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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 25, 2009 19:46:38 GMT 10
HI everyone i know you are all probably getting annoyed by my questions and what not. I'm still hoping to convert Bailey over to seed. I'm not liking the pellets at all. I did end up converting MoJo over to the same pellet Bailey is eatting well she ended up being depressed,lack of energy,gone very quiet,started having mashy poo,loss of condition even tho the sacales said she weighed 70grams she saw didn't feel 70grams, The meat on the sides of the keel bone started sinking in. I really think part of Bailey's problems is the pellets. I've noticed when he does eat a little bit of seed his poo firms up a bit.
Today i gave him a bowl of seed he ate some, Just wandering if i convince him to eat the seed by playing with the seed, then when he eats some i make a fuss over it eg good boy Bailey,whos mums pretty boy etc, would he begin to eat the seed on his own without me having to convince him? I got him to eat a reasonable amount today he ate the seed for 5 minutes maybe shorter or longer as i didn't really time it. He did go to the seed bowl twice on his own without me playing with the seed when he did i made a fuss over him. He knows the seed is eatable i just think he doesn't know that he should eat it all the time.
I'm also thinking of doing this to get him converted onto seed just like i did with MoJo to get her to eat the pellets. In the morning offer seed then at 10-11am put the fruit and veggies in the cage,then at 4pm give him some pellets leave it in for 30 minutes then take it out and leave him with the seed,fruit and veggies.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 25, 2009 20:46:49 GMT 10
I really wouldn't worry about him not eating the seed or pellet. I know some might not agree with me, but when I weaned Snowy (cockatiel) and that was only a few months ago now, he only would eat the bean mix and the fruit and vege I gave him. Now he eats seed as well. It took him a few weeks actually to even touch seed. Just keep putting everything in his cage.....seed/pellets and his fruit and veges......I am positive he will not let himself starve.
Oh and just for the records.....I have ordered some Roudybush pellets to give to my birds as a treat......I figured it might be good for them to have a change amongst all the other foods I give them. But I am not changing their diet.....just adding a treat to it.
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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 25, 2009 21:29:28 GMT 10
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 26, 2009 18:20:29 GMT 10
I also noted the date ...... 2006. So maybe pellets have been "improved" since then. But as most of you here know I am not an advocate of pellets.....having said that I guess I have bowed to peer pressure and have ordered a 1.25kg bag of Roudybush pellets as a "treat" for my birds. They will not be changing their diets......just having a small amount of these pellets added. If my ekkies have any reaction ........ it will be stopped. I honestly do believe my birds have a good diet.
I also believe the emphasis is on "all seed" or "all pellet" diets not being healthy for birds. Birds need to have fresh foods and not just a slice here and there. They need to have lots of it on a daily basis.
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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 26, 2009 20:04:37 GMT 10
My MoJo didn't do well on pellets even tho she was only on them for a short while but in that short while she became depressed,gone very quiet,lack of energy,mushy poo,loss of condition even tho the scales said she weighed 70 grams she didn't feel 70grams and the meat on the sides of the keel bone started sinking in.
I feed my birds seed plenty of fresh fruit and veggies actually if theres veggies in there cages they will eat that before the seed. Where Bailey will eat mainly pellets with little bit of veggies.
Tell you the truth i have a feeling Bailey isn't going to pull through there was a improvement while on the meds his still on meds but now the problems seem to be returning. His always up and down in his weight,same with his eatting. My other birds eat the same amount of food each day or more not less. I swear a budgie eats more then what Bailey does. I'm keeping Bailey away from my other birds in case he has something bad i do not want to pass it onto my other birds. So if my other birds come inside Bailey and his cage go into the bathroom and the door closed. I gave him nothing but seed and veggies today he ate the seed only the small seed in the mix he wouldn't eat the sunflower or safflower seed. I weighed him this morning he weighs 100grams but feels so much lighter then that. My mum and dad said just leave the seed in there give him fruit and veggies and let him go if he eats good if he dies his a stupid bird.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 26, 2009 20:18:48 GMT 10
I think if you are still worried you need to take your bird back to the vet. I also think you need to leave a BIG variety of food in the cage with him to tempt him to eat. You also might just have a fussy eater and a small eater at that.
If your scales say he is 100grams what makes you think he is less??? I have no idea if my scales are correct but they are what I use and when I am worried I guage how much they gain or lose by what their daily weights say. If my scales are out........they would not be out by much anyway and by weighing daily you can get an idea of if they are losing or gaining or stable in their weight.
