Iam going to have baby canaries on Mon or Tuesday and I can't find my reciepe for nestling food,Its been a few years since I raised babies..Does anyone on the list have a reciepe they have used with succes?? Thank You Doris in Idaho

-- Doris Richards (dorisquilts@webtv.net), March 24, 2001

Answers

I suggest that you go to Hornbecks site and do a search for 'handfeeding formula'. They have several commercial preparations that will work better than most home concocotions. I used to breed cockatiels and budgies, and saw a lot of unhealthy babies on various home formulas. Their address is http://www.creativebird.com/cagebird/index.html They have fast shipping.

I would also suggest that if possible, you let the parents do the raising on them. I see that you say you've raised babies before, so you know how important it is for them to get the bacteria from the parent's crops. I've tried handfeeding from hatching and it's not nearly as successful as letting the parents do it, at least for the first few weeks.

If for some other reason you HAVE to feed them yourself (it happens after all), I used Roudybush's formulas for first feeding, along with a probiotic avian-specific for first feedings.

Here is the San Diego Zoo's hand-feeding formula;

1 1/2 cups water 1/2 cup Masa Harina 1 raw egg yolk 1/2 cup hulled sunflower seeds 1/2 cup Wheat Hears cereal 1 tsp. trout chow 2 tsp. dark Karo syrup 1/2 rip papaya 1 leaf greens (spinach, chard, etc.) 3 1/2 tsp Premix

Bring water to a boil. Add Wheat Hearts and trout chow and cook for three to five minutes. Let the mixture cool and add contents to a blender. Add the remaining ingredients and additional water as needed to make proper consistancy (pasty) for stage of feeding (thin for first feedings, progressing to thicker as nestlings age). This formula can be frozen. Try using ice cube trays. Thaw in refrigerator and serve warm as needed.

Premix is a nutritional supplent and is available fron Zeigler Brothers Inc., PO Box 95, Gardners, PA 17324.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 24, 2001.

Bit more on bird rearing...I had to run, so I didn't get to elaborate on other food stuffs...

I haven't raised canaries, but I've raised a few wild birds, and a lot of small hookbills (cockatiels and budgies mostly, I was just getting into grass parakeets and lorikeets). I raised a couple of nestlings from the egg on when mothers refused them and it was SO much work (worth it, but intensive, having to feed them every two hours around the clock for weeks on end).

I found another recipe in another book. It calls for 1.76 oz (50 gm) of CeDe or similar commercial rearing food, 1.76 oz soybean meal, .42 oz (12 gm) soybean, corn, or wheat oil, .14 ounce (4 gm) calcium phosphate (food grade), .04 ounce (1gm) calcium carbonate (food grade) and .07 ounce ( 2 gm) vitamin/mineral supplement.

If the parents will feed for you, what I used to offer my parent cockatiels was dishes of sprouting seed mixes (like with a 1/8th inch sprout starting) -- this converts the starch to protein, and packs a lot of beneficial animo acids and enzymes. I also offered them hard boiled egg well mashed, with commercial hand feeding formula mixed in -- I used to use Tropican by preference for the cockatiels, altho I also used some Roudybush (finer consistancy) for the budgies. If you have any breeding formula pellets that you are feeding to your birds regularly, you can crush those up (blender) and add to the boiled egg. I would take it away after an hour so it didn't spoil, but the parents would usually polish most of it off by that time.

I also used to like to sprinkle spirula powder, or wheat grass powder on the feed occasionally, as well as a little shaved cuttlebone for calcium. The wildlife center around here uses Roudybush for the birds they take in too.

Hope you have good luck!

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 25, 2001.