I've been handfeeding a baby budgie since she was 10 days old due to unfortunate circumstances. She's now 25 days old, developing well (only a few days behind, if that, in feather development to one of my other chicks that had a much better beginning in life) and very active. I've been feeding her every 3-5 hours, except for one longer break during the night where I let her crop empty completely.

 

She isn't showing any signs of dehydration or malnutrition, but I also haven't been keeping track of how much she's been eating at each feeding so when I fed her--her crop was completely empty--this morning I decided to record how much she ate.

Her crop was totally full and she didn't want any more once I'd fed her 7ml/cc's of food. Try as I might I can't find exactly how many cc's I should be expecting her to eat and be completely full at so I figured I'd ask here..make sure I'm feeding her enough, often enough.

 

So..7cc's. Is that a good amount for a 23-25 day old budgie chick? Too much or too little?

Its best to weigh them. If i recall, each feed should be 10% of the chicks body weight and the chick should be fed each time the crop empties except at night.

I am sure Dean is correct. I guestimate when I crop feed and at that age, 5 to 7mls sounds about right to me

Yes, essentially you feed the chick until it stops begging for food which is usually when the crop is full. and you dont feed again until the crop is empty or very near to it. The real problem in my opinion is getting the balance of water/formula. If you use too much water then even if you fill the crop to the brim the actual content of formula (ie nutrition and calories) would be sub-optimal. I believe this is often poorly done which is the reason why many hand reared chicks are "behind" in development compared to nest/parent raised chicks who receive a biologically balanced and prepared feed that isnt watered down.

 

On the flip side if you dont use enough water or if the food is too cold you can get crop stasis. So i suppose at the end of the day, a live chick means you are doing your job good enough even if its a bit delayed developmentally.