Also my ekkies are prone to "not eating" from time to time. Well they don't stop eating they just sometimes get bored with what I am dishing out to them.
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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 26, 2009 20:32:42 GMT 10
this bird is not stable in weight or anything one day he weighs 103grams next day 100grams then the next day he may be 102grams then drop back back to 100grams then go to 103grams. see where i am getting at his not stable at anything. Where my green cheek conures stay around 66 to 70grams, MoJo may sometimes get down to 68grams but thats where she stays. My quaker stays around 105grams, All my others birds are stable with everything weight,eatting,pooing. Where Bailey isn't stable one day his poo will look like there firming up then the next they are mushy again, one day his poos won't smell then the next they do.
The breeder lied to me when i first rang her i asked if they will be eatting seeds too she told me yes, If i knew that this bird wouldn't touch much seed i wouldn't have got it. So now i'm stuck with a sick,fussy bird i can't afford to keep taking this bird to the vet, His already been twice in 3 weeks and quite frankly i'm getting tired of it. This breeder won't do a dam thing,says his brothers are prefectly fine and blames the problems on me. His been like this since the day i brought him. Did i mention this breeder didn't even notice a missing toe nail,so i doubt she would have known it was sick.
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Post by asharee on Oct 26, 2009 21:45:28 GMT 10
thats what ollies poo looks like, but hes still a spazz
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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 26, 2009 22:45:41 GMT 10
Well the good thing is Bailey is eatting seed altho his eatting the small seed from the mix i did see 3-4 sunflower seeds have been nippled on. At first he was only cracking the seed open but don't think he was actually eatting it. Then around 4-5pm i think he finally got the hang of it and began cracking the seed and eatting it. So i think you were all correct he didn't know seed was eatable and took a while to learn that it was. I didn't offer him any pellets today he got seed and veggies, i made a mistake i weighed him around 3pm i forgot to in the morning but when i did weigh him his crop felt empty. At around 5:30 he had some seed in his crop. So this could be way he weighed 100grams, maybe cause he didn't quite know how to eat the seed. He did have veggies in his cage which he ate some of. I timed him once today he was at the seed bowl for a good 30 minutes or more, but this was before he knew to eat them.
Will he adventurely begin to eat the sunflower and safflower seeds or will he stick to the small seeds in the mix. Like i said i did see about 3-4 sunflower seeds have been nippled on. Also his poos did look firmer today. His cage smells to me, but when my sister went in she said his cage didn't smell. Maybe my nose is just very sensetive. I do have hayfever at the moment too which could probably make it worse.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 27, 2009 7:11:51 GMT 10
I am starting to think he may not have been weaned properly??? Maybe he is a bit slower to wean and he had not actually learned to eat properly on his own??? Just my thoughts after reading some of your posts. Put lots of soft food into his cage.....put seed and pellets, put millet sprays etc in. Put lots of little dishes in his cage......put some on the floor hang some from his cage at the end of every perch. This is how I wean my birds so that where ever they are there is a food container to tempt them. I also use the cereal "cherios" to help them to learn to eat. They seem to love them. I also use pine nuts and pepito's and husked sunflower seeds......basicially I put everything and anything in their cage to teach them and tempt them to eat. Mine love corn on the cob at the moment too. I am doing this with my 3 ekkie chicks at the moment and I am still feeding them 3 times a day as well.......this is teaching them to eat on their own but they can't eat on their own yet so i am also continuing to feed them.
