Guide- Torpedo Feeding: What Is It And When To Use It.

[MottsHomestead]

Torpedo feeding is a method of feeding in which you give your bird “torpedos” of food to swallow. This is ideal if you have an ill bird and are not comfortable tubing food, or if you have a disabled bird who is not able to eat normally, like a cross beak.

I use a small food processor to grind crumbles into a fine powder, then I take an egg, and mix with a fork, I keep putting the dry powder in until I have a playdoh-like consistency. I take water and mix that in so it’s more of a light playdoh, and isn’t super compact so I’m not stuffing her crop with a thick dough. I lightly make little balls (I’ve found the sweet spot for big enough that I’m not wasting time, but small enough she will swallow it, to be around the size of a large pea, or maybe a blueberry.) then I open her beak, place it towards the back, and down the hatch it goes. I’ve also been giving her between 2.5-10ml of water (depending on how full her crop is) after to make sure none has gotten stuck, and that it’s not tightly packed together and she can pass it.

Tube feeding is superior in terms of ease of actually getting the right amount down, and you can do more at once, but we found find the right consistency extremely difficult, so Torpedo feeding has been perfect for us.

When torpedo feeding, and giving fluids (tubing or not) you always always always want to be mindful of the opening into the trachea, which is directly in the middle at the back of the birds mouth, right behind the tongue. The opening the esophagus is on the far right.

This video, while not mine, may be helpful if you are looking into torpedo feeding.

-MottsHomestead

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the info and video!
I hope this helps others facing this situation.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

@MottsHomestead I have a couple of suggestions.
I'm not a tech guru, but I do know that you can add tags for a thread, so you may want to add some that would reference cross beak, scissor beak, hand feeding, etc. Not sure how you that that though!

Cross Beak and/or Scissor Beak added to the title may help others find your info as well.

One more thing...leave this thread of course in this section, but turn it into an article for the learning center. Do attach your video, but a photo tutorial (what the torpedos look like, etc.) would be a good addition to the article.

Just some ideas.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

This is fantastic! Thank you!

 

[MottsHomestead]

@MottsHomestead I have a couple of suggestions.
I'm not a tech guru, but I do know that you can add tags for a thread, so you may want to add some that would reference cross beak, scissor beak, hand feeding, etc. Not sure how you that that though!

Cross Beak and/or Scissor Beak added to the title may help others find your info as well.

One more thing...leave this thread of course in this section, but turn it into an article for the learning center. Do attach your video, but a photo tutorial (what the torpedos look like, etc.) would be a good addition to the article.

Just some ideas.

Thank you for the suggestions @Wyorp Rock !! However I can’t seem to find the edit button anymore.


We grind the food in the food processor into a powder:

Crack eggs into a bowl:

Add the fine powder:

Then use a fork and continue adding dry powder to thicken it up, and a bit of water to make it less sticky.

This is the typical size we make the torpedos:

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I think you have to have a premium acct in order to edit after a day or two.
You could hit the report button of the first post and ask staff if there's a way to add tags, I'm not all that tech savvy when it comes to these things LOL.

Anyway! The photos are great, very helpful and informative. Thank You!

Bookmarking the thread so I can find it easily.

 

[ebisu]

Will this work on a chicken with canker who is producing mucus from her throat making it hard to swallow? I've been tube feeding instead.

 

[Gezellige_Poes]

Torpedo feeding is a method of feeding in which you give your bird “torpedos” of food to swallow. This is ideal if you have an ill bird and are not comfortable tubing food, or if you have a disabled bird who is not able to eat normally, like a cross beak.

I use a small food processor to grind crumbles into a fine powder, then I take an egg, and mix with a fork, I keep putting the dry powder in until I have a playdoh-like consistency. I take water and mix that in so it’s more of a light playdoh, and isn’t super compact so I’m not stuffing her crop with a thick dough. I lightly make little balls (I’ve found the sweet spot for big enough that I’m not wasting time, but small enough she will swallow it, to be around the size of a large pea, or maybe a blueberry.) then I open her beak, place it towards the back, and down the hatch it goes. I’ve also been giving her between 2.5-10ml of water (depending on how full her crop is) after to make sure none has gotten stuck, and that it’s not tightly packed together and she can pass it.

Tube feeding is superior in terms of ease of actually getting the right amount down, and you can do more at once, but we found find the right consistency extremely difficult, so Torpedo feeding has been perfect for us.

When torpedo feeding, and giving fluids (tubing or not) you always always always want to be mindful of the opening into the trachea, which is directly in the middle at the back of the birds mouth, right behind the tongue. The opening the esophagus is on the far right.

This video, while not mine, may be helpful if you are looking into torpedo feeding.

-MottsHomestead

Wow, how excellent is that! Thank you so much for posting this, so very useful!