Ciry - my new B&G

[Johnny]

Hi, I'll start by saying I have very little experience. I have only had my B&G home or one week so take my comments with a grain of salt. The breathing thing? Sounds normal o me, Nemo makes all kinds of weird sounds that you don't think a bird would make. Some sound just like your video. He also does this really weird but cute high pitched whining sound. The vet said its his baby bird voice. Then there's the sound like a duck quacking. They are really funny. He's also been saying hello and hi so that's awesome. Maybe some other experienced macaw owners can chime in on the dance thing. To me she looked kind of pissed for being in the cage. She looked like she just wanted out. I really don't know but maybe your cage is just a bit too small, she should be able to spread her wings out fully. At least that's what I was told. Anyway, she is beautiful. Have fun with her. Oh and how many feedings are you on now? Just curious as to my own feeding.

Yea I think too that she is pissed But well when is time to sleep, it is time to sleep and she can be as pissed and it wont help her out And about the cage, it is big enough for spreading her wings, I have the standard cage that like 90% ppl i know has, so that is OK

I am feeding her in the morning (~8am) and at night (~8pm), about 50-60cc. She is already taking food from hand and bites now and then into her bowl, but no huge progress. Sometimes she is not even interested in the formula so maybe she is starting to wean SLOWLY, but I dont think so, because like I said she is not eating that much from bowls.

 

[Sherry]

I was worried about my Nemo because he doesn't weight as much as some B&G. The vet let me know he was fine today just needed a bit more weight. Nemo is getting less and less interested in formula too. He really started picking and eating seeds today, so that's good. Good luck with your beautiful B&G, I'm sure I will be reading more about her.

 

[lene1949]

Congrats on your gorgeous bird...

I feed my baby birds 10% of their body weight (maybe a bit more) twice a day... They are weaning now... These are only tiny conures, weighing in at 75 grams... I weigh them every morning, making sure their weights are stable...

Are you feeding the same as the breeder?

Has your girl fledged yet?

Yes, she pacing in the cage... She wants to get out... It does look a bit small to me as well...

She just so cute...

 

[Johnny]

Congrats on your gorgeous bird...

I feed my baby birds 10% of their body weight (maybe a bit more) twice a day... They are weaning now... These are only tiny conures, weighing in at 75 grams... I weigh them every morning, making sure their weights are stable...

Are you feeding the same as the breeder?

Has your girl fledged yet?

Yes, she pacing in the cage... She wants to get out... It does look a bit small to me as well...

She just so cute...

Hello !

Yes, I am feeding the same. Breeder told me that she was starting to eat from bowls slowly, and that he fed her in the morning and sometimes at night (he told me she was the only one that wanted twi times a day) so I feed her like he would. But since she came to our place, she hasnt yet tried anything from the bowls, guess she needs some more time Sometimes she is not interested in the formula anymore, so I will have to do some tricks (my friend advised me to try spoof-fed her with some fruit and stuff in the formula, so I will try that).

She is fully feathered and she is also learning how to fly now, so we have to be very careful

The cage is reaaaally big enough for her, maybe in the video it looks small but trust me, the cage is OK

 

[Johnny]

Took another video of that weird sounds she makes. I hope that it's just some random sound she makes like you guys are saying. But I am worried, hope you understand

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBWv83G9jUk]Weird sound 2 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[plax]

Took another video of that weird sounds she makes. I hope that it's just some random sound she makes like you guys are saying. But I am worried, hope you understand

Hello Johnny. My first thought was that Ciry's 'breathy' actions might have been simply sounds she enjoyed making. My Greenwing, Salsa, makes a similar 'breathy' sound on a periodic basis. But listening to and observing the new video of Ciry makes me think it might be best for you to take her to an avian vet to be appropriately assessed. I say this because Ciry's head movements when she makes the sound cause her actions to appear 'wheeze-like' to me. It could be a slight respiratory condition. Whatever it is, or is not, can only be determined by a vet listening to Ciry's lungs. My best advice is to schedule an appointment.

