My baby 2.5 month old Alexandrine first fly - hit two window

[alexandrin]

UPDATE: I went ahead and bought doxycycline 100mg capsules (powder inside capsules), I took now one capsule, extracted it on a plate, broke the powder into 4 portions, tomorrow morning, will take one of this 4 portions, put into his morning water, mix it up, then closer to evening replace this water with regular water and next morning again put him new water with doxycycline. Is that right? how many hours should i keep in the cage each doxycyclineized water before replacing to new clean water? thanks!

What if put 25Mg of this powder into his food instead of water? its not good idea?


Here how he is this morning, second day with egg and first morning after vitamins:

https://youtu.be/JbeDpYtk1FQ

https://youtu.be/SG5N89EY0jE

https://youtu.be/5TCBhIcXiK8

Now he still can sit low to the perch (maybe its OK for him? maybe also related to his young age of 3 month) but at least, you can see he is very active and energized when eating, thats good, plus overall look becomes more happy.

[Pajarita]

Dosage is good but don't replace the medicated water with pure one at night, take it out when he falls asleep and leave him without any water until dawn the following morning when you replace with fresh medicated one. Don't worry, this is not going to dehydrate him or bother him in any way. This is what I do with my birds because, this way, you ensure that the bird is going to drink exactly what it is supposed to drink of the medicine. If you put fresh water at night, he might drink of it very early in the am, before you are up and mess up the dosage he is supposed to receive. Prey birds (passerines like canaries, all aviary and most companion species of parrots) are crepuscular feeders (because it's safer for them as twilight reduces 10% of the predators excellent sight) so their brains are 'programmed' to eat and drink at these times - and they are also programmed to take a certain number of sips of water (there is a bit of variation here but it's actually pretty steady for each species). It is this fact that we use to medicate in water ensuring that the bird will take enough water with medicine to make a difference. Canary breeders have been using this method since antibiotics were discovered and it works like a charm.

Yes, he is eating and moving around which is great! But, my dear NO EGG!!! NOT EVER! I know that people believe that birds should be given egg and this is 100% the fault of canary breeders that have been using eggs to bring them into breeding condition but animals that evolved to eat only plant material should never be given any type of animal protein. Let me explain. Not all protein is the same. Different types of protein are made out of different amino acids so animal protein (meat, egg, milk, cheese, etc) has different amino acids than plant protein PLUS much more fat (not good for birds) and bad cholesterol (which plant protein does not have). With the exception of two and possibly three species of parrots, they are all classified as herbivores (animals that eat plant material and NOT animals or animal products). There is not a single species of parrot that has eggs as part of their natural diet and when you feed them eggs, all you are doing is giving the bird something that is WAAAAYYY too high in protein and fat and it's full of bad cholesterol. Now the problem with this is -aside from the bad level of protein and fat- that because they were never meant to eat animal protein, their bodies do not have the necessary enzymes to properly metabolize it. And, to make matters much worse, because herbivores never consume bad cholesterol, their bodies do not have a mechanism to get rid of it so the body stores it in the liver, the arteries, in tumors and, when it's VERY advanced, in the eyes (parrots get white blobs of it in their eyes) and, after that, they die. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not feed your parrot eggs! They are nothing but slow poison to them and the reason why people that canaries only last 8 or 9 years when, if fed right, a canary can live into its teens (I had one that died at 18 years of age).

[alexandrin]

1. Antibiotics clear, will follow. A. Morning giving him water with 25MG, when he falling sleep, taking out the water, morning again new water with 25Mg. Like this for 14 days.
Questions:
A. its 100% safe for him considering he still a baby barely 3 month old?
B. Isn't it worth waiting 10 days with vitamines to see how he is and then decide if taking this?

2. The university breeder's store instructed me to give him 10 days Egg in addition to the food mixture as she saw that he got very thin and even the front bone on his chest was almost visible. So she said give him the half egg in addition to his food for 10 days only to boost his recovery, what can I replace instead of the egg? any fruit or veg ?
3. If I wont give him the egg, on which I was putting the vitamines powder, how give him this powder instead? maybe you can suggest some particular veg or fruit on which i could do it for him?

Fresh video of him sitting, just now:
https://youtu.be/bHPNLinANR4

Thank you so much!

[Pajarita]

Age is no problem. Babies (human, dogs, cats, birds, all babies) can take antibiotics without a problem - the ONLY thing you have to take into consideration is that, once the treatment is over, you need to make sure the intestinal flora (good bacteria in the gut) is replenished because the antibiotic kills both bad AND good bacteria so add a good quality probiotic to its food (I use the ones for humans that have prebiotics -the food that the good bacteria needs-, the most number of strains and the largest CFUs -look for something around 40 billion) and make sure it's getting lots of ripe raw fruits.

Egg does not make the bird gain weight, you need simple carbs for that - things like cooked white rice, bread, that kind of thing...

He seems to be breathing better on this last video.

Now, whether you do the vitamins and better diet first and see what happens or put it on antibiotics at the same time it's up to you. Antibiotics usually make them gain weight even if they are not consuming more food so it works both ways: to eliminate infection AND to make them gain weight.