Has this made sense yet?? I honestly think your bird sounds fine......just he needs to learn to eat. Maybe you could see if he will take some mashed potato as well and some cooked rolled oats. Oh and that is something else I add too is plain uncooked rolled oats too.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 27, 2009 7:16:25 GMT 10
oh and his weight also seems fine to me ...... yes it is fluctuating slightly but honestly my birds usually don't weigh exactly the same every day either......when I do weigh them. Now to be honest with you I don't weigh my birds unless I feel they have a problem as I panick when they appear not to be the desired weight......so now I just go by how they look and feel. Another thing .... yes you will feel the keel bone on your little fellow as he is a baby and especially at the moment as he is not eating too well. Have you thought to try to spoon feed him some formula twice a day?? Morning and night?? I also find this seems to stimulate the chicks (the older ones that is) to want to try the tasty food in the cage.....once they have a full crop.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 27, 2009 7:20:15 GMT 10
I know all this seems to be a lot of trouble....but you bought a baby bird and you obviously have paid a lot of money for the bird. You are going to have to put in a little bit of work now to encourage this little fellow to eat properly and to become the best parrot companion he possibly can be. This will mean a little bit of extra work on your part....but honestly it will only be for a few weeks and I am sure he will pick up and become an independant little fellow. Oh and by the way all this advise is also "assuming" there is actually nothing wrong with the little fellow and that he does not need to go to the vet. None of us here are vets and can only give you advise of our own experience and what we would do assuming there are no health problems.  |
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Post by conureowner1 on Oct 27, 2009 12:54:24 GMT 10
Thank you Tracey alot at 1:30pm i went in with some hand rearing formula and he took it like a pig so i don't think he was weaned properly. I'm quite surprized actually cause Bailey was crop feed he took the bent spoon very easy. So i think i will offer hand rearing formula twice a day, leave his bowl of seed in there 24/7 and fruit and veggies. Just after giving him that feed he seems more perking and living. So i think Bailey still needs to be hand feed, which is werid as he is 14 weeks old will be 15 weeks tommorrow. I don't mind cause it gives me a chance to re wean him to the foods i want to feed him and a chance to bond more. Bailey hates the clean up time after his feed lol.
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 27, 2009 14:58:33 GMT 10
He may have been weaned properly.........he just might not have been quite ready to eat properly on his own. Since he did take the formula well from you, I would give him as much as he wants from the spoon probably 3 times a day for a few days and just watch how much he is actuallye eating on his own also. Keep feeling his crop to see if he has been eating on his own before you feed him formula. I hope I am not confusing you because sometimes I feel as if I flit from theme to theme a bit sometimes as I have to put myself into your situation and tell you what I would do or what I have done in the past. Ok ........ now that you are comfortable with him eating from a spoon.......if it were me I would feed him 3 times a day if it is possible. If you do not work and can feed him around 6 or 7am then around 12 or 1pm then again around 6 or 7pm just for a few days just to see how he is going  Then when you feel comfortable that he is actually eating a bit on his own, cut the middle feed out. It might only take a week for this to happen, it might only take a couple of days. Then I would see how he goes for another week and if he looks like he is eating well on his own, I would then cut the morning feed out. Then see how he goes for another week and if his crop has plenty of food in it in the afternoon, you could then cut his night time feed out. But keep an eye on him but by this time he should be well and truely adjusted to you and his new surroundings and his eating should be well established by then. I am probably overly cautious and I cannot see your bird and I am not a vet.........but as long as your bird does not have any underlying problems and as long as you are happy that he is eating from a spoon well........then what I have just described above is what I would be doing and is what I do if I don't think a baby bird is eating properly. Hope this helps |
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Post by avinet on Oct 27, 2009 15:07:35 GMT 10
this bird is not stable in weight or anything one day he weighs 103grams next day 100grams then the next day he may be 102grams then drop back back to 100grams then go to 103grams. see where i am getting at his not stable at anything. We have a baby Sun for sale in the shop, about 12 weeks old, and when I weighed it today it was 102 grams. I consider it to be of a normal size and weight for a 3 months old baby Sun Conure. I also weighed the 1 year old male pied Sun Conure I have posted about in another thread, and that weighed 95 grams - again a normal size and weight. By contrast the 2 year old male Jenday Conure weighed 123 grams. So Bailey is a normal weight for his age. There is a very good article in the latest Birdkeeper by Jim McKendry on baby birds that regress when moved to a new location, and often want hand feeding to be started again. They basically forget they were weaned. This is a behaviour I have most often seen in Corellas and cockatiels, but also occasionally in Conures. I suspect that this emotional regression is what has happened with Bailey, and that his problems are psychological and not disease related. You should buy a copy of the magazine and read the article. cheers, Mike |
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Ollie at 8 1/2 months. 
Rosie at 3 months.
Then when you feel comfortable that he is actually eating a bit on his own, cut the middle feed out. It might only take a week for this to happen, it might only take a couple of days. Then I would see how he goes for another week and if he looks like he is eating well on his own, I would then cut the morning feed out. Then see how he goes for another week and if his crop has plenty of food in it in the afternoon, you could then cut his night time feed out. But keep an eye on him but by this time he should be well and truely adjusted to you and his new surroundings and his eating should be well established by then.
