HAND FEEDING
The other night a friend called and
was complaining about losing day
old babies after they hatched. I
asked him if he had tried hand
feeding to get them started and his
reply was that he had not gotten
around to learning how to do that
yet. He mentioned too that some of
his birds fed fine and some would let
the newly hatched young starve to
death. This is something we have
bred into our Show Rollers and now
we either have to try to breed it out
of them or hand feed young like
some of the other pigeon breeders
have to do with their breed. Hand
feeding babies is something that
most Show Roller breeders have
just incorporated into their breeding
program. This is something the
short-faced pigeon breeders have
been doing for a long time. Now that
I have gotten into the Muff Tumblers,
this is something I have to do with
them also. We have not only bred
birds with poor parenting skills, but
we have bred babies that don.t beg
real hard after hatching to be fed.
The newly hatched young could
possibly be weak or maybe our
Show Rollers are too inbred. Bottom
line is if we want to raise more Show
Rollers each year, then hand feeding
will be a necessity. Some Muff
Tumbler breeders even hand feed
some of their young muffs up until
they begin eating on their own.
Breeders will also check nests
and young muffs crop each night to
ensure they have plenty of grain; and
if they don.t, then a ketchup bottle
with a 50/50 mixture of water and
exact is used to feed the baby
until full.
