BABY QUAKER

[marthamendoza]

I just recently bought a baby Quaker and need some help with the feeding?i have been reading on it but really doesn't help?and is it normal to sleep alot? they didn't tell me how old he was he has some feathers but not all please help

[Wolf]

What are you giving it now?

[marthamendoza]

its called exact but i dont know how much to give it or how often right now i have been giving it every 2-4 hours.but i get scared because it does like a shaking thing after i feed it

[Wolf]

OK first things first how thick is it when you feed it ? what temperature is it when you feed him? How are you feeding it? Do you allow it a couple of minutes to thicken before feeding? Can you post a picture of the bird for us, it might help us to estimate its age and thus how often it should be fed?

I am guessing on some of this as I don't know approximate age of the bird. I would think that it will need to be fed every 3 to 4 hours. The exact handfeeding formula needs to be mixed with water that is 120 deg. F. and needs to reach the consistency of applesauce. The manufacturer recommends that you feed 15% of the birds weight. so it is not very much probably close to a teaspoon of it when mixed. But don't feed more than the bird wants. The bird should try to pull back when it has enough, but watch for the crop to start to fill out and stop when it appears to start rounding out. It would be better to feed a little less and feed more often than to feed to much at one time. Also after you mix the feed give it time to soak up the water as you don't want it to swell after you feed the bird. This bird is very young and needs to be kept warm so you may want to wrap a heating pad in a towel and put that in the cage or box with the bird and use a thermometer to regulate the temperature to around 75 deg at least. I don't know if you are already doing this or not.

[Pajarita]

You also need a digital scale to weigh the bird every single day (to make sure it's gaining correctly) and you need to make sure that the crop empties completely once a day so you don't give it sour crop (a fungal infection -this can be caused by cold formula, too -but be careful it's not too hot because that can burn the crop) so, at night, you should allow four hours between two of the feedings. The heating pad is better put spread out at the bottom of the container (covered by a towel which, in turn, it's covered with newspapers) where you are keeping it (you can't use a cage) the temperature depends on the amount of feathers the baby has grown but, for one that is not fully feathered, it should be around 85 degrees with 60% humidity. Also, the bird should be kept in semi-darkness and fed under low light because parrots are born with eyes that have not fully developed and need darkness for them to develop correctly (the reason why their nests are in cavities) or you end up with a bird with bad vision for the rest of its life.