crop needle

What size crop needle to use for a two week old Indian Ringneck. Thanks

What is the reason for needling the crop? This is best avoided if possible.


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A) I suggest a 14 gauge crop TUBE not needle. Crop needles are hard and pose a much greater risk.

B) Tubing should only be attempted once you know why the bird is refusing to eat. I once had a bird get a yeast infection under her tongue which caused her to refuse food. I could have tubed her but she would have died of the infection eventually anyway. Some birds just wean early and tubing could ruin the taming, and there are many other things that could be going on. Please take your bird to an AVIAN VET right away to rule out injury, illness, or other cause so that you can treat the reason behind the refusal of food rather than just force feeding. In my experience force feeding almost always does as much harm as good.


These are IRNs... how old are they? Any chance they are fledging right now? Irns are just a pain the feed while fledging, and force feeding will just make that worse.


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Never mind the age question I see you put it in your original post, but keep
It in mind when they do fledge.


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Thanks to everybody for advice. I have taken her to a vet, he showed me how to use a crop needle if she does not eat within a couple of days. She is all healthy but just stub-en.

I hope for the best for you. It has been my experience that there is no such thing as an animal that will starve itself out of pure stubbornness, but there are there is something wrong if they refuse to eat. Please keep us updated on the little babies progress


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SilverSage,

Actually the last batch of babies I help my neighbor raise, two of them was like that....they refuse to eat, I hated to but I had to force feed. It was the only time I ever had to do that out of all the years I've raised birds. But I got them all weaned, there was 3 of them, one likes me a lot, every time I visit he would sing to me....lol

I'm glad to hear that. I believe you, but I've had and observed the opposite.


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I found with my IRN's they take smaller amounts of food at a feeding, but the time between feedings was shorter. I found it difficult when I had other birds to feed as well because I couldn't get them on the same schedule. I have never had to tube feed, and I hope I don't. It makes me nervous even to watch it being done.