My baby conure is making noises

[Grigals]

Hi guys,

I just got my yellow sided green cheek baby 2 days ago and just yesterday he started making little noises every second and flapping his wings. I've searched it up but I can't find an answer to what it means! Why is he doing this??

 

[Laurasea]

He is begging for food. If he wasn't completely weaned this can become very dangerous if he isn't eating enough. Did yiu contact the breeder? How old is the burd? Can you get hand feeding formula and a thermometer to make sure its the right temp and offer by spoon might take. But this can be very dangerous if your baby isn't eating and is begging. If at all possible is return to tge breeder to finish Weaning. People here have lost their bsby if gotten to early and not fully weaned. And trying to do this yourself comes with risks, temp, clean, enough feeding gs, making sure tge crop empties between feeding. If this baby has reverted or wasn't fully wesbed time is of the essence.
http://www.parrotforums.com/breeding-raising-parrots/74363-so-you-bought-unweaned-baby.html

 

[Laurasea]

Your baby needs food now
https://theparrotuniversity.com/arthandfeeding3

Go to tge links and print it all out for your reference

 

[Laurasea]

This was posted by Ellen for a different burd all the info will help you too
Also this great info originally posted by EllenD


Since you've hand-fed other baby parrots before you probably have a better understanding/eduction than most people who come here asking these types of questions, but just to make sure and to save you from any serious issues, heartache, or tragedy that often happens when people take-on hand-feeding such a young baby parrot, I'm going to quickly run-down the most important and NON-OPTIONAL bullet-points that you must follow to a tee or your baby will become sick and suffer potentially fatal health problems:

#1.) The hand-feeding formula that you feed your baby Senegal must ALWAYS be between 104 degrees F and 110 degrees F, and must stay in that temperature range throughout the feeding. One degree colder and your baby can suffer fungal/yeast infections in their Crop and throughout their GI Tract, and this can cause Slow-Crop and Crop-Stasis. Even 1 degree hotter and it will cause burns on your bird's crop that usually cause severe infection and require surgery to remove the burnt portion of the Crop...So you must use a digital cooking/candy thermometer that has a metal probe you can place in the formula and keep in the formula throughout each hand-feeding. If the formula needs to be re-heated because it drops below 104 degrees F, do not microwave the already mixed formula because it will develop "hot pockets" that will burn your bird's Crop no matter how well you mix it; instead just microwave water or unflavored Pedialyte, whichever you're using to mix the formula, and then add it slowly to the already mixed formula...

#2.) At 3 weeks old your baby Senegal should have most of it's down feathers but very little to no outer feathers...I don't know if you have a real, proper Brooder that you are keeping your baby in, but if not then you need to at a minimum make a "homemade' Brooder that will keep the amibient temperature your baby is kept in within the correct temperature ranges...If the ambient temperature your baby bird is kept in is too cool they will develop the same fungal/yeast infections and problems as they do when the formula is too cold....If your baby bird does not yet have ALL of their down-feathers yet and still has bare skin exposed, then they MUST be kept in an ambient temperature between 90-95 degrees F at all times except for when you take them out for a hand-feeding or a short handling. Once all of their down feathers are in and there is no more bare skin exposed, but they still don't have all of their outer feathers grown in fully, their ambient temperature must always be between 75-80 degrees F. For a baby Senegal Parrot, who normally wean between the ages of 10 weeks old and 13 weeks old, they should be able to be transferred from their Brooder and into their first "Weaning" or "Starter" Cage around the age of 6-7 weeks old.

To Make a Handmade Brooder: All you need is a cardboard box that is large enough to have a front half and a back half with two different temperature zones, but not too large a box. You need an electric heating-pad that has an adjustible temperature, which will sit underneath the back-half of the box at all times. You'll also need an ambient thermometer that you can place/hang/stick in the back-half of the box, and this is what you will look at to make sure that the back-half of the box is always within the correct temperature range. Then you cover the back-half of the box with a towel or blanket to lock-in the heat in the back-half of the box, leaving the front half of the box uncovered and off of the heating-pad. Once you get this all set-up, turn on the heating-pad to low or medium and cover the back-half of the box, and wait for about 30 minutes for the temperature to reach it's max, and if it's not withint the correct temperature range then you turn it up a setting and wait another 30 minutes. Make sure you have a good, accurate ambient thermometer, the best and cheapest ones being the Accurite digital thermometers that you can just sit in the back of the box and that you can buy at any Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. for around $10-$15 (same for the digital cooking/candy thermometer with the metal probe, Walmart sells them for around $15 in the cooking gadget section)...Leave the front half of the box uncovered and off of the heating-pad so that your baby bird can go to the front of the box if they get too warm...Once your baby is around 6 weeks old or so, or when he/she has all of their outer feathers grow-in and no down-feathers are exposed, then you can move your bird into their Weaning/Starter Cage.

