First I did google, but cant find the answers to my questions.
I just received a female baby Eclectus (Orchid) about a week ago. I was told she was 2 months old, but upon google image search... Id say she is 6 weeks old at the most. I am/was hand feeding her formula 3 times a day. From day one she is a very good eater and attacking the syringe. The other day she saw some fresh fruit being eaten and was eyeballing it, so the fruit was offered to her. I was amazed she started gobbling down the little bits offered to her. This brings me to my problem/questions... The breeder/shop owner (I live in Thailand and things are a way different than "back home" (So Cal)) said I should hand feed the formula until she is 4 months...
Before fruit discovery, every morning she would wake up when I get up and start squawking to be fed, she didnt care it took time to heat the water then let the gruel cool. She would attack the syringe, eating ~50-75 cc per meal.
After fruit discovery, she is not as interested in her gruel. I had her mush ready for her and she started squawking a little, attack the syringe and eat just a little then pull away. She only ate 25cc this morning. Yesterday she refused to eat at first, but she was trying to get to the fresh fruit. After she ate a little fruit she accepted about 25cc of the baby goo.
So finally some questions. First, did I screw up letting her eat "real" food so young? Or is this a normal age for the bird to want real food? The fruit I give her has a lot of water in it (dont ask me what it is, I hate fruit, love veggies, and whatever the fruit is, we dont have in the US)
When should I offer her a dish of water? Any issues if I put a saucer (shes still not so coordinated walking) of water out for her?
I was thinking of offering her some veggies. But not sure if I should boil/steam them first to make them softer and easier to eat? I read they like corn, and again I wonder if the skin on raw corn would be too tough for her to digest.
She seems much happier to be on a perch or my hand than sitting like a big fat feathery blob. She is having difficulties with her foot/eye coordination, so sometimes I have to help get the second foot up. This again seems kinda early.
She seems to be growing quickly. I just got a real cage for her yesterday, she was happy sleeping in a plastic picnic basket. I put her in the cage last night and she just played "statue" for about 30 minutes so I took her back out. Thinking swiftly I know she recognizes "her towel" and wants to be on it because that means its her place and she is safe. I put her towel covering the bottom of the cage and put her in the cage again this morning, first thing she did was waddle/crawl up on to the perch. Eyeball her surrounding and discovered her little plastic box with toys. She actually HOPPED off the pearch and RAN to her box and started to attack/play with her little blanky(crap rag)
Oh, this brings another question... I used to have a parrot years ago that HATED hot pink, he would flash his eyes and lunge for whoever was wearing the color (of course that was my moms favorite color shirt to wear...). Orchid seems to be interested in colors, her blanky is bright orange on one side, and dark blue on the other side. The blue side has the orange around the edges, and Orchid always seems to notice the orange boarder and start to play with it. If there are some toys (that I offer or she decides is her toy) she always seems most interested in whatever is a hot color like orange or red.... Is this normal for baby birds? My family used to raise birds, mostly cockatiels, budgies, ring necks... I dont remember colors being an issue with most of our birds...
any how, sorry for the long post, thank you in advance for any ideas/suggestions. Im sure Orchid thanks you as well
I just received a female baby Eclectus (Orchid) about a week ago. I was told she was 2 months old, but upon google image search... Id say she is 6 weeks old at the most. I am/was hand feeding her formula 3 times a day. From day one she is a very good eater and attacking the syringe. The other day she saw some fresh fruit being eaten and was eyeballing it, so the fruit was offered to her. I was amazed she started gobbling down the little bits offered to her. This brings me to my problem/questions... The breeder/shop owner (I live in Thailand and things are a way different than "back home" (So Cal)) said I should hand feed the formula until she is 4 months...
Before fruit discovery, every morning she would wake up when I get up and start squawking to be fed, she didnt care it took time to heat the water then let the gruel cool. She would attack the syringe, eating ~50-75 cc per meal.
After fruit discovery, she is not as interested in her gruel. I had her mush ready for her and she started squawking a little, attack the syringe and eat just a little then pull away. She only ate 25cc this morning. Yesterday she refused to eat at first, but she was trying to get to the fresh fruit. After she ate a little fruit she accepted about 25cc of the baby goo.
So finally some questions. First, did I screw up letting her eat "real" food so young? Or is this a normal age for the bird to want real food? The fruit I give her has a lot of water in it (dont ask me what it is, I hate fruit, love veggies, and whatever the fruit is, we dont have in the US)
When should I offer her a dish of water? Any issues if I put a saucer (shes still not so coordinated walking) of water out for her?
I was thinking of offering her some veggies. But not sure if I should boil/steam them first to make them softer and easier to eat? I read they like corn, and again I wonder if the skin on raw corn would be too tough for her to digest.
She seems much happier to be on a perch or my hand than sitting like a big fat feathery blob. She is having difficulties with her foot/eye coordination, so sometimes I have to help get the second foot up. This again seems kinda early.
She seems to be growing quickly. I just got a real cage for her yesterday, she was happy sleeping in a plastic picnic basket. I put her in the cage last night and she just played "statue" for about 30 minutes so I took her back out. Thinking swiftly I know she recognizes "her towel" and wants to be on it because that means its her place and she is safe. I put her towel covering the bottom of the cage and put her in the cage again this morning, first thing she did was waddle/crawl up on to the perch. Eyeball her surrounding and discovered her little plastic box with toys. She actually HOPPED off the pearch and RAN to her box and started to attack/play with her little blanky(crap rag)
Oh, this brings another question... I used to have a parrot years ago that HATED hot pink, he would flash his eyes and lunge for whoever was wearing the color (of course that was my moms favorite color shirt to wear...). Orchid seems to be interested in colors, her blanky is bright orange on one side, and dark blue on the other side. The blue side has the orange around the edges, and Orchid always seems to notice the orange boarder and start to play with it. If there are some toys (that I offer or she decides is her toy) she always seems most interested in whatever is a hot color like orange or red.... Is this normal for baby birds? My family used to raise birds, mostly cockatiels, budgies, ring necks... I dont remember colors being an issue with most of our birds...
any how, sorry for the long post, thank you in advance for any ideas/suggestions. Im sure Orchid thanks you as well
