Hand feeding my baby cockatiel

Question

I have a 5 day old baby cockatiel that mother bird rejected from the nest. I've been hand feeding it with Exact brand baby bird hand feeding formula from day 1. The bird is taking to it well and growing, becoming louder. My main problem is the tool I'm feeding it with. I got the formula at a pet/pet food store called Incredible Pets. I attempted to feed a baby cockatiel a few years ago and got the same food from the same store and they also gave me a small medical use pipette that worked really well with the formula. Well when I bought the formula this time they said they don't carry the pipettes anymore ... they didn't have anything I could use to feed a baby bird with. So I went to Longs Drugs and got a small medicine dropper. It works, it easily sucks formula up into it, but when I'm trying to feed the baby and gently squeeze the dropper, nothing comes out, so I squeeze just a little bit harder and the formula shoots out in a big glob all over poor baby's face. I can't get around this problem. Also when I've got the tip of the dropper in baby's mouth, I squeeze it and the same thing happens so it gets a giant mouthfull. I don't know what to do. What other method can I use to feed it? Where can I go to get something better?

Answer 1

u can use spoid.  

Answer 2

make some formula then get a straw and suck it up and put ur finger on it so it dont fall out of the straw drop a few drops into his mouth this worked when my aunt hand feed her baby kittens.

Answer 3

HMMM...The only thing that I can think of is maybe try an old bottle from like eye drops, contact solution bottles. Of course was them out really good maybe even in the dishwasher. They sometimes have tips that allow for a small drop. Good Luck. I have a cockatiel also...they rock!

Answer 4

get a baby medicine syringe from the drug store. it is like a syringe without a needle, and it has great control. if you wash and dry well the plunger will continue to work well. in a few weeks, use a crimped tip spoon, and let the baby eat from it.

Answer 5

I get my syringes from Avitec.  They have the small syringes as well as pipettes and small attachments to fit the size of the babies mouth.  Once the babies reach 2 weeks I just use a bigger hand feeding syringe.

Using syringes is always preferred over pipettes and never use a straw because you could scratch the inside of the babies mouth.  With the handfeeding syringes you can see just how much the baby is eating (cc's).  Try PetCo or Petsmart.

Answer 6

Hello.

If you can find a pet store and buy a syring to put the food in there , it would be better ...if not , trying to feed it with a little tea spoon , put near the mouth and the baby teil will easily suck it up and swallow a bit at a time . Hope this help .  

Answer 7

Try using a syringe. No needle of course. They hold whatever amount you need and you can control how fast and how much you give the bird. I have two tiels myself I'm hoping to breed. Tiels are very enjoyable birds.

Answer 8

I would get a spoon that is what i use when i have 5 cockateils to feed at a time