Do I need to forcefeed young parrot?

[jessfonger]

Hi everyone,

I have a new baby Senegal (close to day 3 at her new home now). I've named her Olive. The shop owner says she is a little over 2 months old and needs to be fed formula 2 times a day (but only as a supplement), because she has started to eat small pellets herself as well.

I'm confused over whether or not I need to force feed her or if she can sustain herself off of pellets at this point.


Reason I ask is because at the shop, Olive was very timid and anyone could take her out of her cage and hold her without her growling. The shop owner demonstrated how to handfeed with a syringe on Olive's cage-mate by really holding the bird down and gently forcing its beak open before inserting a short syringe. At the time, I thought ok, looks easy, these birds are very timid, and she's apparently eating enough adult food and the formula is a supplement so I don't have to worry about handfeeding for too long.

1) After seeing videos of how baby parrots readily beg for food and not needing to be forcefed, I'm not sure I trust the shopowner's method of holding down forcefeeding them anymore.
2) Now that Olive has settled down for 1.5 days, she is still quite frightened when I go up to the cage, let alone try to grab her with my hands. I don't want to traumatize her forever or give her a heart attack by grabbing her out of the cage to forcefeed her formula if she doesn't even need it.

Would really appreciate any advice on whether at this age and being this scared of me, I should force feed.

Other info:
Monitoring her poop
Day 1 at home was a lot, watery and brownish yellow -> formula
Day 2 morning one medium watery brownish, then subsequent poops were dark green, way smaller, and without the urine. -> I don't know if this is because she's dehydrated??

Foods in her bowl
- I've seen her nibble on the pellets throughout the day -> but how do I know she's eating enough and getting the nutrients she needs as a young bird?
- Put a piece of papaya (she ignores), cooked sweet potato (the piece looked smaller by day-end, and i saw chunks of it wiped off on the perch), walnut bits (I think she tossed all of it out to the bottom of the cage)
- Zupreme budgies for budgies was given to me by the shop; i plan on switching her over to another pellet once she's less stressed and more settled in

Other behaviours
- She chirps a lot and is quite restless inside the cage at times/ stretches and naps throughout the day as well
- She was willing to come out of her cage by herself and explored the area
- She growls at me if i put my hand in the cage

Thank you so much in advance everyone.

 

[LaManuka]

I'm so sorry but it would appear you have a baby bird that is really too young to have been sold. Weaning onto solid adult food is a precarious time in a young bird's life and in several countries it is illegal to sell them - should be illegal everywhere in my opinion!!

Baby birds should NOT be sold to anyone, regardless of their level of birdkeeping experience, because there are so many things that can and do go wrong. I am not saying this to freak you out, but there are so many dangers involved with this practice and you need professional support at this time. I would even consider taking the bird back to the shop where they can continue hand-feeding until the bird has been properly "abundance" weaned and has been eating solid food unaided for a good 2 weeks or more. If you are unable to do that then I would STRONGLY urge you to seek the help of a certified avian vet and do it NOW. I offer you the following links in the meantime...

http://www.parrotforums.com/breeding-raising-parrots/74363-so-you-bought-unweaned-baby.html

If you need help finding a vet ...

https://www.aav.org/


Our bereavement pages are sadly full of stories of people who took on unweaned chicks only for it to end it heartbreak and I do not want this to happen to you.

 

[Laurasea]

This is tricky. One never get a baby until fully weaned by ubundance. Exactly as Laman said. Weaning time varies by baby. Sometimes a newly weaned baby will revert during stress to need feeding again .

Your baby is right at the age, weaned /unweaned?

Crying and agitated makes think need food. Yu can try offering the food at the right temp in a little bowl. You can try holding the syringe and see if cones for food, you can try offering with a spoon. You can. Try one time holding and doing as shown and see if responds.

Babies can play with food , but not eat enough, also play in the water dish and realy encourage to investigate the water.

Babies can get in trouble real fast, and die.
You could see about returning the baby to store untill fully weaned....you can take the baby to the he store and have them feed, and show you , and ask and tell what you are seeing at home.

You can add some formula made up and mix the pellets in until soft and see if will eat more. Remember formula spoils quickly!
Go to page 13, of this thread, I copied info on babies from EllenD
http://www.parrotforums.com/general...hare-discuss-scientific-articles-parrots.html

I hope others might have more help.
Keep us posted.

 

[Inger]

This might help.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/to...read.php?t=74363&share_type=t&link_source=app


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[jessfonger]

As an update, it's been a month now and Susan's grown a lot and is doing well!

Thank you all for getting back to me with these tips and referrals to other posts. I do agree people shouldn't get an unweaned bird without any prior experience in ever raising parrots. I see a lot of posts about why it's bad, what bad things are going to happen to the bird, and why it's just wrong wrong wrong. However, that was the reality I was in, and I needed practical advice on how to move forward and deal with the situation.

After I posted the initial question and read up more, I decided to never to forcefeed her again. I observed that she was eating her pellets on her own, drinking on her own, and would take apple and spinach from my hand so decided to keep at that and try to monitor her behaviour (whether she would show signs of being nutrient-deficient etc).

I'm just happy and feel very lucky that she is alive and well today.

 

[Inger]

As an update, it's been a month now and Susan's grown a lot and is doing well!

Thank you all for getting back to me with these tips and referrals to other posts. I do agree people shouldn't get an unweaned bird without any prior experience in ever raising parrots. I see a lot of posts about why it's bad, what bad things are going to happen to the bird, and why it's just wrong wrong wrong. However, that was the reality I was in, and I needed practical advice on how to move forward and deal with the situation.

After I posted the initial question and read up more, I decided to never to forcefeed her again. I observed that she was eating her pellets on her own, drinking on her own, and would take apple and spinach from my hand so decided to keep at that and try to monitor her behaviour (whether she would show signs of being nutrient-deficient etc).

I'm just happy and feel very lucky that she is alive and well today.

Thank you for the update! I’m so glad she’s doing well. Hope you’ll stick around and share her life with us! We love pictures.


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[jessfonger]

Thanks @Inger!

Let's try to see if these attachments work. As you can see she has a cute side and a feisty side.

 

[Laurasea]

That scream face is priceless, I get to see that face with my parrots from time to time lol! Cute cute baby! Look AT that city veiw!

Just to help prevent foot problems down the line. You need the perches to be wide enough that only the first joint of toe curl around the edge. This provides the most support for the foot. Prevents arthritis. If you make your hand like a wide open capital letter C like three inches between the index finger and thumb. That shape is how the birds foot should look on the perch. It's good to have different sizes some small and some even larger.

It's a shame that most perch makers make way to small if perches on average! I ha e Quakers im buying the perches they are making for Amazon or macaws, those bigger birds need bigger perches than I even see for sale for them .....no wonder baby if the larger parrots have terrible feet issues as adults!

I've seen so many terrible feet in rescue birds that had dowel perches their while lives. So just wanted to give you a heads up.

 

[Inger]

Thanks @Inger!



Let's try to see if these attachments work. As you can see she has a cute side and a feisty side.



View attachment 24281



View attachment 24282



View attachment 24283

They both look like cute sides to me! Haha!


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[jessfonger]

Thanks for the tip @Laurasea

Yes I read about the foot issue so have added in a few other branches, but actually need to upgrade the cage soon so we can fit them in without overcrowding the place.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Good for you, for reaching out and trying so hard to learn and care for your bird.
If you are interested in veterinarian references, here are some.
Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.
Or... sometimes I find a place to start just by Googling "avian veterinarian near ((your location))"