#3.) As far as the hand-feedings go, at only 3 weeks old your baby Senegal MUST be fed every 2-3 hours INCLUDING OVERNIGHT! They cannot go 6-8 hours overnight without being fed every 2-3 hours until they are between 4-5 weeks old. So you unfortuantely have to set an alarm for every 2 hours and get up every 2 hours, check his/her crop, and if it's just about empty at 2 hours then that's the interval that you'll feed them at for the next week. If his/her crop is not almost empty at 2 hours, then check it again at 3 hours and it should be almost empty, and that will be your feeding interval...

During the daytime and during the night until he/she is at least 4 weeks old (before they can go a full 6-8 hours overnight without being fed), their Crop should be almost empty when you give them their next hand=feeding, but won't be completely empty. The only time their Crop will be completely empty between feedings will be at their first morning feeding at 4 weeks, when they can go a full 6-8 hours without being fed...At only 3 weeks old they cannot go any longer than 3 hours maximum without being fed 24 hours a day, and that's why their Crop will never be completely empty at any time of a hand-feeding...Again, at 4 weeks old he/she will be able to go overnight for 6 hours or so without a hand-feeding, and their Crop will be completely empty first thing in the morning when you give them their first hand-feeding of the day; otherwise, during the rest of the day their Crop will be almost empty between hand-feedings, but not quite.

As far as how much formula you should give them during each hand-feeding, I never really go by a "set amount" based on their age as some breeders do...I always go by the size and feeling of their Crop, which you need to always be looking at and feeling lightily with the pad of your finger. At the end of all hand-feedings, their Crop should look very large and round, and when you feel it very gently with your finger (don't ever push on the Crop, just lightly run your finger over it), it should feel like a very full balloon that still has a little bit of 'give" to it. It should not feel tight, if it does then you are feeding them too much formula. And you cannot expect them to stop their feeding-response at the correct time; usually they do actually stop eating and stop their feeding-response and start rejecting the syringe close to the correct time, but not necessarily...YOU CAN NEVER, EVER TRY TO FORCE MORE FORMULA INTO THEM, WHEN THEY'RE DONE THEY'RE DONE, BUT YOU CAN STOP GIVING THEM ANY MORE FORMULA BEFORE THEIR FEEDING-RESPONSE STOPS AND BEFORE THEY THINK THEY ARE DONE, BASED ON THE SIZE AND FEEL OF THEIR CROP.

It's extremely important that you fully "Abundance-Wean" your Senegal, which means that you allow HIM/HER to make the decision when a hand-feeding is removed, and when the amount of formula in each hand-feeding is reduced. If YOU make the decision to remove a hand-feeding each day, or to reduce the amount of formula in each hand-feeding, this is called "Force-Weaning" your baby bird, and it usually results in severe, life-long Neurological and Behavioral issues, as well as serious and sometimes life-threatening physical medical problems...So allow your bird to tell you when a feeding will be rejected or the amount of formula per feeding will be reduced.

Typically the amount of formula they eat per hand-feeding and the number of hand-feedings per day will stay the same until a Senegal Parrot is between 5-6 weeks old, at which time he'll start eating more and more solid food, thus eating less formula. I would typically start putting millet-sprays inside of the Brooder at the age of 4 weeks-old, so that they start learning what solid-food is and will start picking at it and eventually eating it. At 5 weeks old I place a bowl of either pellets of seeds, whichever you are planning on weaning him onto as his daily "staple" food, inside of the Brooder, and once they start eating a good amount of the pellets or seed-mix (or both if you like), then they'll start to Abundance-Wean themselves. At the point where you move them into their Weaning/Starter Cage (when their outer feathers grow-in and no down-feathers are exposed, around 6 weeks old or so), then you're going to also start giving them a bowl of fresh Veggies, dark leaafy Greens, and a very small portion of Fruit every day as well, so that they'll learn what they are and to eat them.

Eventually you'll get to the point that they'll be eating a hand-feeding first thing in the morning and just before bed, and they'll be eating their pellets/seed-mix and fresh Veggies and Greens throughout the day...Then around the time they fully-Fledge, they'll eliminate the morning hand-feeding, and will basically be fully Abundance-Weaned, for a Senegal this will happen between 11-13 weeks old. They will typically continue to beg for a hand-feeding at night just before bed even after they are fully Abundance-Weaned, and this is called a "Comfort-Feeding", and it can continue for a week or two after they actually fully-wean. This is normal, it's not that they're hungry, it's just a comfort thing...

 

[Grigals]

He's fully feathered and weaned, he's over 10 weeks old. He eats all his seeds and veggies

 

[Laurasea]

This is from Silver Sage do yiu got an unweand baby.
Also again yiur bsby probably need habd feeding formula right now

to it.