As to the medium for the vitamins now that the egg is out of the question... well, one of the reasons why I decided on gloop for my birds is that you can add all kinds of stuff to it: liver cleansers, flavorings, probiotics, etc. I don't use it for the vitamin/mineral supplement because I prefer to use the one that dissolves in water as I have birds (passerines) that do not eat gloop and also because one cannot tell how much of the vitamin ends up in the bird while, when you put it in the water, you know the bird is getting what is supposed to. But if the one you have has to be added to soft food, try identifying something that is soft and a high value item (this means some sort of food that the bird prefers above all other) at the same time and use a small piece of it for the vitamin powder.

[alexandrin]

I think we will do this :
1. Continue with 14 days daily vitamins
2. Keep up with food, never make him hungry.
3. Make sure water always full and fresh
4. Here and there hand offer him daily fresh veg and fruit

In 10 days if he will show any weakness in heavy breathing
Or continues low standing on perch, we will try antibiotics for 14 days.

That sounds as best way to go, because today already he shown good sings, need make sure he catching up wieght quickly
And the front chest bone goes behind and no longer visible with ease.

Start with Antibiotics will help if (hope not) in 10 days we still see chest bone is there?

Thanks!!

[alexandrin]

Cage Update:
Moved last evening to the new cage, in the process he took another short flight, into a wooden chair near the cage, results in a slight re-visability of the previously caused cosmetical cracks, so I hope in few days - week time this will heal up from his beak again as it was almost gone from 1st accident with the window.

Here you can see I just took a video:
https://youtu.be/Ca2HBgdxR6o


From that process, he is now super afraid from us / our hands again, so trust to be built all over again now...

Yes he is now in a new stress but at least he was eating already in the new cage which is good.

[Pajarita]

Watch him VERY carefully and, if he is not looking 100% better in a few days, put him on antibiotics because diet and vitamins are not going to change anything in 10 days (it takes about a year for a good diet to start showing results and two for it to make a complete change) and birds hide symptoms so, by the time we see anything wrong, the bird is super sick and you need to act immediately.

And don't forget to give it soft food served fresh and warm twice a day because there are only two possibilities for a baby to be so skinny that you can feel the keel bone (if you can see it, the bird is waaaaayyyy too skinny): 1) it was not weaned properly (and we know this is true of this bird because, at his age, he should not be eating adult food on its own and nothing else) and 2) it's sick.

Next time you move him, towel him or he is going to end up seriously hurt and completely traumatized.

[alexandrin]

Watch him VERY carefully and, if he is not looking 100% better in a few days, put him on antibiotics because diet and vitamins are not going to change anything in 10 days (it takes about a year for a good diet to start showing results and two for it to make a complete change) and birds hide symptoms so, by the time we see anything wrong, the bird is super sick and you need to act immediately.

And don't forget to give it soft food served fresh and warm twice a day because there are only two possibilities for a baby to be so skinny that you can feel the keel bone (if you can see it, the bird is waaaaayyyy too skinny): 1) it was not weaned properly (and we know this is true of this bird because, at his age, he should not be eating adult food on its own and nothing else) and 2) it's sick.

Next time you move him, towel him or he is going to end up seriously hurt and completely traumatized.

If the antibiotics are 100% safe, we can give it a shot if it can't hurt but only make sure that if something is wrong, its fixed.

I wont be planning moving him again soon, but next time I will move him, I surely be doing it with towel (unless by then, hopefully he is...be ready do such moves hassle free as he will trust me 100% by then)


He is eating actively which is good, I also gave him now frozen mango, he eat it nicely, is it OK giving a frozen mango in a frozen form? because he seemed to like it a lot.

Up to date video from now:

https://youtu.be/LqGDIH3-n8Q

https://youtu.be/Ca2HBgdxR6o

Gave him today also few times a fresh cucumber, he love it so much, eat it rapidly.

[Pajarita]

I would not feed frozen anything to my birds -it's sooooo unnatural! My motto with birds is always emulate nature as much as possible. Most likely, he just liked the taste of mango (all my birds love mango, from the little ones to the big ones). Frozen is good but you need to thaw things first before you give them to the bird (this is a bird from a tropical climate, nothing they eat is cold, much less frozen). Always think of what the bird would eat in the wild because that will always be what is best for it.

And, again, you CANNOT feed an Alexandrine sunflower seeds and that's all he has in his bowl. He needs soft food and fruits for during the day and budgie mix for dinner. Sunflower seeds are too high in protein and oil and a slow poison to fruit eaters.

[alexandrin]

I would not feed frozen anything to my birds -it's sooooo unnatural! My motto with birds is always emulate nature as much as possible. Most likely, he just liked the taste of mango (all my birds love mango, from the little ones to the big ones). Frozen is good but you need to thaw things first before you give them to the bird (this is a bird from a tropical climate, nothing they eat is cold, much less frozen). Always think of what the bird would eat in the wild because that will always be what is best for it.

And, again, you CANNOT feed an Alexandrine sunflower seeds and that's all he has in his bowl. He needs soft food and fruits for during the day and budgie mix for dinner. Sunflower seeds are too high in protein and oil and a slow poison to fruit eaters.

1. Ok No cold/frozen, will make it room temp first next serve.
2. It's sunflower only there, its the mix that the university breeder sold me, it has sunflower seeds + other seeds + pallets of vegies and fruits. It's a bad mix? It might have bit too much sun flower seeds in the mix, i try take out some of these to reduce it. --- In addition cooking vegies/fruits -- any mix you can suggest to buy? like wheat seeds etc..? to replace this mix with sunflower seeds?