| Hand Feeding Helmets By Dan Homick
Hello to all! I have written this text from my own personal point of view. It should help you immediately, provided you can get the baby bird food. You can post this on the website, hopefully it can help the newcomers with their babies. I will begin with my morning routine. First thing I do is I get my 2 containers, eyedroppers and a 25cc syringe. I follow the directions on the bag of Kaytee Exact Baby Bird Hand feeding Formula, and mix the two different mixes, one for new hatches, and the other for babies older than 8 to 10 days old. I made an "extension" for the syringe, approx. 2 or 3 inches long, from fish tank tubing. I sanded the sharp edge off the end that goes into the babies' beaks, otherwise you will scratch their throats, and then they get canker. I use a small whisk to continually stir the mixture, otherwise it settles to the bottom of the container. I feed 2 or 3 times a day, depending on the size of the babies and how fast they digest their food, and it is ok to use the same mixture until it is done, before you have to re-mix. I then proceed to the lofts and to the nest boxes. I first check for any young that are chilled, but still alive. I warm them up in my hands, and then put them back under the parent. For some reason, some of my helmets are slow to develop "milk" (up to 2 or 3 days), while others develop right away. For the ones that are slow, I use the eyedropper for the new hatches. It is extremely important to check, and recheck the babies because my baby helmets are notorious for crawling out from beneath the parents, looking to be fed, thus getting chilled and perishing right beside the parents. As the new hatches arrive, I am the one who usually provides their first feeding. I have successfully hand fed from hatch to weaning. I am going to explain how I feed the new hatches. First, I fill the eyedropper about half way with the mixture. The dropper can be straight or curved it doesn't matter. I then gently grasp the baby by its head and beak, lifting it completely in the air. When feeding with a syringe, I use my thumb and first 2 fingers to open the beaks. The reason for this being that now the neck is totally extended, and there is practically no way of drowning (suffocating) the baby. I then insert the eyedropper past the air passage, partially into the crop. Gently squeeze the dropper, while watching the crop fill. I then place the baby back into the nest bowl, wiping it's nostrils clean all in one motion. The baby is completely content and quiet, and stays in place for a few hours. But like I said, I am always checking and rechecking them. Unfortunately, I do lose some because of my job (shift work!) The older babies get anywhere from a full syringe to 1 1/2. You follow the same procedure for feeding them, except you can just stretch out the neck while the baby is seated in front of you. If you overfill a baby, hold it tilted forward while gently squeezing it's crop to expel some food. Then wipe it's nostrils clean, and it should be fine. . I use the watery mixture for 3 or 4 days, 'til the parents take over. As the babies grow, the mixture is thickened as the size of the babies’ dictates. By the time the pinfeathers begin, the mixture stays the same consistency until weaning. The babies in the basement are fed 2 or 3 times a day. You must allow the crop to digest almost completely before next feeding to avoid sour crop. The next topic is that I have 4 plastic recycle boxes in my basement that I use as "transfer boxes". 2 of them are constantly under 1 heat lamp (175 Watt infra red) with a deflector. It is positioned approx. 24-30 inches above, and double secured to my basement ceiling. The temperature is about 80-85 degrees. You can increase or decrease the temps by raising or lowering the heat lamp. I try to leave the babies under the parents for about 8-10 days, or until banding. After banding, I bring the babies into my basement. This year's bands are a bit smaller, allowing me to band sooner. Thus I am able to remove and finish the babies off, up to and past weaning. In this way, I am able to have the parents back on eggs sooner. As I bring the babies into the basement, they are usually 8-10 days of age, some are younger depending on the care they receive from their parents. At the first sign of neglect, the babies are brought in regardless of age or size. These go into box #1. Each box has approx 3 -4" of hay, which is 1 flake in "horseman's lingo". I tried straw, but found it a little slippery, allowing the babies' legs to splay out to the side. This causes major problems as the babies grow. I found hay keeps their legs totally in the proper position. The boxes are draped with newspaper on all sides, this helps absorb moisture from the droppings then the flake of hay is pushed to the bottom. The paper and hay are changed every 2 days. As the babies grow, they are moved into the other transfer boxes. I have anywhere from 10-40 babies of various ages on the go all season long. As weaning time approaches, I have a set of 4 show pens set up with the dividers opened up, for the bigger babies. The larger babies "teach" the younger ones how to eat and drink by themselves. This next bit is a secret if mine I am sharing with everyone. Because I am weaning in the show pens, the babies become accustomed to the doors opening and closing numerous times, as well as each one being handled, being brought out and set up on top of the cages for more hand feeding, then placed back in the cages after. These babies have grain and water in front of them all the time. Some are very quick to begin eating grain while others are not they’re all different. My birds are among the best behaved and quite tame. Come show time, I very seldom have a bird cowering and hiding in the corners. They act like a Helmet should act very active, trying to draw attention to themselves, full of personality and vigor. When the males see me coming up the show hall aisle, they rush to the front of the cages, challenging me. The hens are the opposite. If I talk and coo to them, they dance for me! Luckily for me, they don't act up in front of the judges. Although some do, the judge may have a difficult time trying to get the bird into show stance. Oh well, that's ok with me. Most of my birds, well into adulthood, react to me when they see me coming, or when I'm in their pens. I have successfully bred and raised in excess of 100 Helmets each year, for the past 8 years. I believe over the past 35 years, on and off, I have bred a couple thousand Helmets. I am very fortunate to be able to care for a large number of birds. Presently, because of this, I have been extremely successful in my mating match ups. I have a wide selection of "styles" of Helmets to choose from. I can choose to mate a bird with extreme head features with one that's not as powerful. I can add huge crests, rosettes and manes to birds with a golf ball type head. A large bodied bird, mated to a tiny bodied bird, etc… Many combinations allow me my successes. I have started many people off in Helmets, too many to list. Some have loved the helmets some developed a dislike for them. I have been instrumental in bringing many new members into our club by paying for their first year's membership. All the while hoping they will develop a true love of our breed. Some I have stayed in contact with and helped out as much as possible. Others, I have bought back my birds if they were not interested in keeping the breed. I truly don't know what I would do without my birds. They bring me so much joy and happiness in my life. I do sometimes get frustrated and even angry when I have bouts with sickness or deaths in the nests; but like my very good friend Gary Parsons says, "I get over it". Presently, we have no illnesses in our area. Last fall we vaccinated for PMV only, with great success. I presently have about 85 youngsters, some looking fantastic. I hope what I have written can and will help the newcomers, as well as some of the experienced Helmet breeders. I wish everyone best of luck this season Farewell for now, Dan Homick Helmet Happenings Loft pjn_man@yahoo.ca |
 |
 |
 |
 |
