I need a little help

Hi all,

I have a 6 week old Grey and noticed a lump on the side of his neck just above the wing, now the breeder said this is normal after feeding, it is on one side, I have included a photo, thanks for your input





I think he or she is younger than 6 weeks.

It is an air bubble inside his crop, and yes, it’s normal after feeding.

We often see unweaned babies die around here due to breeders not actually telling the new owners how to care for an unweaned parrot chick, so I hope you won’t mind if I just check in with you;

What temperature are you keeping his brooder? What temperature are you keeping his formula?


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Sage, I'm so glad you're here. I was just about to cut and paste your "So You Bought an Unweaned Baby" post...

phil01 said:

Hi all,

I have a 6 week old Grey and noticed a lump on the side of his neck just above the wing, now the breeder said this is normal after feeding, it is on one side, I have included a photo, thanks for your input

View attachment 20831

View attachment 20832

I think he or she is younger than 6 weeks.

Click to expand...

The ambient temp in the house is 77 degrees as I am in Los Angeles and temp of the food is 104 degrees, I never paid for the bird my friend died and I took it in, I have rescued animals of all kinds for years but I never noticed a lump like this, the lump has subsided since the post, thanks

Thanks for your input.

If you keep him at that temp he will likely die of an infection soon. You need to get him up around 90-95 degrees RIGHT AWAY and keep him there. His organs can’t function properly if he isn’t warm enough.


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Oh my...The breeder should never have given you a baby like this when you're not trained in hand-raising/feeding...

If you don't get that baby into a either a proper Brooder or a handmade Brooder that will keep him around 95 degrees F until all of his down feathers come in, and then around 85 degrees once the down come in but before all the rest come in, he will die of a fungal infection as he will be far too cold and won't be able to digest his food...you must have an ambient thermometer inside the Brooder and be exact!

Same for the formula, you must have a candy/cooking thermometer in it at all times, and it must always be between 104-110 degrees F, any hotter will burn his crop, any cooler and he'll get a crop infection...

77 degrees F as an ambient temperature is going to surely kill that baby chick...if you can't buy a proper Brooder, then you must make one immediately...Get a cardboard box large enough for the chick to be in, and get a heating pad with an adjustable temperature. Place the back-half of the box on top of the heating pad, and hang an ambient thermometer in the back half of the box, like the kind you use to take the temp outside...Then cover that back half of the brooder that is on top of the heating pad with a towel/blanket, and get then turn on the heating pad, and get that temp up to 95 degrees F...This way he'll have both the warm and cool area in the front that is uncovered and not on top of the heating pad.

The Brooder also must have some type of bedding in it's bottom, like pine shavings or the Carefresh paper bedding, otherwise, if he's on a flat surface like the bottom of the box or on newspaper, paper towels, etc. all the time, he's going to end up with splayed legs...

*****We see this at least once a week with people who buy unweaned baby parrots in the middle-eastern countries, it's rampant there for unweaned parrots only a couple of weeks old to be sold in markets and on the side of the road, and they probably die 90% of the time due to Gastrointestinal/Crop infections because the people think that the ambient temperature in the middle-eastern countries (HOTTER THAN LA) is warm enough for them, so they use no Brooder! The babies suddenly become lethargic, lifeless, they start vomiting, etc. from the Crop infection, because if their bodies are not warm enough the formula simply spoils inside of them...

Please, please, your baby is going to get extremely sick if you don't get him in a Brooder set-up and at the correct ambient temperature, along with carefully watching the formula temp...

Thanks for all that info, I never got him from a breeder, my friend died and I took him in.

All his down feathers are in and his regular feathers are also growing in.
I do temp check his food.

I bought a heating pad and regulator and also a thermometer.
I also check humidity daily.

Thanks again for your concern.

I hope that you heed our warning and take this extremely seriously, I and SilverSage both are very experienced baby bird breeders/hand-raisers, and we both saw the photos you posted of your baby, and he is far too young to not be inside a Brooder...While I thank you for taking him in and I'm so sorry your friend died, what an awful situation to be in, and this is in no-way your fault at all as you had no plans to take in a baby bird, you must be extremely accurate with both the ambient temperature and the temperature of the formula...

You have to understand that in the wild, even in these parrot's native countries which are tropical and thus have tropical temperatures, the babies at this age are not only kept warm by their parents laying on them, but they also usually have at least one sibling to huddle with, and all of this combines to keep them extremely warm, far warmer than 80 degrees F. Simply based on the photos you posted of your baby, he needs to be kept at 95 degrees right now, for the next week or two, then decrease the ambient temperature back to around 85 degrees, and keep his ambient temperature there until he is ready to move into his "Weaning-Cage"...

Also, you want to make sure to keep at least the back-half of the "Brooder" covered, as baby parrots this age need to be in darkness, it's extremely important to both their physical and psychological health, as you are trying to replicate their normal "nest" environment...

Also, you want to read-up on "Abundance-Weaning", if you haven't already, I suggest that you do a Google Search for "Abundance Weaning a Congo African Grey Parrot" and study-up on the age at which you need to start putting millet-sprays in his Brooder, the age/number of hand-feedings of formula he should be getting at each week, and at what age it's suggested that you move them from the Brooder to his "Weaning Cage", and how to set-up a proper Weaning-Cage for an African Grey, for example, what types of different sizes and materials of perches you need, what types of food and water dishes/bowls/bottles you should have, what different toys, different mineral blocks, and what different foods you need to put in his Weaning-Cage, and how to properly set it up for him...****You do not at all want to simply not do the research on Abundance-Weaning and then end-up just "Force-Weaning" him without even knowing you're doing it, as this often happens accidentally, and it is extremely detrimental to the outcome of the parrot's personality, disposition, and overall behavior and psychological health...

The last thing you want at any point is any type of Gastrointestinal infection, Slow-Crop, Crop-Stasis, etc. So that's why we were so quick to jump on you about the ambient and the formula temperatures, as both can result in quick and certain death if they are off even by a degree or two, especially the ambient temperature the baby is kept in, as this directly influences the formula to just sit in their crops and spoil, causing both bacterial and fungal infections that kill quickly.

If at any point you notice any lethargy, disorientation, sudden loss of balance, keeping his head down on the ground in front of his body, runny or abnormal droppings, and most of all ANY VOMITING AT ALL, then you must get him to a Certified Avian Vet immediately for a crop flush, cultures including fecal swabs, and the proper Antibiotic, Antifungal, or both, based on the results of the cultures from the crop flush and fecal swabs...

It's also a very good idea to find a Certified Avian Vet now, if you haven't already, and take the baby in for a Wellness-Exam, if not now then soon. Luckily you're in Los Angeles, so you should have access to some extremely competent Certified Avian Vets.

And please come back and ask ANY questions that you have at any time. It's always better to just ask if you think something isn't quite right than to just assume it's nothing or that you're being "paranoid", as there are a million things that can go wrong while hand-feeding and raising a baby parrot, and time is always of the essence...

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is to let the baby fully fledge (learn to fly) before clipping if you choose to clip.

The longer they fly in my opinion the better off they are.

Personally I don't clip mine and don't generally recommend it.