Giving meds to Echo, any ideas?

[Pilaf]

My 3 month old green cheek Echo, who's been with me for a month now, needs medications. He has a slight infection in his crop. I have syringes but I prefer to give it in food, instead of restraining him and putting a syringe in his mouth. I'm afraid to ruin the trust we have build. I did play a bit with a syringe and put banana in it, and he liked it, but as soon as he tastes the meds he won't take it by himself. So until now I have been giving it in a piece of banana (he goes totally crazy over banana). I do have to mix it up with quite a lot of banana though, because he has two meds and especially one tastes very bitter. Now he has to have that twice a day, and to give him that much banana twice a day, I'm not sure if that's good. So I'm wondering if you have any ideas what else I could put the banana in? Do you have any good ideas?

 

[wrench13]

If he will take the meds in bananas, then just use the banana for that purpose, until he is done with the medications, then you can go back to giving him banana in his regular fruit rotation. I let Salty have baby formula every once in awhile, so he retains the baby feeding reflex and I can get small amounts of meds ( if he needs them ) into him like that. giving any meds to a parrot is always problematic, unless you syringe it into his throat, but be aware that improperly doing that can asphyxiate Echo. Syringes should be fed from the left side of his beak, or if he will eat baby formula from the end of a very small spoon, meds can be mixed into that too, also fed from the left side.
IF he will gobble up 'nanas and you can mix the meds into a smushed up 'nana, your ahead of the game.

 

[Pilaf]

If he will take the meds in bananas, then just use the banana for that purpose, until he is done with the medications, then you can go back to giving him banana in his regular fruit rotation. I let Salty have baby formula every once in awhile, so he retains the baby feeding reflex and I can get small amounts of meds ( if he needs them ) into him like that. giving any meds to a parrot is always problematic, unless you syringe it into his throat, but be aware that improperly doing that can asphyxiate Echo. Syringes should be fed from the left side of his beak, or if he will eat baby formula from the end of a very small spoon, meds can be mixed into that too, also fed from the left side.
IF he will gobble up 'nanas and you can mix the meds into a smushed up 'nana, your ahead of the game.

Thank you. I have given meds by syringe often to my lovebird Pilaf who passed away this year when he was 18 years old, so I know how to do that, but I just don't want to do that with Echo since he's only been with me for a month until now. I have tried baby food, but he finds that too wet. He starts shaking his head and then I can't be sure if he had all the meds. I'll keep going with the banana for now. It goes well, although he does get a bit suspicious and I have to use certain tricks. I do want to have a few other ideas in case he doesn't want the banana anymore, since he has to have the meds for 2 weeks. Is whole wheat bread safe for birds?

 

[plumsmum2005]

Wouldnt want to give bread on that frequency I dont think.

Have you tried a little egg, yoghurt, oatmeal/porridge, fruit juice? Why not have a go with the syringe if you know what you are doing and can make friends after? It would ensure he has the full amount of medication which is essential to clear your little guys infection. You may find it easier with Echo because of his age, he will not have forgotten being hand fed yet? If you can get him to accept this method then it will make life easier and more effective if he needs any in the future.

 

[WakaWaka]

My 3 month old green cheek Echo, who's been with me for a month now, needs medications. He has a slight infection in his crop. I have syringes but I prefer to give it in food, instead of restraining him and putting a syringe in his mouth. I'm afraid to ruin the trust we have build. I did play a bit with a syringe and put banana in it, and he liked it, but as soon as he tastes the meds he won't take it by himself. So until now I have been giving it in a piece of banana (he goes totally crazy over banana). I do have to mix it up with quite a lot of banana though, because he has two meds and especially one tastes very bitter. Now he has to have that twice a day, and to give him that much banana twice a day, I'm not sure if that's good. So I'm wondering if you have any ideas what else I could put the banana in? Do you have any good ideas?

I remember seeing a video from The ParrotWizard. He had to give Santina (a large Macaw) medicine. He started giving himself orange juice in the syringe in front of the bird, making yummy noises, saying how good it was, to get Santina to the point that she was jealous enough to try it herself.

Granted, that took a while with training and in the interim i think he may have mixed the meds with something else but it did help later since she was trained to "drink" something from a syringe.
Just trying to think ahead in the event he will need meds again.
We plan on training our B&G when we get her so she will feel comfortable ahead of time.
Just something to consider for the future.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

 

[Pilaf]

My 3 month old green cheek Echo, who's been with me for a month now, needs medications. He has a slight infection in his crop. I have syringes but I prefer to give it in food, instead of restraining him and putting a syringe in his mouth. I'm afraid to ruin the trust we have build. I did play a bit with a syringe and put banana in it, and he liked it, but as soon as he tastes the meds he won't take it by himself. So until now I have been giving it in a piece of banana (he goes totally crazy over banana). I do have to mix it up with quite a lot of banana though, because he has two meds and especially one tastes very bitter. Now he has to have that twice a day, and to give him that much banana twice a day, I'm not sure if that's good. So I'm wondering if you have any ideas what else I could put the banana in? Do you have any good ideas?

I remember seeing a video from The ParrotWizard. He had to give Santina (a large Macaw) medicine. He started giving himself orange juice in the syringe in front of the bird, making yummy noises, saying how good it was, to get Santina to the point that she was jealous enough to try it herself.

Granted, that took a while with training and in the interim i think he may have mixed the meds with something else but it did help later since she was trained to "drink" something from a syringe.
Just trying to think ahead in the event he will need meds again.
We plan on training our B&G when we get her so she will feel comfortable ahead of time.
Just something to consider for the future.

Thanks
Kelly and Karl

Thank you. I have been doing that. I put banana in the syringe and nibbled from it myself and then he nibbled from it as well. But as soon as he tastes the meds he will protest. So for now I just wanted to make it easier for him, and then I can continue the syringe training later again.