Moody Baby Conure?

[beetory]

Quick question,

The middle baby out of my clutch of conures seems to be.. kind of aggressive. I don't want to use that word, though, maybe grumpy will suffice. But the baby gets really mad when the parents don't feed it (which they are doing less and and less every day maybe just once at night now) and she chases them down, bites them, fights and flaps her wings at them. The parents kind of back off when she gets in those moods but sometimes they do snap their beak at her in warning (never actually nip her) but she's kind of relentless and keeps chasing them.

Is that normal? I really don't want them to actually start fighting her and hurt her eventually. Or for her to hurt the parents.

 

[ChristaNL]

Is that the same baby that had you worried because it did not seem to get enough to eat in the nest?

 

[beetory]

Is that the same baby that had you worried because it did not seem to get enough to eat in the nest?

Yeah, it is the same baby actually. I really thought for about two weeks that it was going to die but then it kind of perked up and became crazy. It bites very hard too, feels like it's without motive too.

 

[itzjbean]

Are you weighing her daily, is she gaining weight? Sometimes they get like this if they are extremely hungry, the parents aren't feeding them but they aren't eating on their own, either. Some just don't want to wean, while others are more inclined to try new foods on their own.

If this baby were to be in your care and continued to want formula, what you would do in this type of situation is continue to feed her until she begins to refuse it. This is called abundance weaning, and letting the baby choose when they are ready to be done. Sounds like mom and dad are ready to be done, but this baby isn't quite yet.

Do you feel comfortable hand-feeding? She may stop begging her parents if you supplement her with a feeding in the middle of the day, would give the parents a much needed break.

 

[ChristaNL]

Do you still have eggfood or something easy-peasy-snackfood (soaked pellets maybe) available in the cage?

If the baby bites at anything I would just stuff its face a bit (a lump of soggy food between the tips of your fingers, no syringing necessary) and see if the biting is really want-food-despair. (It should get less intense the fuller he gets.)
Plunk him/her next to the foodcup while you do this, maybe he/she will get the hint.

That one really knows how to keep you on your toes
(You are still being a wonderfull first-time god-parent btw! Really great job done well.)

 

[EllenD]

I agree with Itzjbean, as I've had babies do this same thing before, act this way towards the parent, etc., and I ended-up finishing hand-feeding them for quite a while even though I was trying to let the parents do it for whatever reason...It's usually because they don't want to wean, but the parents are just done.

How old are your babies now?