 

[JerseyWendy]

I agree with Plax. Ciry MAY have a respiratory thingy going on, sounds a bit like she's having some difficulty breathing. You can even see her abdomen and just below the neck area move inwards as you hear her making the sound. I believe a vet visit is a great idea. Better much sooner than later.

 

[Johnny]

That's what I think. I already e-mailed our vet, so we will see how it goes.

Just to be accurate, she does it only after feeding, and only for like 3 mins, so I guess it is now abything huge with her breathing system or stuff, but maybe she just breathe in a bit of formula by accident, because she is not doing that bumpy thingy like most of babys do when they are being fed. But I am definitely taking her to a vet Just to be sure

 

[JerseyWendy]

Johnny, Ciry's crop looks pretty empty to me in the video. And yes, it's possible that she "inhaled" some of her formula, but please keep in mind that food that goes into the air sac can cause serious health concerns.

Is she a difficult baby to feed? How much does she take during each feeding? How is her feeding response? Some Macs have an incredible feeding response, so much so, that it's quite difficult to get the food down the right path.

 

[MikeyTN]

The joy of having a baby macaw!!!! Your questions have been answered pretty much so I'm just here to say Ciry is a cutey!!!!

 

[Johnny]

Johnny, Ciry's crop looks pretty empty to me in the video. And yes, it's possible that she "inhaled" some of her formula, but please keep in mind that food that goes into the air sac can cause serious health concerns.

Is she a difficult baby to feed? How much does she take during each feeding? How is her feeding response? Some Macs have an incredible feeding response, so much so, that it's quite difficult to get the food down the right path.

She is not difficult to feed at all, like I said, her feeding response (if you mean that bumping with head when her crop is opec) is almost none, it goes very calmly when I feed her with syringe. She just opens her beak and I slowly feed her, it is very unusual for her to have a feeding response during that time. I give her about 50cc in the morning, then sometimes at 3pm if she is hungry about 40cc (video was taken after that feeding) and then at night again about 40-50cc. I am doing it very carefully now, I just pour a little bit on her tongue / sometimes behind it and let her do the rest of the job.

I will also try to add a little bit more water into the formula.

Sometimes when I am playing with her, and she grabs my finger with her beak, she starts the bumping thing (feeding response) just like that, so next time I am feeding her I will try to make her do it and maybe it will be better.

 

[Johnny]

The joy of having a baby macaw!!!! Your questions have been answered pretty much so I'm just here to say Ciry is a cutey!!!!

Haha yes, it is Thank you ! She is such a good bird, she doesnt mind when I do things with harness around her, I even managed to put it around her head ! And she was also calm when I first introduced her to water, so tommorow we will do our first showering session sogether !

Only thing that bothers me is that she is not eating from her bowls yet, and she has such a large selection of what to eat! Well she is only 3 mts, so maybe it will take a little bit longer than usuall to wean her.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Johnny, try surrounding her with food right AFTER you have handfed her. Sometimes they are in the mood to eat right after you think they should be full, lol. That's how Niko learned to eat on his own. After handfeeding him he was surrounded with all kinds of different bowls of food. You could also try to eat in front of her, that may make her curious about the food. And make a BIG fuss over how yummy it is. It may sound ridiculous, but it could help.

 

[Sherry]