1) TEMPERATURE IS EVERYTHING! Temperature is the most important part of raising a healthy baby parrot; the temperature of the formula and the temperature of the living environment.

-Formula MUST be between 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) and 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius). Any cooler and not only will your baby likely reject the formula, but his body will be unable to digest it properly leading to malnutrition. In some cases the food, not being digested, can even begin to spoil inside the body and from there you quickly see a spiral into bacterial infections that can kill within a few hours of the first symptoms. If the formula is too hot you risk internal burns. Unlike human babies, parrot chicks may not initially show signs of discomfort if the formula is too hot; they may swallow an entire feeding only to have their throats and crops severely burned to the point of being life-threatening. Even if the birds don’t kill the bird outright they open them up to nasty infections that can kill very quickly, often before the new owner can even notice symptoms.

-The living environment temperature depends on how many chicks, how old, etc, but the baby needs to be kept warm enough for their body to function normally as if a mother bird was constantly brooding him. For a baby that is not fully feathered this us usually between 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 degrees Celsius) and 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37.2 degrees Celsius). If the baby is standing upright, panting, and holding the wings out from the body he is too hot. If a group of babies is piled on top of each other, they are too cold. You want a temperature where babies can sleep comfortably without needing to crowd together or stand up and pant. It is more difficult with a single baby, so lean toward too warm rather than too cold. Start at the high end and only turn it down if the baby seems too warm. Remember, the baby should have clutch mates and/or parents to snuggle with and alone in your home he cannot regulate his own body temperature. If he isn’t kept warm enough his organs cannot function properly and you open him up to many complications such as slow crop leading to bacterial and fungal infections and rapid death.

2) TIMING MATTERS! It is important that your baby be fed often enough. Generally speaking (and this is VERY GENERAL, different species have different needs) babies who don’t have a full covering of feathers yet should be fed about every 4 hours during the day, and can go 8 hours over night after about 3-4 weeks. Once they have that covering of feathers they can start going 6-7 hours between daytime feedings. Trying to cram too much food into the crop does stretch it an enable the baby to take more food at a time but can lead to problems with sour crop, crop stasis, etc all leading to (can you guess?) bacterial and fungal infections that can kill your baby overnight. Going too long between feedings can also have a negative impact on the psychological development of the little guy.

3) FORCE WEANING IS CRUEL! Force Weaning is when you reduce the amount of formula you are feeding and make the baby fill up on solid foods. Sounds normal, but is actually very damaging and contributes to all sorts of emotionally damaged behaviors like biting, screaming, plucking, phobias, cage aggression… the list goes on. The proper and humane method of weaning a baby parrot is Abundance Weaning. This method is simple: You keep offering the formula until the baby decides HE doesn’t want it anymore for at least 5 days in a row. Guess what? Knowing that the formula is coming actually gives the baby is very firm foundation from which he can venture forth and explore. Just because the baby has started trying solid foods does not at all mean he is ready to lose the formula. Keep offering it until the baby decides he doesn’t want it.

4) EARLY CLIPPING IS DANGEROUS! I’m not going to get into the pros and cons of clipping an adult bird but it is VITAL to the physical and mental development of young parrots that they be allowed to LEARN TO FLY. And I don’t mean “get their first few flights” I mean they need to become FLYING EXPERTS. Yes, it is scary for you to watch them crash, but this is the appropriate age where their minds and bodies are prepared for and eager to learn these skills. Even if you plan to clip your bird they NEED this time to gain crucial mental skills such as how to react to new things, how to avoid danger, etc. Not to mention they need to learn the skill of flying DOWN. That’s another heartbreaking situation I get asked to help with a lot. So many escaped parrots WANT TO COME HOME but can’t because they never learned the complex skill of flying downward. But that is a whole different topic. Another reason it is absolutely crucial to allow baby birds to keep their flight feathers is for balance. The crop is right there on the front of their body and if they are crashing to the ground on it because their flights are clipped, they can force themselves to vomit and aspirate. On that note, “play time” should be before feedings, not after, for the exact same reason; you don’t want to be bumping a full crop.

Ok folks! That is by no means a guide to a well rounded parrot, but it should at least help you hopefully keep your baby alive. If you see ANY signs of illness such as lethargy, difficulty breathing, refusal to eat, disorientation, dull eyes, nasal discharge, failure to empty crop, etc, contact an Avian Vet immediately. You should have one on speed dial now.

 

[Laurasea]

the baby at that age can revert to needing hand feeding from tge stress of going to a new home. Bsbbies can pretend to eat, or eat but not enough food and stull need supplements and support feeding.
This has happened recently and the baby died.....
Sometime you will get thus baby behavior to beg fir attention,
but with your baby acting that frantic i think its real.
Babies wean at different rates, and hstch dates can be fudged...
What dies poop look like, how often poop? Do yiu have a digital scale? Yiu can weight check tge burd in grams.
Under tge text box is go advanced button allows yiu to paperclip a picture of your burd
I'm treating thus like an Emergency because we have so many people come here and their burds die!!!
We can hope it's just begging for attention, but after you offer a habd feeding and it's rejected . I would also suggest a visit to an avain vet specialist. Not an exotic vet or regular vet.

