Baby Sun Conure

[michell448]

Help Baby Sun Conure

I think I may need some help. I purchased a baby Sun and I think that the hatch date is wrong. They told me she was hatched Dec 10, 2011. She is still handfeeding 3x a day with no interest in other foods. I have other birds as well and I have several different options for food from pellets and seeds to food you prepare that is moist. She will not eat any of it won't even try. She hand feeds well with a syringe. I also put formula in a small crock. I give her 1/2 of what they told me in the syringe and the other half in a bowl and she is eating it from the bowl. Only formula though. She will drink water on her own. I am a little concerned that I got in over my head with this baby. I really think she is younger than what they say. On a side note I have hand feed a weaning bird before, but they only needed to be hand fed once a day. Any suggestions or help would be great.

Like I said I do have other birds, just none as needy as this one is.

Thank you for any help,
Michell

 

[Scotty T]

That still looks like a small baby. You can tell by the colors. Really young baby suns have a lot of green. By around 6 months my baby had almost no green. I'm not so sure the hatch date is right.

If you are really worried, try a vet that specializes in birds.

 

[michell448]

I am going to call my avian vet today. I usually can't get in until the weekends so I am hoping for some advice in the mean time. I have had her home for 5 days now and have been weighing her at the same time every day. She did lose a 2 grams, but has grained 1 back.

 

[Mozzie]

She looks really young! She is adorable. Glad you are getting her in to the vet. Good luck!!! She looks real healthy so that is good.

 

[osnyder]

Cutest thing I have ever seen, but looks MUCH younger than you were told.

 

[michell448]

Off to the Vet Saturday morning to get a check up and make sure we are caring for her properly and maybe see how old she might be. She is so sweet just loves to cuddle with anyone that will hold her.

 

[Amber]

She's adorable! Just be careful on that table, I can see one of her legs slipped to the side. Extended periods on slippery surfaces or surfaces where they can't grip and stand while young can cause splayed legs.

When did you get her? It's hard to tell how old she is, but I think she is younger then you were told. Around the 8-11 week mark perhaps? Maybe less? I'm not sure.

Either way make sure she has water and adult foods in her cage at all time. Pellets (Or seed/dry mix) and her fruit so she starts to play with it and learn to eat it. She can't wean if she doesn't have the opportunities to after all She may ignore it at first, then play with it, and finally start eating it.

Alex, my Jenday took MONTHS to fully wean, but this was abnormal. He was capable of eating absolutely fine, it was just an emotional thing (Separated from his breeder/feeder earlier then planed due to sickness, got very wound up over it) and it comforted him, so he would still want a feed or two a day.

 

[michell448]

I got her from a local lawn and garden / pet store. This is not where I have gotten my other birds. So lesson learned there.
I just set her on the table for a second to take a picture. If she is on the table eating then she has a towel under her. I do keep seeds and soaked pellets in her cage and I have a bowl of food for her when we eat dinner and try to get her to taste. I also give her a bowl of supper at supper time with the other birds. She seemed a little chilly so I put a heat lamp above her cage just in case.
We are just trying to encourage her to try other foods and the hand feedings. I just hope I a knowledgeable enough to keep her healthy.
At least with have a couple of other picky birds I have lots of different types of food in the house for her to try.. I just don't see how she can be 4 1/2 months old with how clumsy she is and her lack of interest in other foods. We will get there though. Slow and easy wins the race right?

 

[jewels04]

She looks really young. My baby sun, who is my avatar pic, was hatched around January 16th 2012. Was completely weaned when we brought her home in March.

 

[QuackQuack]

I think she is younger than reported. Could she also be a jenday accounting for some of the green? or a 'Sunday'?

 

[Amber]

I think she is younger than reported. Could she also be a jenday accounting for some of the green? or a 'Sunday'?

I've seen baby suns with completely green wings like that before who moult through to the normal yellow over their first year. I've also seen Jendays (Alex's sister was one like this) with a bit of (not much) yellow on the wings as babies who moult through to solid green. That said though, it seems very difficult to tell young jendays, suns and sundays (and sometimes gold caps) apart so it's quite possible.

All of these are suns (not mine, a breeders) and the guy on the far left had solid green wings, but matured to the regular sun yellow in the year. he also had a very green head and face while young The middle fellow was near all green too. These guys seem to be older then OPS though

If he is a jenday though, I do love my jendays. I find my boy's call is more bearable then that of a suns (though still very loud!) and hes just a great bird all round!

