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Post by angelicvampyre on Jul 4, 2009 8:16:14 GMT 10
Willow has decided that she wants to wean herself. She now turns her beak up at different HRM and I have three in my cupboard but I have to be careful as we think her fits may have been caused by soy so have two soy free brands and a home made brand from a lady the pet shop knows. I have organic baby food and we go through stages, last night she wanted pumpkin and sweet corn, yesterday morning it was apple bliss and then today no nothing. I did manage to feed her hlf a kiwi fruit (no seeds not sure they can have them) from my hand. Tried corn kernals but she did not seem that intrested. I am struggling with what to feed her. She loves bananas but to the only way she will eat them is if you stand there with the banana in front of her face. Any suggestions on what to feed?
Also she has decided she can fly. Issue is that she can only fly in a straight line and flys stright into walls, fridges, chair backs, my sister whatever is straight infront of her. How do you teach them to fly without them killing themselves? I have a HQ Flight cage which she will be moving into in the next week but unlike a Budgie I don't feel this is big enough for her to learn to fly in. I would take her to the park on a harness but I have only ever harness trained fully flighted birds so unsure as to what to do.
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Post by Robyn on Jul 4, 2009 14:30:29 GMT 10
AV, the best advice i can give you in regards to weaning the eclectus is to go buy a ABK A Guide to Eclectus Parrots as Pets & Aviary Birds. That book is a must for any Eclectus owner & it covers everything from A to Z. In my opinion if Eckies owners don't have that book they shouldn't own an eclectus at all. Truth is that book is my bible.
Robyn.
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Post by vankarhi on Jul 4, 2009 16:18:07 GMT 10
Robyn you beat me to it. That book is also my bible and I was going to say that too. lol
I have also found about the time they start to fly they are not actually weaned ........ that is the terrible stage I have found they refuse to eat. All you can do is feed them as much or as little as they want and keep fruit and veges and other tasty treats in with them so they still have something to try to eat. They do get hungry and start to eat again........it took erik almost 1 week of eating so little.....but obviously he did not starve plus he had a smorgasboard of food to try to encourage him to eat on his own. I can't remember how young Willow is but she must be very young.....around the 11/12 week age??? Mine have not weaned that early......but not to say that some don't wean that early as I have heard of some that do.
Just make sure she is eating something and has plenty of things in her cage to tempt her to eat. I literally put everything and everything in their cage at this age........
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Post by vankarhi on Jul 4, 2009 16:22:17 GMT 10
oh and as for learning to fly......that is exactly what she is doing and will crash into things....so you need to cover things like windows up so she can see there is something there and I find I run after them sometimes if I think they are going to crash. Erik hasn't learned to fly properly due to him only flying in spirals (more than likely due to being blind in his left eye and not learning to fly before he went blind in that eye). Then we were going away for about 5 days and I did not know where I would be and if I would be feeding Erik indoors or outdoors so instead of risking losing him to an accident or to him actually flying ...... I clipped him. I am hoping though to be able to teach him to fly when his flight feathers grow back but I am aware he might never learn to fly properly..
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Post by Robyn on Jul 4, 2009 17:23:55 GMT 10
Hey Tracey great minds think alike. LOL.  Every time i get a new species of bird i also buy the ABK book for that species. They have so much information in them. I really don't know what i'd do without the Incubation & Handraising Parrots & Basic Health & Diease in Birds those 2 books are falling to pieces. I have just about read the ink off the pages. Robyn. |
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Post by angelicvampyre on Jul 4, 2009 17:48:06 GMT 10
Thanks guy I will go see about getting that book tomorrow if I can't get it I know where I can order it on line. I also have an amazing amount of fresh fruit and veggies for her to try and if she seems to take a liking to something then she gets lots of it. Also have weetabix and cheeros which I hope she will like.
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Post by vankarhi on Jul 4, 2009 21:54:42 GMT 10
Robyn I own the Pet and companion parrot one, the asiatics one, the eclectus one, the handraising and incubation and the health and diseases one...... ;D might have to get the cockatiel one now (if I don't already have it. I do have a cockatiel book that I have had for about 20 years and a few other parrot/bird books. oh and I have the ABK cages and aviary book too. The names are not exact but I can't be bothered getting up to read the "exact" names  |
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Post by vankarhi on Jul 4, 2009 21:57:52 GMT 10
and AV I give mine weetbix and cheerios too......they love them while they are being fussy little s'&Its ;D and then they only get them as a treat when older and weaned. Cheerios is not something I normally have in my cupboards but weetbix is.
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Post by Robyn on Jul 5, 2009 17:02:28 GMT 10
AV, here is a pic of a good wholesome weaning food. This is a base mix i use to feed every bird i have. I don't ever have a fussy eater in fact my 2 girls that are about 8 weeks old & cock bird that's 10 weeks are already eating it. Maybe it will be of use to you.  |
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Post by birdymum on Jul 5, 2009 20:32:39 GMT 10
Hey robyn would love to know what is in your mix
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Post by angelicvampyre on Jul 5, 2009 21:24:20 GMT 10
Sme here I was looking at it trying to make list!
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