Help! I am going nuts with this yellow crown

[cdog]

I would suggest bringing you parrot to a Vet.. I know you say the vet is a cat and dog spe******t, but the vet can tell you where a good bird spe******t is located.. Your parrot could die, if it becomes to thin. I would also give it Oatmeal that you can give to in a syringe.. But the parrot cost $600 to $1200 and is worth seeing a vet.. Expensive pet..

The price of the pet has nothing to do with it, I paid $5 for my hamster and I still took her for regular vet check ups. You should take all your pets to the vet a min of once a year, regardless of what you originally paid for it.

 

[Chaz12]

What the dent is, is the parrot starving of nutrition. See, the area between the stomach and neck is called the craw. The Craw is the area where the parrot stores food and digests it. Alot of birds gather small rocks in their craw to digest food that is big. It is important for a parrot to eat food( alot have to eat food within 24 hrs or they die). My Amazon parrot loves oatmeal and all parrots love it. My grandmother used to raise thousands of parakeets per month and would feed sick birds oatmeal. Sassy my Amazon ate Cherreos as a young parrot. But your bird is unhealthy at this point and really needs to see a vet.. I am begging you to take it to a vet..

 

[cdog]

Actually parrots don't need those small rocks to digest food, and it is called a crop.

 

[Chaz12]

A crop or a craw is the samething. Look it up.. But anyhow, to go to a webpage that talks about handfeeding.. www.kaytee.com should give advice on handfeeding..

 

[kouma]

Thank you for the advice. You are correct, some of the falcons here cost over $15k USD and I know where they are sold. I will be heading there in the next 1hr to ask where the best vet for birds is. I am starting to also believe that when I received him he was younger than 4 months. The yellow only started kicking in 2 months ago. Also thanks for the recipes, I will try combination of "sweet potato mixed with a little bit of cooked soft rice, oatmeal and banana". Do you serve it in a bowl or using a spoon? If using a bowl, how long do you leave it in the cage?

I do not think we have qualified vets for birds in where I reside (country = UAE), they are usually qualified for dogs and cats. I will try this weekend though. Until then, is there anything else I can do? I have only started placing him beside the window recently, is that enough or I still need those UVA/UVB bulbs?

Falconry I believe is a major sport in your country. I bet one of the bird of prey vets would be competent to see an amazon or they can recommend someone who is.

Amazons usually wean themselves fairly easily, which to me means he may very well be sick. Otherwise, if he's weak or crying like a baby, feed him. Get a gram scale and weigh him daily so you know if he's gaining or loosing and exactly how much he's gaining or losing. If he was looking good on 2 syringe feedings a day, continue with that while you wait on an appointment with the vet. You can try cooked and soft veggies. Toward the end of weaning when I'm trying to get my babies to give up the syringe for good, I do a lot of cooked until soft sweet potato mixed with a little bit of cooked soft rice, oatmeal and banana. Served warm at a safe hand-feeding temperature. You might have to get him started by offering a clump from your hands, but most birds will take it.
The eyes fading to orange is normal. Most amazons with a lot of yellow on their head have orange eyes. I have to kind of wonder if he was younger than 4 months when you got him because I breed a very similar species to yours and most of mine are clearly starting to get orange eyes by the time they are 4 months old. If yours had solid black eyes when you got him, I bet he was under 4 months. In which case 2 hand-feedings a day might not have been enough to support growth and a feeling of security and it has delayed his whole weaning process. That said, often times a bird that just will not wean on its own has a bacterial infection that needs to be treated. Almost any vet should be able to do a grams stain of his mouth and feces. Better yet would be a culture and sensitivity to diagnose what bacteria are growing in there. Definitely check into the falconry vets. If you can't find one, talk to a dog or cat vet or look up falconry in your country and see if there are any clubs close to you. A lot of arab countries take their falconry birds VERY seriously.

 

[kouma]

He sounds like Forrest when he was young. I thought he was going to die he was so weak.....he was literaly starving to death. Would not eat the pellets. I started giving him seeds, if I hadn't he would have died. You can gradually get him on to pellets and fresh veggies. He will starve if you don't, mine was so thin and weak he just sat on my shoulder under my hair.
Just get him to eat and worry about pellets later.

I have fruits, pellets, nuts, and water at all times. What do you mean by seeds?

 

[kouma]

Thanks again Melissa,

I will try and cut the fruits into smaller pieces. Regarding the sound he makes, he really just does two types of tones. One when I leave (either the room or the house) which is very annoying. And one when he sees me which is a contact beeping of ta ta ta..taa ta ta..ta ta ta and he rolls his head back at the end of each sequence of ta ta ta

Here are pictures I took this morning, notice the dent between his chest and stomach. I have tried feeding him formula food this morning using syringe and spoon and both methods failed. I am very frustrated, I will try to get the UV bulbs today hopefully this will help.

The dent is normal and means he has an empty crop. It looks like I can see some veggies in the back of the cage. You might want to chop those a lot smaller. Think about .5cm sized pieces or smaller. In fact, I mash a lot of food with a fork for mine. If you have grapes or whole berries in there, cut them in half or quarters. A lot of young birds don't know how to manipulate food with their beak or punch through large pieces to eat it. Offer warm food in small pieces. Something about the size of a kernel of corn or smaller would be a good size. If he refuses hand-feeding, make sure its about 104-108 degrees Farenheit. You'll have to convert that to celcius for me. A lot of weaning babies get very picky about temperature. And one of the steps to weaning is refusing to take formula and they do lose some weight. You really need a gram scale to determine how much is too much. Some individuals will loose an alarming amount of weight. Sometimes if the owner doens't quite know what they are doing, they will lose even more. Is he crying? Doing the slow up and down baby begging motion with some low pitched crying? If so, then he's hungry for something. If not, then depending on what his weight is, I'd be tempted to think he's trying to be done weaning. Without actual numbers from a gram scale and knowing how heavy he was when you first got him, its hard to advise you on how much is too much to lose unless you report a number that is WAY low.