 

[michell448]

I guess what really makes me think she is younger than than what they said is that she is super clumsy. She seems more chilly than my other birds and I do have a baby Ring Neck(I know different type of bird) who is supposedly 16 days younger than her. Also I have a coworker who just brought home their baby Sun who was hatched on January 29th and he is twice the size of mine(picture posted). I will make a bird page on my website tonight and show you some pictures.
Now the biggest thing (and actually makes me sick to my stomach) is my sister was telling me last night that a little over a month ago she had her bird at the vet and the place I had bought my bird from brought in a baby conure who had done some major damage to its mouth area and the vet had to do surgery to see if he could save it. I am wondering if that was not my bird and then they switched it. I didn't see my bird every week and I thought she hadn't grown much, but then I thought it was in my head. My husband is going to call them today and see what he can find out. I have learned many lessons from this experience and I just hope if she is much younger than what I was told I can keep her healthy.
She will not touch any food that is not formula. I can get her to eat her formula out of a crock with no syringe so I hope we are on the right track with her. Thank you guys for all your in put. I will keep you posted on our progress and let you know what the vet thinks.

 

[michell448]

I was also going to ask does anyone have an idea of about how much she should weigh? I have been weighing her every day and it seems to fluctuate by a couple of grams each day up and down(I do weigh her at the same time each day before morning feed.). Will that hurt her? This morning she was 68 grams. Thanks again.

 

[Amber]

Michell, I'm sorry you are having problems still ): Hopefully someone with better baby bird knowledge will be along soon to give you a better idea of what is going on!

I would be booking this little one in for a vet checkup (with an avian vet) asap. She should be gaining weight, not fluctuating up and down (though a little fluctuation is normal because food in the crop weighs a bit and sometimes more or less may be in there when you weigh them, not gaining weight is not normal) and in addition the vet will be able to give you an accurate age estimate and maybe even tell you if she was the one with the mouth problem (something like that might leave identifiable marks the vet will recoginise).

See if you can chase that mouth story up too, that sounds a little worrying. ):

Lots of good thoughts your (and your little baby suns!) way from me and Alex! Heres hoping everything is ok!

 

[michell448]

She is going to the Vet on Saturday. I already had an appointment for my Grey so I just added her to the appointment This is a different vet than the one who the conure that was injured.

 

[michell448]

Well tonight when I gave Baby her bowl of formula she had it almost finished and I put some crazy corn mix in there that I give the other birds and she started nibbling on it. YAY! Keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue.

 

[michell448]

Well I took the baby to the vet and she is a very, very sick baby. She said that we should return her to the store we purchased her from. Her feet will never be functional. She has gout. most likely from kidney problems. She will most likely need to be hand fed the rest of her life and she did not have high hopes of her living a very long life. She will also need constant medical care and medications. So we returned her and received a full refund, but we wanted to know what they were going to do with her as I don't have the time to care for her the way she needs. So while we were at the store they called a parrot rescue who specializes in handicapped and sick birds and she said that she would take her in. She is home all day with the birds( I am not I work during the day and have 5 kids). So
I am glad she is going somewhere where she will have the care she needs, but we are also heartbroken because we spent the last week and half bonding with her and nursing her. She was to sweet, but I just couldn't care for her the way she needed.

the family and I decided no baby birds from us. We will just look at rescues. So next weekend we are off to the Iowa Parrot Rescue...... Just to look and see if someone chooses us.

 

[HalfInsane]

Poor baby. So sorry you had to to through all that... at least it sounds like she'll get the care she needs now. I think it might be worth the effort to see what is going on with that store, and where they are getting their birds from...

Given her medical condition though, it is possible she was the age they claimed. No healthy 4.5 month old sun would be in that shape.

 

[michell448]

I am just glad that we took her home and to our vet to find out what was really going on with her. The store I bought her in is a store I spend a lot of time in. I have always thought that they took good care of their baby's. I always spend time with the babies there. They told us that they had taken her to their vet 2 days prior to us taking her home and she was there for a 1/2 a day. Their vet told them that she just didn't want to ween. Our vet took pictures of her feet and wrote a letter to the store that we purchased her from telling them everything that she saw. So I don't know if it was just a fluke and they don't have a very good vet or what. They seem genuine in their apologies. I just know that we don't really want a baby again after that. there are lots of birds who need homes that aren't babies. I will be calling their vet and see if I can get information from them. I also know that the parrot society in our area who rescues birds work closely with this store as well. I will be doing more looking into this on Monday.