I know what your going through. It's funny but I watch Nemo or every little thing to make sure he's doing we'll. it wasn't till I got him into the vet and got the good word hat I finally was able to relax. Avignon a baby macaw is such a new experience and no one around me has any experience so I kind of fret about things because I don't want to mess up and hurt the little bugger. The more I read sometimes the more confusing it can get. My B&G is smaller than most. I had no idea he was smaller until I weighed him and found he wasn't e "norm". It wasn't till I talked to people on this forum and found out that size is subjective (I was told the same from my vet). I started feeding every four hours and weight started going way up but Nemo quit doing the feeding "head bob". This freaked me out a bit because I didn't want the food going down the wrong tube. The vet told me it was not so important to worry about his weight and feeding every four hours and old me to do the am and nighttime feedings and fill his owls with veggies and a good seed mix. He would eat when he's hungry. Guess what he eats like crazy now. My issue now is this; I worked hard on getting my african greys OFF of seeds because they are supposably not healthy for them, and only use seeds for training. Now, I'm suppose to feed Nemo as many as he will eat? That's what I'm told. I am supposed to pick out the peanuts and to remove most sunflower seeds and only leave a few. I wonder what the people on this forum feed their macaws?

 

[JerseyWendy]

I wonder what the people on this forum feed their macaws?

Niko was weaned onto a mix of different foods. I mix some Goldenfeast mixes under this blend:
Bountiful Harvest Blend for Parrots PER LB. - MY BIRD SAFE BLENDS by MY SAFE BIRD STORE

I also add more pellets to the mix. I use a combination of Totally Organics, ZuPreem, Kaytee, Roudybush, and/or others. I vary which ones I add under their mix every month.

Additionally Niko eats Birdy Bread, a variety of unshelled nuts, AND I cook this recipe, which I offer WARM in the AM and PM.
http://www.parrotforums.com/recipes/22594-cook-portion-freeze-my-recipe.html

 

[Johnny]

Hurray ! We took our first shower :-D She was kind of OK with it, she wasn't sreaming or flying away or smthing bad, she just stood on my arm and I showered her wet to the bones Hopefuly after a few showers she will start to enjoy it

Haha btw she now started to like her cage and tree more and more I take her on me or with me on sofa and she just flies back on cage/tree Well at least she will learn how to fly quickly. It is our first few days together, so I dont expect her to be so friendly to me that she would want to cuddle and lay on back and stuff, so it is OK, I am giving her time Also we are going to the vet on monday.
And she is such a ...uhhh I dont even know how to name it She just wakes up at 7 am and starts hopping around the cage and starts climbing and doing noisy stuff, so we just cannot sleep And THEN she just sleeps all day long Such a bully

 

[Atlas]

Congrats Johnny! She's beautiful! As far as bonding goes, the hand feeding alone is a great bonding exercise, then time alone will let her get used to you. I also saw you mentioned keeping her on top of her cage - we did this with Atlas for the first couple of weeks and he started to exhibit cage aggression especially towards my wife because his head was actually higher than hers! We went to Home Depot and bought some pvc pipe and made him a cool little play stand. It cost us about $60 and less than two hours of our time!

 

[Johnny]

Congrats Johnny! She's beautiful! As far as bonding goes, the hand feeding alone is a great bonding exercise, then time alone will let her get used to you. I also saw you mentioned keeping her on top of her cage - we did this with Atlas for the first couple of weeks and he started to exhibit cage aggression especially towards my wife because his head was actually higher than hers! We went to Home Depot and bought some pvc pipe and made him a cool little play stand. It cost us about $60 and less than two hours of our time!

Thank you So you are saying it would be better if we banned her from top of the cage? I was also for that idea, but where do you then keep bowls with food/water? The tree we have is not wxactly made for holding bowls, but I guess I will have to do something, or buy something new. But like I said I also dont dint the idea that she is so high up.
Hmmm or maybe if I would just remove the gym on top of the cage?

 

[Atlas]

Well Johnny, keeping Atlas off the cage worked for me! For food and water, you can build something for that out of PVC pipe too!

 

[yagen]

The same was happening with my B&G a few days ago, we just brought him home. Do not let her stay up there for too long periods at a time. Every time you ask her to step up get a stepping stool and be at eye level. also reinforce every time she comes down nicely on your hand. she will eventually get it and ignore bad/aggressive behavior. don't try to many times in a row you are just setting her up for failure since she did not want to come down in the first place!! the pvc pipe perches work great we are building one tomorrow!