Bread doesn't have to be toasted, and my parent birds eat a lot of not-toasted whole grain bread when they have babies. It's their favorite baby food. They also eat sprouted grains, pellets, seeds, and vegetables, and I give them a little bit of cooked egg every day too. They don't eat very much of the dry seed when they have babies. It's OK if they feed seed to the babies as long as they provide plenty of water too - it's hard for babies to digest dry seed but water helps soften it up.

what bread do you give them? Mine are spoiled - they only eat sprouted "grain and seed" bread from Ezekiel that has seeds on the crust, I would say they more eat the seeds, not the bread. Maybe I could switch.

This is the bread that I use: http://www.alvaradostreetbakery.com/pro ... .php?id=36 But Ezekiel is equally good quality.

thanks. Do you use vinegar when sprouting? I found it hard to get rid of vinegar smell but if I don't use it, bacteria would grow sooner or later. I have tried several times, but haven't succeed.

I am a little worried about possible hatching time difference due to all events that we had. What's the main difference between assisted feeding of a very young chick and larger chick?

I use a couple of drops of vinegar in the sprouting water. A small amount won't leave behind a vinegar smell.

With a newly hatched chick the risk of aspiration is greater because of the baby's tiny size. Don't try to put the tip of the syringe into the baby's beak because it's too big. Instead, tap gently on the beak with the syringe, and when the baby opens its beak you put the syringe tip against the left side of the beak and let a drop of formula slowly flow onto the tongue. Let the baby swallow before you give it more.

2 drops of vinegar in large amount of water every time I rinse, and leave it for a couple of minutes?

I don't use vinegar when I rinse - I only put a couple of drops in the soaking water when I'm soaking the seed and grains. I rinse it with plain water. But if you have spoilage problems you could try using a little bit of vinegar in the rinse water.

I was trying different techniques but haven't got a good result yet. I was adding vinegar when rinsing but I guess I put too much because after it there were a smell of vinegar and it also inhibited sprouting. When I wasn't using vinegar at all, I got some mold growth.

What technique do you use ?

This one: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... uting.html

interesting. I was reading about 3 day sprout. It's much easier not to have bacteria problem during a day and a half

Can you imagine - I bought some honey on the farmer market in the jar like this, and couldn't figure out why it has a ring and a circle instead of a normal lid. Its very annoying!!!