Auroras_Mummy
New member
- Aug 8, 2015
- 21
- 0
- Parrots
-
Mali - Cinnamon Pearl Pied Cockatiel
Aurora - Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure
O'tika - Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
Adria - Green Alexandrine
Luna - Turquoise Indian Ringneck
Hi guys, just before Christmas we bought a 15 week old Alex hen for my husband (since the irn we adopted for him in the middle of the year bonded to me and hates him with a passion ...) she's a hilarious little girl and fitted right in to our family, absolutely loves my husband Eddie and is perfectly polite to me but not lovey dovey. Until about a week later when she started crying and begging for food, when we got her she was on a mix of seeds and pellets but she now just has seeds for treats. We thought maybe she'd had a delayed reaction to moving so we gave her a feed of egg and biscuit (we've bred and handreared gccs and cockatiels so we are competant and have the equipment for it), which soon turned into her begging and begging for a feed every morning and occasionally at night. When we've weaned babies before we go the route of abundance feeding (I think that's what it's called?) keeping up with the feeds and offering veggies/fruit/grains until the baby decides to wean. Our gccs wean at around 8-9 weeks and the cockatiels I can't remember but about the same.
We figured we'd be feeding Adria (the Alex) for week or so and she'd get back to being weaned. But it's now nearly March and she's around 6 months old and STILL relying on a feed atleast once a day.
She went to the (avian) vet on Tuesday because she lost her voice and was refusing any food or water, the vet gave her a shot of doxycycline and did a test for psittacosis which was negative, she has a follow up appointment this Friday but she's bounced back tremendously within 24 hours so we're thinking she had a bit of an infection as she also had a hot beak.
She's not back to a feed a day, but we've switched her off pellets and onto dry egg and biscuit in her bowl, which I've seen little bits of in her water bowl so I think she's picking it up and dunking it in her water bowl.
Is there an egg and biscuit that is a full diet like pellets are? She gets either a kebab or buffet ball of veggies (generally a few of zucchini, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, snow peas, pear, cherries) but she doesn't actually eat any of it, she just chomps up bits and throw it on the floor ... She'll only eat veggies that're soft and warm, like her feeds are.
Do we just keep going with the daily feed and hope she one day weans? She won't eat it out of the bowl, she just keeps crying at your until you feed her, though occasionally if you put the bowl and the spoon on her table (she lives on a big tree/perch not a cage so we have a small table that her food and water on that's connected to her tree) she'll hold the spoon in her foot and suck the feed off, but that's maybe 3 times in 3 months.
If you read all that your deserve a plate of cookies!
We figured we'd be feeding Adria (the Alex) for week or so and she'd get back to being weaned. But it's now nearly March and she's around 6 months old and STILL relying on a feed atleast once a day.
She went to the (avian) vet on Tuesday because she lost her voice and was refusing any food or water, the vet gave her a shot of doxycycline and did a test for psittacosis which was negative, she has a follow up appointment this Friday but she's bounced back tremendously within 24 hours so we're thinking she had a bit of an infection as she also had a hot beak.
She's not back to a feed a day, but we've switched her off pellets and onto dry egg and biscuit in her bowl, which I've seen little bits of in her water bowl so I think she's picking it up and dunking it in her water bowl.
Is there an egg and biscuit that is a full diet like pellets are? She gets either a kebab or buffet ball of veggies (generally a few of zucchini, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, snow peas, pear, cherries) but she doesn't actually eat any of it, she just chomps up bits and throw it on the floor ... She'll only eat veggies that're soft and warm, like her feeds are.
Do we just keep going with the daily feed and hope she one day weans? She won't eat it out of the bowl, she just keeps crying at your until you feed her, though occasionally if you put the bowl and the spoon on her table (she lives on a big tree/perch not a cage so we have a small table that her food and water on that's connected to her tree) she'll hold the spoon in her foot and suck the feed off, but that's maybe 3 times in 3 months.
If you read all that your deserve a plate of cookies!
