Hello everyone

[Sandy19]

Hello

I may have made a mistake. I bought a 5 week old Senegal parrot last Saturday from a pet shop. I have no prior experience feeding baby birds. They spent about 5 minutes showing me how to do it so I thought it's not a big deal and I've got this. I've raised several other pets and 3 human babies so how hard could it be.

Upon further research I've read that there can be several complications that they didn't tell me about and I really have no business feeding an unweaned bird. So I've been really careful to do everything exact, but it's scary that I might do something wrong.

I make sure the water is 105 degrees and take a gulp of it myself just to be sure it's not too hot or cold. I mix the formula until it's the consistency of gravy, not too thin or thick. I feed it from my right to its left with its head bobbing in a natural motion and I keep the heat lamp to maintain 85 degrees. I feed it three times a day making sure the crop is nearly empty in between.

Now from here I don't know anything more, like I said they spent five minutes with me explaining the instructions.

The bird is content and I want to keep it that way, but now I've read a bunch of horror stories so I'm thinking I should take it back to the pet store and pay them to wean it for me.

I appreciate any advice.

 

[Sandy19]

I posted an introduction earlier about a baby Senegal I have and don't see the post. So now I'm just testing if this shows up.

 

[Flboy]

Hi you!.......

 

[Sandy19]

I don't know what happened to my first post.

Anyway my 5 year old daughter has been asking for a parrot. Obviously I know that you don't buy a 5 year old kid a parrot or any pet for that matter with the thought that they'll be responsible for it.

I'm 42 and fully aware that the bird could outlive me if I'm not lucky, but I do have the time to dedicate to it as I work from home. The Senegal parrot sounded like a good choice for someone not experienced with parrots.

What I didn't know is that the pet shop would so easily send me home with a 5 week old unweaned baby. They gave me about 5 minutes of instruction. So I thought ok how hard could it be. I've managed not to kill 3 human babies. It couldn't be much harder then them, right?

Well upon further research I really have no business feeding a baby bird. All kinds of complications could occur which the pet store didn't tell me about.

So I think I'm doing everything exact. I test the temperature and consistency of the formula to make sure it's perfect, I feed the bird from my right to its left with its head in a natural bobbing motion so it doesn't aspirate and I keep the heat lamp at 85 degrees.

It's been a week and so far the bird is content and I'd like to keep it that way, but I've read lots of horror stories about buying an unweaned bird.

Plus the pet store didn't tell me when or how I'm supposed to start weaning it or anything. Not to put all the blame on the pet store, I know it's my fault too for not questioning them more. It just all kind of went fast. I went in there just to look at birds and I walked out with a baby Senegal.

Anyway, that's my story. Any advise or criticism welcome.

 

[SilverSage]

First, how are you keeping the baby warm at night? It's important that he get enough time in the dark.

Second, start offering pellets and fresh food in dishes. Don't cut back the formula, just let the bird naturally decide to refuse on his own.

Third, do not clip him until he is fully weaned at least, longer if possible. I like to see them unclipped for the first 6 months.


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[Sandy19]

They gave me a plastic box with a vented lid and I keep a heat lamp over it. The lights go out at night, but I keep the heat lamp on constantly. About 6 inches from the top of it.They said to maintain the temp at about 85.

I got her or him (don't know the sex) Saturday and since then it looks like it has gained some weight and I'm starting to see green feathers on its wings.

 

[SilverSage]

Wait; he isn't feathered yet? Then he needs to be kept at about 98 degrees and could be developing major infections due to being kept too cold.

You are doing the right thing by getting help; unfortunately I'm in a rush right now, I'll try to write more later.


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[Sandy19]

This is what it looks like at this point. No feathers, just down.

 

[Sandy19]

Oh and the light you see in that picture I've switched to an infrared one because I've read that is better.

 

[Sandy19]

I also make sure her crop is empty or nearly empty before I feed her. I feed her formula 3 times a day. The pet store didn't really explain to me the importance of the crop. I'm just reading all of this now. I didn't even know it was called a crop.

 

[Sandy19]

So far it's a little spark plug, but it's still a baby and I don't want to make any mistakes and hurt it.

