-like creases in the feather fletch are due to periodic decreases in blood nutrients. This is usually a sign of too infrequent feedings.

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16y ago

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