 

[Laurasea]

What you describe is begging for hand feeding. From all that I can find if they are begging, the need to be fed. And continue as you wean by abundance, that is wre tgey take some hand feeding, and eat on their own. Tgey will drop down to needing only one or two feeding, and tgey will wean themselves when they are ready, this can go on to 16 weeks, plus or minus each baby us different even in the same species , some wean very early some dont


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BY BIRDSEPTEMBER 27, 2009
Why Weaning a Parrot Properly is so Important

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO WEAN A PARROT?
There really isn’t an exact answer to that question. Each species has its own timetable that can be used as a guideline, but it will vary with each individual bird of that species. The right answer to the question is: when the bird is ready. More important than when is how it is done – a parrot must be weaned properly for developmental reasons.

Unless you are an owner experienced in hand feeding and weaning, or are a breeder, you shouldn’t be physically involved in the weaning process when you are buying a bird. An ethical breeder will not give you an un-weaned parrot to take home, and you should never accept one if it is offered to you.

It is a long standing responsibility during a crucial physical and emotional period in the bird’s development, and mistakes that are made at this time will be carried into adulthood in the form of emotional and behavioral problems. Improper hand feeding can kill or maim. It is your responsibility, however, to ask all the right questions about the methods used to wean and socialize your new parrot.


Weaning is a huge step in the development of the bird’s independence. It takes the bird from begging to have it’s crop filled to being able to satisfy its need on its own. There are carefully measured steps taken to accomplish this, and it takes a great deal of patience, commitment and know-how on the part of the caregiver. The cues have to be taken from the bird. It is during this time when bonds with humans are forged.

Force weaning is when a parrot is taken off formula before it is ready, while it’s still begging, with the understanding that it will eat other foods if it is hungry. That isn’t how parrots work – it isn’t how human babies work. Basically it is ripping away the parrot’s stability and sense of security and forcing it to face starvation as an alternative to eating something it doesn’t want or doesn’t recognize as food.

It isn’t hard to see why there will be problems with this bird in the future. Parrots that have suffered through a force weaning have shown to be high strung, phobic, and inflexible in their eating habits. They are often intolerant to change and lack confidence from the psychological damage endured through their weaning experience. Some insecure adult parrots revert back to begging behaviors.


Abundance weaning, where new foods are offered in conjunction to scheduled formula feedings, is the most effective, and kind, method of weaning. It allows them to experience the food by beaking it, playing with it until it realizes with encouragement that it is something to be eaten. Syringe feedings are maintained until it is established that the bird is eating the new foods. Hand feedings are phased out systematically as the bird stops begging for them – when the bird is ready. This produces a happier, more well adjusted adult.

Author Patty Jourgensen specializes in avian health, behavior and nutrition and has been working with and caring for rescue birds since 1987.

 

[Laurasea]

We had a new baby that actually died from an illness, it was crying and acting like it was hungry. So its worth a quick vet visit.

It hurts me so much when new owners loose their new babies.

And it's better to take action and find out alls good then loose your new baby.

Please keep us updated.
And when things are all good you will enjoy tge people on this forum, and whether you are a first time parrot owner or have had them for years there is a lot to learn and share.

 

[Scott]

We had a new baby that actually died from an illness, it was crying and acting like it was hungry. So its worth a quick vet visit.

It hurts me so much when new owners loose their new babies.

And it's better to take action and find out alls good then loose your new baby.

Please keep us updated.
And when things are all good you will enjoy tge people on this forum, and whether you are a first time parrot owner or have had them for years there is a lot to learn and share.

Thank you so much, Laura, for posting lifesaving information!!

 

[Grigals]

An update: I first called the breeders for their advice on what to do and they said he was fine and there wasn't anything to worry about, although I still wanted to be safe and take him to the vet. I took him to the vet this morning and the vet said that Kirby is a very healthy active bird. He weighed Kirby and said he's a really good weight! He said that feeding him a little formula wouldn't be a bad idea and sent me home with some formula and syringes. I think I've decided to continue weighing Kirby morning and night and if he starts loosing weight I'll feed him formula. I'm worried that if he gets a taste of formula it's going to be a real challenge weaning him off it? What do you guys think?

 

[Laurasea]

feeding formula won't make him quite eating and weaning.

Providing support or comfort feedings during abundance weaning, actually supports confidence in try new foods. Read up on weaning by abundance.
Also the parrents in the wild Provide support feed.
Thus us crucially important in build self confidence, intelligence, and preventing life long behavior issues, and tge support feedings prevent stress cascades .