 

[SilverSage]

OK, I'm going to be really direct with you because I can tell that you really want to do the right thing for your bird. In being direct, I might sound rude. I am not trying to be rude, it's just that you have a disaster on your hands right now and I'm not going to waste time on niceties instead of doing my best to help you fix what's going wrong and protect the bird that I know you already love.

You need to get a brooder. You need to be able to keep her at 98°F, without any light shining on her. You can look at pet stores and ask veterinarian offices they might be willing to lend you our rent you one. Where's case scenario google "home made brooder." You absolutely must do this. This is not negotiable, the absolutely terrible things that can happen to that baby based on not being kept warm enough are staggering. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, she might survive the way you're doing it now, but even then you will be setting her up for a lifetime of health problems if you do not take this seriously. She must be kept warm enough consistently, and no heat lamp is going to cut it.


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[SilverSage]

Also, please forgive silly typos, I am using the voice to text option because I don't have as much time as I would like to right now and this is a lot faster.

Three times a day is not nearly enough. If her crop is in emptying faster than that it's probably because of a combination of things. Most likely it's because number one you don't have her warm enough. That will dramatically slow her digestion and can literally poison her from the inside as the food spoils before passing through her system because it's going to slowly due to temperature. Secondly, it's likely that her breeder stretched her crop intentionally in order to force more food into her in fewer feedings. How much does she weigh right now? If you don't have a gram scale go get one immediately. You can get one at Walmart they probably cost less than $20 you need to make sure it can be read in grams. Weigh her in the morning. She should be getting approximately 10% of her bodyweight per feeding as often as that amount empties. At her age I'm guessing that's going to be about every 3 to 4 hours. However long she's going during the day she can go twice that overnight. That means if she's emptying her crop every three hours during the day, she can go six hours during the night. That is one six hour . Every 24 hours, not two hour periods every 24 hours.

Don't feed it to crop is "almost empty" only feed when the crop is completely empty. If the crop is not empty and quickly enough there is a problem such as the baby not being kept warm enough or the food formula not being fed warm enough or a blockage or an infection of some sort.


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[SilverSage]

I'm sorry that you got into the situation. The breeder you got this bird from clearly does not care at all about their birds. I'm glad his babies with you now and that you care about her. We hear will do our best to help you out with everything that we can. Selling unweaned babies is a disgusting cruel greedy and unethical practice that I hope will be outlawed you soon. You and your bird are both victims here, and we are here to support you and do everything we can to save you from the situation you are in and help you do everything you need to do for this to be the start of a lifelong friendship with a healthy happy bird. Temperature is critical, I cannot emphasize this enough. I am a breeder myself, and in the learning process I have seen what happens when you don't keep baby birds warm enough. Like I said, she might survive it maybe but the long-term damage can be extremely severe in terms of digestive issues and overall immune system.


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[SilverSage]

I also need to really stress one more thing that you probably haven't thought about yet; wing clipping. I am not against clipping the wings of a parrot, it is a hotly debated topic and a deeply personal choice. However the consequences of clipping a baby bird before they have a chance to become an expert flyer are lifelong and extremely damaging. I want you to imagine a child who, when he should've been learning to crawl walk and run, instead had his ankles encased in concrete so or somesuch thing so that he could not learn to interact with his environment the way that he should have. That's one way to look at it, but keep in mind that flying is much more complex than walking running or crawling, and that it is deeply connected to how a bird views his own personal safety. Clipping wings takes away the "flight" option out of the "flight or fight" question. Essentially clipping a baby bird too early does many things including hardwiring the "bite first ask questions later" reflex into their brains. It can impact their ability to except new people, their ability to try new foods, their ability to adapt to new situations, their overall fear levels, etc. early clipping can lead to such extreme things as self-mutilation we are parrots actually two holes in their own flesh. I cannot state strongly enough how important it is that you prepare yourself to deal with a bird that is learning to fly (including while it is being hand fed, and yes that is a royal pain in the bot), in your home. This bird will run into walls they will get into trouble it will be just as terrifying as watching a small child learn to walk. It's worth it, please, please, please, please! Do not clip your birds wings before he has a chance to become an expert flier. I personally suggest six months, but the very very minimum is when they wean.




