Aussie Finch Forum

We have been hand rearing a baby finch for 4 1/2 weeks, and it has been doing well, unitl this morning, it is now lethargic, fluffed up, and it's poos have turned a really dark brown. We are feeding it the formula from the vet, and introducing seeds as well. It's only about 5 weeks old. The only thing i can think of is that it slept in a nest of shredded newspaper last night. Could this be the cause? We wanna give it the best chance, we've tried really hard to get it this far. PLEASE can someone help me??

Its so hard to help in this situation , hopefully Tiaris or Myzo will see this and suggest something . Bloody hard though .

All I can suggest is make sure the birds warm enough , some Spark in the water or given by a dropper and wait to see if anyone else can help or visit your vet .

So many things can go wrong with hand reared birds , it only takes a little thing to upset the crop or the tummy and all goes pear shaped .

Anyhoo good luck , sorry I couldn't help , I actually just wanted to reply to give a little moral support . Oh and welcome to the forum .

I agree with Deb it can be heartbreaking to try and hand feed finches, Ive tried
I dont like the sound of the brown poop though, are you crop feeding? What kind of finch is it?
A few more posts and you should be able to post pics.
Try the Introduce yourself topic
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Instructions of loading pics here
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Thanks for your replies, I our baby finch is feeling better!! YAY!! I force fed it formula today, and it's poos are back to normal. It responded well to touch and comfort. It is now eating formula on it's own, drinking water, flying and calling I have it in it's own box with a hot water bottle and grass to sleep in. Thanks again for your replies. I think whatever we did was right, it seems to be all good!! Fingers crossed it makes it through the night xxx

That's great news, fingers crossed for the little one

We made it through the night!!! I'm still keeping it in a box with it's hot water bottle at night, but it seems to be back to it's cheery self today. Thanks for your concern guys