| Adult birds
are seedeaters and eat a variety of seeds and
grains. |
| Baby doves
and pigeons insert their beaks into the parent
bird’s throat to suck their food; they do
not gape for food. Feed them enough to fill their
crop then wait 2-3 hrs for their crop to empty
before feeding again. Once feeding is established
they will show by restless behaviour when they
need to be fed. |
| |
| Make sure the
baby is warm before feeding or it will not be
able to digest its food. Very small babies can be
tube fed with a fine plastic tubing attached to
the end of a syringe but do not attempt this
until you have been shown by a coordinator or
experienced member. The food and tubing are
warmed and slipped gently down the bird’s
throat [right hand side of bird] and slowly
released. A good basic
mix:
Soaked Pedigree Puppy Kibble halved dipped into:
200mls warm water
2 tsp apple sauce
1 tsp egg biscuit
2 tsp rice cereal or enough
to thicken it to a runny custard consistency.
Self Feeding Doves &
Pigeons can be fed on small parrot seed, soaked
pedigree puppy kibble and soaked soup mix.
|
| When the baby
is larger and feathered it can be fed by gently
holding the beak open and hand feeding pellets of
granivore mix, soaked soup mix [dried peas,
barley, lentils soaked in hot water until
softened], soaked Puppy biscuits [based on rice
with added vitamins and minerals] and a little
scrambled egg. Often the baby will open its beak
voluntarily if you use the V between your fingers
or your finger and thumb to gently squeeze and
push down on the sides of the beak. |
| |
| As the bird
gets bigger and its tail grows, you can begin to
add soaked seeds to the diet. These birds take a
long time before they feed themselves. Continue
to supplementary feed, even when the bird
appears to be picking up the seeds, as it
sometimes take a while before it can actually
pick up and eat enough to survive. |
|
| Feeding Parrots |
|
| Galahs,
Sulphur crested cockatoos, Corellas, Cockatiels,
Rosellas and Major Mitchells. |
| |
| These
birds are seed eaters (60%) however a
considerable part of their diet includes fruits
and greens (40%). |
| |
| Feeding
baby parrots 200mls
warm water
2 tsp apple sauce
1 tsp egg biscuit
2 tsp rice cereal or enough to thicken to a
custard consistency.
Mixture must be fed warm and
the crop should be full. Do not feed again until
the crop empties out completely. The crop should
be filled until it is bulging but not tight. It
should be soft and squishy still. If it feels
tight you have overfilled the crop.
|
| |
| Feeding
adult birds |
1.
A variety of seeds are found in the commercial
packs of parrot seed and these
should be placed into a large shallow bowl. |
2.
Another dish can provide a mixture of
"greens" such as; apples, pears, bean
sprouts, carrots, grapes, corn cobs, silver beat,
capsicum and grasses with
seeds such as wild turnip etc. |
| 3.
A bowl of water is also required |
| 4.
Don’t feed them human type foods of
processed foods such as biscuits, chocolate,
meats, citrus, soft drinks and the like, or the food can turn
sour in the crop. |
| |
|