 

[kouma]

Thanks Chaz, It is comforting to know that the dent is related to starvation than anything else. I am just about to hear right now. I will let everyone know what the vet says and what medications he will give me.

What the dent is, is the parrot starving of nutrition. See, the area between the stomach and neck is called the craw. The Craw is the area where the parrot stores food and digests it. Alot of birds gather small rocks in their craw to digest food that is big. It is important for a parrot to eat food( alot have to eat food within 24 hrs or they die). My Amazon parrot loves oatmeal and all parrots love it. My grandmother used to raise thousands of parakeets per month and would feed sick birds oatmeal. Sassy my Amazon ate Cherreos as a young parrot. But your bird is unhealthy at this point and really needs to see a vet.. I am begging you to take it to a vet..

 

[kouma]

Here is an update:

1- Pistacho (my parrot's name) is still is not eating his fruits, pellets, or nuts in the cage.

2- He is rejecting formula using syringes or spoon

3- He is still very thin and weak and light

4- I was able to feed him for three days now using a technique that my mom taught me. I am soaking NutBlend Flavor ZuPreem pellets in water until they are very soft and squishable, then using my left hand and two fingers I simulate a beak and mouth-to-mouth feeding, then when he starts opening his mount and doing the gobbling action, I use my right hand to stuff half a soft pellet down his throat (they are big pellets) while keeping his beaks open using my left hand. After every two pellets, I force him to drink water. I was able to force him to eat 4-5 pellets per feeding.

Anyways, I am leaving right now to take him to a vet. Here are some pics of his poop. It looks watery and there are white strings. Any ideas?

 

[kouma]

I took him to two vets and both gave me the same symptoms and recommended medication. Apparently, my parrot has an infection in his stomach. I need to treat him for 7 days using two medications: one is Trimethoprmum and the other is Sulfadimethoxine sodium. I will also continue forcing him to eat. I will keep this thread posted with any updates.

 

[melissasparrots]

Thank you for the advice. You are correct, some of the falcons here cost over $15k USD and I know where they are sold. I will be heading there in the next 1hr to ask where the best vet for birds is. I am starting to also believe that when I received him he was younger than 4 months. The yellow only started kicking in 2 months ago. Also thanks for the recipes, I will try combination of "sweet potato mixed with a little bit of cooked soft rice, oatmeal and banana". Do you serve it in a bowl or using a spoon? If using a bowl, how long do you leave it in the cage?

If the bird is totally unfamiliar with it, then I'll feed the first few bites from my fingers or from a spoon. Whatever works to get him eating it. Once he starts eating it, try having him eat it from a bowl. He might be sitting with you while eating it or you could try leaving it in the cage for him to eat too. I would take it out after 3-4 hours. Definitely get a gram scale. Falconers use those too on their birds, so I know they are available where you are. Its the easiest way to know if your bird is in real trouble or if your even making improvement on diet. We have some very expensive falcons here too. I'm under the impression white gyrs sell for quite a bit. The sport isn't as commonly practiced here. Although a lot of what we know about treating parrots with fungal infections comes from experience with raptors. So there is some overlap in treatment and disease between parrots and birds of prey.
Melissa

 

[cdog]

Will he eat anything by himself? Even eating seeds is better than force feeding him.

 

[dishgal1]

Try getting a good brand of seed mix.......I would try anything at this point.

 

[Chaz12]

Ya, I think anything in his crop is got to let him get some nutrition. So I would force feed him verses let him choose not to eat. The reason, is your parrot may choose not to eat at all and starve.. You want to be sure he is eating.. Good luck.. I am sorry you are having such a rough time..

 

[melissasparrots]

Ya, I think anything in his crop is got to let him get some nutrition. So I would force feed him verses let him choose not to eat. The reason, is your parrot may choose not to eat at all and starve.. You want to be sure he is eating.. Good luck.. I am sorry you are having such a rough time..

I would not force feed him. Force feeding when you don't know what your doing is a great way to aspirate them and end up with a dead bird. Nothing wrong with dribbling a little formula into the side of his beak and seeing if he'll swallow it. If your desperate enough to try force feeding, you need to see a vet to teach you how.

If your not already offering him seed, you should be. If he eats seed better than pellets, at this point I'd say go for it.

 

[lene1949]

Force feeding is very difficult to do, if you don't feed directly into the crop (using a tube or needle)... The chances of the bird aspirating are just too great...

What did the vet say about his weight? and general health... ????

 

[Chaz12]

I would let a avairy vet feed him, because the vet knows best.. I would leave him in his care because they have lights to keep the bird warm, they check on them every hour or so, they are experts... I don't want to see your pet parrot die.. Now I brought my parrot to the vet, that is 10 miles from us.. The vet said, he was a cat and dog spe******t but could clip wings and toe nails. To take the bird to a spe******t, Parrot Hospital in St Louis MO( about 90 miles away). The vet I brought her to could tell wieght was alright, that she had no diseases, was in good health.. I would only bring her there, if she caught a cold and quit eating.