I imagine that egrets and herons should have some tolerance to salt. They hunt both in salt water and fresh water.
But yes, probably some soaking (which you must do anyway in order to rehydrate it) will help.
Delia - do you think Tanya22 is getting sufficient care advise and there may be a better subforum for the question?? Not sure ...
Yeah... guess I was being ultra-cautious.
Are any egret/heron species fresh water feeders only? I wasn't too sure on this point.
Ummm.... I don't think I really mean "I'll move there" do I?:-O
Best place for you Delia 😄
I had been wondering that actually DantM! I think, maybe, the Information Wanted forum might be best?
I'll move there shortly.
I kept the food in front of them for 2 hours, but it remained untouched. Ultimately, it was boiled egg for dinner (which they wolfed down like mad!).
They love thawed raw fish and boiled eggs only sigh... Fruits (for now I've only tried apple a few times) are being rejected and so are corns.. is there anything else that I can give to provide their body with roughage and different vitamins?
Do they beg for food?
I would try to avoid keeping food around them and wait for some time (say, 30 minutes? before feeding them. begin by offering pieces of the fish they already eat by putting it close to their beaks, and alternate with rehydrated shrimp and fish. They must learn that it’s food.
I imagine that fledglings learn what real food looks like and where to find it when they spend time with their parents before living on their own.
And you might try some theatre Make them believe you are eating it. You are surely their role model now Act like you are earting their favourite fish, make sure they see you doing it, and then pick do it with the shrimp.
I am no expert but I think it might work. That’s what I would try.
I forgot, corn would be a no no. Predator birds will not eat cereals as far as I know it may be detrimental. For many fishes, even vegetarian ones, it can be outright dangerous.
As for vitamins, several years ago I attended an aquarium maintenance course at the Madrid Zoo and one of the vets explained us that in order to enrich the diet sometimes they hid small portions of vegetables and fruit within bigger pieces.
But not cereals
It's all a bit awkward isn't it?!
I suspect the food didn't have much smell or flavour at that point? ie they didn't recognise it as food. I'm sure one trick would be to mix some with their egg and 'wean' them onto the alternative. (Birds do get trained onto certain food types, not recognising similar items as food - if they are ever to be rehabilitated into the wild of course they will have to recognise many more and live food).
I also think a single soak and rinse would be sufficient. Of course it's a bit awkward if as a vegetarian you can't taste it, but I'm sure that would be fine.
Noo... no mistake made by you Tanya. It's just there's more likelihood of people with more knowledge seeing your predicament in the wider area of the forum (they're more likely to read threads in Information Wanted than in Hello).
We all said Hello to you long ago, but you're now needing more expert advice (and the more ideas the better), so thought it time to move it.
I don't see any sign that this thread started off anywhere but in Say Hello?