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[SilverSage]

Speaking of winning, there are two kinds of weeding out there; force weaning and abundance weaning.

Force Weening is when you gradually reduce the amount of formula you're feeding so that the bird must fill up the extra space with solid foods. This doesn't seem damaging unless you understand what psychologically is going on with your baby bird while it is fledging abd weaning.

Your baby bird absolutely needs the emotional comfort and stability of maintaining formula feeding's while it learns to explore his environment and eat new foods. It might seem silly but this is the truth; hungry babies don't try new foods. I have seen this doesn't upon dozens of times. Baby birds will be sitting next to their bowl of pellets and crying out for food, they won't eat the pellets when they are hungry. Yet as soon as their bellies are full formula they go right to munching on those pellets. Why? It's a comfort thing. They really need the emotional safety net of formula feeding's for as long as they can possibly have it. That is why it's so important to abundance wean. For screening, similarly to early clipping, and have major major consequences on the mental and emotional health of your parrot.

So what is abundance weaning? It's simple. All you do is start offering foods to the baby in their cage or brooder, and continuing formula feedings as often as they will take them. Eventually your bird will start refusing entire feedings altogether, i'm cutting down on how much they allow you to feed them on their own. It really does work, and it's the only way to do it if you want any motional he stable mentally healthy baby bird. The consequences of shortcuts with this our lifelong, and that's one of the reasons why it upsets me so much when pet stores sell unweaned babies.there is so much involved in raising a healthy happy baby that you can't simply put down to making sure it survives. It's complicated, it's arguably almost as complex as raising a human child only happens about 10 times as fast for a baby. So you have to make all the right decisions really close together and there's a lot less room for error.


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[SilverSage]

Before I forget there was one other thing that I wanted to check on; when you say you were doing the formula exactly the right temperature, you don't mean you're checking in on your wrist, right? You mean that you have a thermometer and are being sure to feed the formula between 102°F and 108°F? Right?


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[Sandy19]

Thank you for all the information. I'm going to buy a scale today and look for a brooder. And yes when I said that I check the temperature of the water I meant that I'm using a thermometer.

The pet store made it seem like no big deal, but now everything I'm reading is saying only highly experienced people should be handling unweaned birds. I was considering taking it back to the pet store and having them take care of it for me until it's feathered. I don't know.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Thank you for all the information. I'm going to buy a scale today and look for a brooder. And yes when I said that I check the temperature of the water I meant that I'm using a thermometer.

The pet store made it seem like no big deal, but now everything I'm reading is saying only highly experienced people should be handling unweaned birds. I was considering taking it back to the pet store and having them take care of it for me until it's feathered. I don't know.

Hello Sandy19! I was about to send you links to some of SilverSage's excellent posts, but I see she has already found you. You are getting the best advice you could possibly get. It may be that you will be able to do a better job than the breeder, because Sage will give you perfect instructions and it doesn't sound as if the breeder knows much about raising babies - or maybe doesn't care. Sending you home with a new bird and such cavalier instructions is wrong. You can take everything SilverSage says to the bank - trust what she says. There are others here, too, who will be glad to offer support, so please do keep us posted on how it's going. I know there's a time difference, but someone is almost always on line somewhere. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and that little bundle of fluff!

 

[SailBoat]

Re: Hello

First, Welcome to the Parrot Forums!

Very sorry that your first experience is turning out to be less then favorable.

The Practice of Selling Unweaned Baby Parrots is Inhuman! It speaks to their targeting Profits over a Healthy Parrot. Baby Parrot should not be sold until they are 'fully Weaned and on solid Food - all the time.' Now, if you played a part in this dangerous game of 'Getting a Parrot Cheaper,' that's on you!

At the very least, I would recommend that you get your 'Tiger On' and go visit them. I would practice your very best verbal version of removing their gut without laying a hand on them or rising your voice.

In the meantime, I would visit the Breeder Forum and look for any Thread that targets feeding baby Parrots.