My new baby! ^_^ and a question :c

[Aushi]

Hello everyone! I have a 5 week old baby Jandaya Conure. It was sold to me as a "Sun Conure" but after seeing the parents I instantly figured they were confused about the species. It didn't really matter to me, so I didn't even mention it (didn't want to offend them, because they were doing me a huge favor, the bird was more expensive than what I paid for!)

Here's a pic of the parents:

And here's the little "girl" (no DNA test, the breeder did a pelvic and guessed) her name is Sakura for now xD When she's older I might decide to have the vet do a DNA test to make sure Sakura is appropriate, but I never plan on breeding so I'm not sure hehe

I'm a newbie hand feeder, only taught how to do it on a few birds in school (I'm a vet tech student), when I bought her I didn't know she would be -this- young, I hear people call their year old conures a "baby", so it was a surprise alright, but I'm reading books, doing my research, asking my professors all sorts of questions (they're veterinarians).


The question!
Is it normal for then to keep asking for food even after you've fed them properly?

 

[weco]

Sometimes yes, often when chicks are moved to new homes while still handfeeding, there is an amount of stress involved and they may keep begging to be fed or they will also beg if you are not feeding enough or are not letting the chick wean itself/cutting off food before the chick is full.....

How much are you feeding and at what intervals? How much were you told to feed& on what intervals?

 

[Aushi]

How much are you feeding and at what intervals? How much were you told to feed& on what intervals?

Well that's the problem, the breeders gave me a syringe that doesn't have any cc's marked on it and they told me to feed her "about this much" making measurements with their hands. Every 5 hours.

With their "finger measurements" I think they fed her around 10 cc's each feeding. I don't have a weight scale or anything, but at 5 weeks old I'm thinking that's too little. I took some medicine cups I had for children's medicine and checked how much the syringe carries and it carries 15 cc's, at my third feeding, I decided her crop didn't seem to match the pictures in google so I gave her around 25 cc's and she kept asking for more but not as actively as before. I'm planning on going to the pharmacy in a few minutes to buy a syringe that actually has the cc's marked on it.

It's incredibly difficult to find a "rule of thumb" on the internet. Every single thing I find says "Just weight it and give it 12% of the body weight". No general "Well around 5 weeks it should eat x amount and should be fed every x hours."

 

[weco]

Every 5 hours would probably translate to 3 feedings a day and at 5 weeks, Sakura will be starting to get interested in solid foods pretty soon...probably in the next couple to three weeks.....


Actually you might want to set some pellets out in one of its food dishes so it can start playing with & tasting different things, but you'll want to keep dry pellets separated from moist/fresh foods.....moist/fresh foods should probably stay out for an hour or two at most and if you're feeding dry pellets and she not overly enthused, you can sprinkle some apple or other juice over the pellets to make them tastier.....


Cooked/baked sweet potato sweet potato, yellow squash, peas & a few corn kernels, a little banana (with skin on is OK), a slice of apple or a slice or two of orange, a couple of chunks of pineapple are also good. You want to guard against giving too much fruit and veggies as they can cause stomach upsets and imbalances in diet until she has fully weaned herself. You'll want to feed raw except for the sweet potato, as will any regular potato...that would need to be baked or boiled also. Don't feed anything that's sugared or has salt/sodium added and wash fresh fruits & veggies carefully, to remove any possible pesticides & fertilizers.....

 

[Aushi]

Sorry got pretty busy! Thank you for the suggestion! I have some spray millets that I read are a good idea to start as "play food", where the baby bird doesn't actually eat it, but plays around with it. But I haven't seen any interested at all, she bobs her head and if she isn't asking for food she's sleeping! Actually she sleeps most of the day while she's not eating xD Hard life being a baby!