Strange eating behavior in unweaned baby amazon

[n1cktm]

Hi everyone,

My baby is now 10-11 weeks old and i am noticing her eating less. She is eating much smaller portions after not eating for 8-9 hours (about 1/2 of what she used to eat). After this my wife and I go to work for the day and then she has a good/decent appetite. She has a bowl of kaytee weaning Cheerios, Zupreme and fresh fruits and vegetables. She picks at it but does not eat much. Weight is constant at 300g (she used to be 330-341g before weaning/fledging). Is this something to be worried about? Weight is holding constant but not increasing at this point. Her personality and behavior is the same and she is flying better each day.

 

[henpecked]

When you say she used to weigh 330-340 grams was that before she was fed? Their crop will shrink and they typically lose some weight when fledgling and again when weaning. !0% is about the limit for concern. A lot depends on when you weigh them when handfeeding. I always weigh first thing in the AM before feeding , that gives you a "true" weight and doesn't include a "heavy meal". Sounds like nothing is really wrong at this point IMO. 300 grams is about what i'd expect at this point in time. At 12-14 wks i'd expect her to start adding some weight(at least not losing) and at one yr should be back to the 330-340 mark. Their heaviest weight when handfeeding is usually close to their healthy weight at adulthood.

 

[n1cktm]

Thanks, henpecked!

330g was her weight in the morning a few weeks back before she started weaning, now she is at about 300.

Before she used to eat in the morning when we would take her out but now she has no interest in food in the morning and only wants to fly everywhere. The issue is we have a limited time to get her fed before work. After work she usually eats a decent portion of formula and has some more in the evening. Is it an issue to go to work and skip the AM feed if she is not interested in food?

The other issue I see is that she is becoming disinterested in the whole food we leave for her. We give a bowl with kaytee Cheerios, a few zupreme pellets and some chopped carrot/apple/strawberry/kiwi/broccoli etc in small proportions. She used to eat a bit of this throughout the day and evening but seems to have lost interest in all of these foods. Do you have any suggestions for what else we can try?

 

[henpecked]

I assume she is eating some on her own at some point in the day.Is she drinking water on her own? IMO skipping the AM handfeeding is not an issue. I would continue weighing her in the AM. Does she "beg" for handfeeding at all? Sometimes when we handfeed when we think they should be fed ,they lose that "baby begging". This begging also helps to stimulate them and the parents. Just the act of begging helps them to eat more/better at each feeding. I'd try something like "birdie bread" to leave out in the AM before work.Recipes in the diet section of the forum. I'd keep exposing her to new ,different veggies and food. have you tried sprouting yet? Let us know how things go.

 

[JerseyWendy]

This is a recipe that I cook for my fids. It's quite easy actually:
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/22594-cook-portion-freeze-my-recipe.html

And this is the birdy bread I make for them, also easy:
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/28298-my-birdie-bread-macs-love-these.html

Here are some sprouting ideas:
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/26825-easy-sprout.html

 

[Pajarita]

When you say Cheerios, you don't mean actual human Cheerios, do you? Because you can't feed any human cereal to a bird, they are all loaded with iron which is real bad for birds (damages their liver)

 

[n1cktm]

Not actual Cheerios, it's a kaytee weaning product.

As an update this guy loves to eat apples and can eat a lot of them on his own. He is not liking other fruits/veggies as much. He is wanting to eat less formula and will only eat a lot in the evening. In the morning before work he doesn't want to eat at all and eats a bit of formula when we come back. We have him out all day and he will eat apples and a few pellets from his food bowl and will eat formula at night.

I believe he dropped another 10g to 290g which is consistent (Max all time weight was 340 g from 3 weeks ago or so)

 

[Merlee]

When you say Cheerios, you don't mean actual human Cheerios, do you? Because you can't feed any human cereal to a bird, they are all loaded with iron which is real bad for birds (damages their liver)

That's a good thing to know!