Baby Ringnecks cant walk

[almostadozen]

Hi I am currently hand rearing 7 baby birds two of which are ringnecks. All babies are healthy getting feathers and eating well ... EXCEPT my baby ringnecks. These are now approx 7 weeks old.We were feeding them on avione hand rearing formula mixed with egg and biscuit as advised by the breeder we purchased them from. BUT they were not getting feathers or walking properly. We have spoken to our local pet store who tells us that the formula we used doesnt have all the nutrients the birds needed and changed over to vetafarm neocare handraising formula and a calcium supplement. Since the change the babies finally got pin feathers BUT still walk on what I would call their elbows? Their feet are a dark colour unlike their legs ? Pet shop says this may be NBD ? nutritional bone disorder? Is this fixable or is their nothing we can do to help improve these little mites . Any advice would be most appreciated . Please and thank you

[avinet]

I don't know which pet shop you went to, but would be interested to know. Their advice is spot on - I would have told you exactly the same thing. Avione hand rearing mix isn't a great mix to start with and mixing in egg & biscuit is making a poor mix even worse.

Neocare is far better - I have three baby ringnecks almost weaned that have raised just perfectly on Neocare - they are in excellent health. That shop is spot on with their diagnosis of nutritional bone disorder - the babies through poor diet have developed greenstick fractures in the legs, and likely elsewhere as well - the wings and even sometimes the back bone.

Calcium and Neocare will help those bone fractures to heal but it is very unlikely that they will regain normal use of the feet, and are likely to always be down on their heels throughout life. With greenstick fractures, unless the bone is placed into a split quickly the bone will always be bent - and with babies whose bones are growing rapidly it is very difficult to splint the leg bones, to allow for growth the splint will likely need changing a couple of times a week. Possibly their ability to fly could also be affected.

What about your other 5 babies - what species are they and what hand rearing mix have you used for them. Do they have any problems. If you are using Avione then quickly change to Neocare.

Actually I prefer Roudybush hand rearing to Neocare but it is harder to find and my local shops don't sell it, but Neocare is an very acceptable substitute.

Have you hand reared much before or is this the first time? It migh tbe worth looking at my two articles on hand rearing at scas.org.au/html/articles.html - I have hand reared well over a thousand birds, from around 30 different species over the last 20 odd years so have a lot of experience

And again it would be nice to know which shop gave you the advice - it is always good to hear of a pet shop that can give good advice about birds

cheers,

Mike

[almostadozen]

Hi Mike sorry its taken so long to get back I got lost !
The babies grew up beautifully walking flying and one of the new owners reports learning to talk so Im a lot relieved.

The pet shop that gave the advice is THE Pet Shop in Parkes NSW

The neocare did not work so well with quarrians (2 of the other babies) I had a LOT of trouble with slow crops after the change and put them back onto the avione with calcium drops and they improved again.

The other 3 babies were two green cheeks and a baby sun conure . No issues with them at all. I changed them onto the neo care .

I had hand reared before but only rosellas and galahs (which I have never had issues with) .

We have built quite a collection of gorgeous birds but still learning and studying so any advice is always welcome.

I have been told by a respected breeder that roudy bush is the go but unfortunately it is not available to us except by mail order.

Thank you !

[avinet]

Glad to hear they turned out fine - and Roudybush is an excellent hand rearing mix. I started using it around 1992, and have only switched to Neocare because of easy availability in my area - these days I am not raising enough babies to make it worth while going to online ordering.

The only problem with Roudybush is that it is a very fine powder and if you are not careful it can become lumpy on mixing. To avoid that I mix it with fairly cool water ans then warm the mix up to the right feeding temperature.

Cockatiels are pretty conservative when it comes to food - they are not keen on change of formula when babies. In fact cockatiels are one of the harder parrots to hand raise without problems - crop problems due mainly Candida can be a major issue.

cheers,

Mike

[smokeman]

When I saw this topic I felt really sad about it and I’m so glad to hear that little birdy getting well. Hope now it is totally fine.