Jake YNA 1970,Kia Panama amazon1975, both i removed from nest and left siblings, Forever Home to,Stacie (YN hen),Mickie (RLA male),Blinkie (YNA hen),Kong (Panama hen),Rescue Zons;Nitro,Echo,Rocky,Rub
Hey sandy, bet you can't wait? LOL, He looks mostly pan, can't really be sure he doesn't have some YCA in him. It's the lower mandible that throws me. If he was a YCA he would have beak ,cere and feet that looked just the same as a YNA. The Pans should have beak,cere and feet that look almost like the DYH. Except some Pans have the black spot on the upper mandible. If i had him in my hand i could give a better opinion, So let me "hold" him for a week or two and i'll let you know, LOL. I promise i'll give him back!!
Jake YNA 1970,Kia Panama amazon1975, both i removed from nest and left siblings, Forever Home to,Stacie (YN hen),Mickie (RLA male),Blinkie (YNA hen),Kong (Panama hen),Rescue Zons;Nitro,Echo,Rocky,Rub
i am the mom of three parrots:
Dorothy- African grey (cag)
Bowie- blue and gold macaw
Nellie- hyacinth macaw
Reggie- hyacinth macaw
Marnie- white bellied caique
Thanks everyone. Yes, Panamas are extremely close to YC's in appearance, with only a few slight variations that someone with experience (can we say, Henpecked?) can help identify. But no matter, I'm extremely excited he's coming home in four days. Glad I'm working for the next 3 to help make the time go by faster!
I heard he's been on a seed diet so far. Can I try getting him onto veggies and Harrisons cold turkey, or must I gradually switch him over? I really don't want to buy a bag of seed food if I don't have to.
Valentino was my forth baby parrot to join my family after weaning. Every single parrot I got as a weaned baby did regress and needed a bit of hand feeding TLC to get them though the adjustment period. The baby will need to adjust to you and your household routine, his new cage, his surroundings after having to be shipped to you. With my first parrot I had bought a gram scale so I could weigh the baby every day to make sure the baby maintained weight. The first few days/week or so the weight will probably fluctuate a bit but you want to watch weight to make sure the baby does not loose too much weight.
I would offer the baby the healthy diet. Does the breeder ONLY feed him seeds? What did the breeder hand feed the baby with? What kinds of foods did the baby wean off on to (First foods the baby learned to eat on his own) With Valentino I copied the breeder's diet but she had him on a very healthy diet to begin with. I did have to hand feed him for a bit to get him though the adjustment period because I was not happy with his weight because he was flying a LOT in my house Valentino was not keeping stable weight for the first month here.
Like you I also will need to learn how different the Amazon diet is because I have only had mini macaws, and Eclectus and now a RFM.
If your baby is on not so good a diet it will be easy to convert him to a better diet but you need to watch the weight and make sure he does not loose too much. Make sure that weight is stable. I am not sure about baby amazons but in general all my babies were lean and not "filled out" when they came home. This is normal for baby parrots as they will grow and fill out to their adult frame in time. Yes, I did have to keep telling myself this because I always feel babies are too lean. LOL.
I would like to know how others feel about switching a newly weaned baby's diet. Would it be safer to hand feed to keep weight stable while switching the diet "cold turkey" (very good term) and would probably have to re-wean onto the better diet or would slowly switching diet exposing to the heather diet be better?