During a bad heat wave, one particular 2-week-old was miserable in the hotbox, as we were calling the nesting boxes that week. He kept testing his kamikazi skills, climbing to the box doorway and dive-bombing 4 feet to the floor of the aviary. The first day I picked him up and put him back in his nest. The next day, there he was on the aviary bottom again only this time he'd been there long enough there was evidence the adult birds had been picking on him. So the decision was made for me, I must hand-raise this little guy.
So came the naming. For you Survivor fans (I'm a die-hard) you'll recall that Richard Hatch was the very first to Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast. Hence my first rescue was named Hatch.
Well then, the next day one of the two remaining siblings in the hotbox died. Consequently, the remaining sibling was also going to have to be hand-raised as well. Hence, the twins. Both are Fischers with Fischer parents. In fact, the maternal parent is my infamous Sybil.
The second sibling rescue became Starsky. Starsky and Hatch. Mmm hmm. Turns out it's a good thing I didn't go with the second Survivor, Tina, for both hatchlings turned out to be males.
Feeding Instructions
The feeding schedule is not for a working mother. With the help of some internet research and my friend Shele who had a little bit of recent experience, the schedule follows. A commercial baby bird formula is mixed up fresh each time with warm water and is fed by eye-dropper. The hatchling needs no additional water. One must also be careful to enter the eye-dropper into the beak from the left side angled toward the right. It is risky to hand-feed a hatchling prior to 2 weeks, the first week in particular. Babies need that certain something only a mom can provide. Something comparable to cholesterum I imagine. I was lucky Hatch didn't start his kamikazi practice during that critical time. At this age feeding need only be between 6 a.m. and midnight. Apparantly I read but didn't see this sweet piece of information until after I'd invested weeks of middle-of-the-night feedings.
** Disclaimer to viewers seeking information: I am an amateur hand-feeder and have only this experience to offer you. It is not my intention to instruct, but merely to pass along my own collection of research. My main source of information is no longer posted or I would have provided the link. Regarding how much to feed, I recommend continuing your research because it is equally dangerous to overfeed as to underfeed and relates to crop observation. For me, once the hatchlings here accepted me as mama-bird replacement I let them determine when they were finished feeding. This is not necessarily a good idea, it's an amature's idea. It happened to work this time.
Hatch was the only one of the two I kept and when he was old enough I put him in the aviary to live with the other adults. In his third year he suffered such an injury I put him in the hospital cage and tended his wounds. The hospital cage is kept indoors where we can constantly supervise for medical attention. He never fully recovered in the month or so he stayed in the hospital cage. I suspect his injuries were internal. I took special notice today as he was fading and tried to revive him by giving him food and water as I'd done when he was not yet a fledgling. But my efforts were in vain and I lost this special bird as he died while I was holding him. May 30, 2009.
