HELP Is my baby eclectus ill???

[arianamermaid]

I went to buy an adult eclectus from an ad, and they also had a baby and I ended up buying him without knowing much.
his belly and crop had no feathers, but I was told he's a baby and they'll grow in in a couple of months

I brought him home and started doing research on baby eclectus, and read about sour crop, and bacterial infections, and watched videos on YouTube of babies, and they all had feathers!! even if they were the black fluffy baby feathers, they still had feathers.
this boy has a completely bare crop and belly, bare like skin.
and he's not plucking, and no feathers in the cage or box

he does scratch himself and prean himself, and lifts his wings a lot, and poops a lot. at first it was very watery, but I came to find out they had him on a formula not for eclectus, so I got him the proper one and his poo is solid now
I can't get to see a vet until Monday
can anyone tell me if this is normal or what this could be
how old he could be
any other input appreciated!
thank you

 

[Saash]

Ah, he's a cute boy!

I have a baby girl, she is 5 weeks and has less colour than yours, so he is probably about 8 weeks.

Mine also has a T-area down the throat and under the jaw-line. I'm trying to research this and it seems this is normal. Your bird is quite exaggerated though and I'm not totally sure. Mine has been to the Avarian vet and she was not concerned, I've asked a few other places.

Can you look at your adult bird, under the plumes, if there is a similar bare T under the plumes?

 

[SailBoat]

Babies should be with the breeder /parents until they are fully weaned and on solid food for at least two full weeks. My preference is that babies are not released until they are fully fledged (the Parrot is a flyer).

Good for you to be taking your baby into your Avian Medical Professional.

Baby Parrots and an ill adult can look somewhat alike. My concern would be the droopy wings, but that could be a baby Parrot thing. I will leave that to one of our experts with very young Parrots.

 

[Laurasea]

Hi, welcome. I'm not sure why a young baby was sold to you by the breeder, other than it gets the breeder out of the work...right around weaning 10% or so of babies can be lost, to illness, ect. So the breeder doesn't have to risk this loss of profits if they sell un weaned babies.

My first recommendation in this situation is always return the baby to the breeder.

I'm not a hand raising baby bird person, but we have this happen so much that I have read up and collected links. You are super lucky we have Saash that just joined us and is raising her Eclectus. I will link her thread snd you can read and follow the links in it.
http://www.parrotforums.com/eclectus/88488-newbie.html


Yours crop looked like it has bern extra extended, or over stretched. It is important thst the crop is emptying between feeding.
Temperature of food is critical, fir digestion, and for keeping the crop working, to prevent the food from going bad in the crop. And the temperature you keep a chicken is critical.

 

[Saash]

Arian, I have gone through all the info I have gathered so far.

Its very useful that Laura has linked my newbie post for you. You need to make sure you get the hand feeding right, and its a big commitment. Baby is not weaned yet, he's way too young, and I started another thread for my weaning journey that has some useful tips there for you to look at, as you are going to do weaning and porridge for a few weeks. (Parrot porridge BTW - do you know which one this guy has been on)

I think its possible your baby has been the victim of crop burn. One of the links Laura posted has a graphic illustration of crop burn, which happens when hot formula is put into the bird crop and the crop burns through and all down the throat .... that scar tissue may explain your pronounced bare patch which may never heal if that's what it is

About parrot porridge - is baby eating well from what you are feeding him? They can be fussy and to change formula from one brand to another may need to be done gradually, by mixing the old one with the new one in steadily decreasing ratios. You need to weigh him and make sure he's not loosing weight as he will become malnourished. Don't wean him onto seeds. He wants a diet of about 50% veg, 30% fruit and 20% pellets. The pellets help with fortified vitamins.

There's food items suitable for Eclectus and Macaw- thats the one to use, not the one for African Greys and Amazon's.

If your bird is already on seeds you need to try gradually reduce the seed diet without starving your birds the seeds do not do well for the plumes.

Maybe thats an overdose of info you don't really need, but I'll rather give you more, than not enough.

Good luck at the AV tomorrow let us know what they say.

 

[Ellie777Australia]

Welcome ariana...just joining your thread. Great advice above. How did the vet visit go? Any concerns?

 

[arianamermaid]

update: I took him to the vet, and they starting adding up a lot of things to check including xray it was at $600+ when the vet said he's going to call the pet store where he was from and let them take over.
the pet store is not where i got him from someone else got him from the pet store had him a couple of weeks then sold him to me.
either way, the pet store took over his care for 3 weeks free of charge.
this is him now,
all baby feathers on crop now only bare on neck but he's gotten double the size easily!

 

[arianamermaid]

 

[Laurasea]

Wonderful news! What ended up being wrong g? What was he treated with?

So glad see him and hear your updates!!

 

[Saash]

Ah this is a happy turnout - I was really wondering what the outcome was.

I wasn't sure if he looked malnourished or was just such a bad camera angle.

He's looking a lot better! Good job- when's he coming home?

 

[arianamermaid]

the person who got him from the pet store wasn't using a thermometer when feeding, and didn't tell me to either. I think the food was too cold. he didn't have sour crop, but wasn't absorbing nutrients enough so the feathers weren't growing properly