Peanut and I say HI ALL!

[karenkc1994]

Hello everyone in the parrot community! I'd like to start off my saying I'm so glad I found this website and I hope to meet some cool bird lovers here

I actually came across this website when I started researching information for my little Peanut here. And I decided to join because everywhere I looked on the web, although had lots of helpful information, was not what I was hoping for. As a new parrot owner, I have lots of questions and concerns that I hope can be answered here.

My previous experience with birds has been with only budgies. I've have 4 of them (2 at a time), however, illness took 3 of their lives and 1 I believe died from dehydration (the first one that passed)... Besides the first one, I've had the others for roughly 5-6 years before they passed. I was 10 when I got my first two so I was very young and stupid when it came to caring for these birds. I tried my best but now that I look back on this, I was not a very good bird owner. I did let them out all the time and they flew around the house a lot. 3 of them were males and all stepped up but were startled quite easily so petting them didn't happen very often. The female was very scared of humans and very aggressive towards the only male she lived with.

So anyways, since then, it's been about 6 years since I owned a bird and I figured I was mature, ready, and responsible enough to get another birdy. Well, I just got Peanut, my little 10 week old Jenday Conure, about 5 days ago. I got him/her from a breeder who owns a small pet store (just birds and fish). He/she isn't sexed but the breeder says he thinks its a male, so I just assume its a male The breeder told me to feed him from a syringe 3 times a day, for the next 4-5 days, even though he is weaned. So today is the last day I am supposed to feed Peanut.

Peanut has been bobbing his head and flapping his one wing A LOT, which I assume is mainly due to hunger and wanting me to hand feed him. I'll take him out, feed him his dose, and put him back in his cage, where he continues to bob his head and make all sorts of noise. He will sometimes eat his pellets when I leave the area after feeding him. Peanut also hates going back into his cage and I think he is learning when I plan to bring him back in because he tries to fly away now (his wings are clipped). So just wondering what advice do you guys have for me regarding this problem and his diet now that I need to stop hand feeding him?

Also, any other tips and advice for a 10 week old baby conure would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

[Pajarita]

Well, yes, you are right, he does that because he is hungry - pellets are too hard and too dry for a baby so you need to give him two kinds of soft food served fresh twice a day. You can also offer some 'soft' seeds like millet, for example. Personally, I would not go from three times a day to none when it comes to feeding. I would do two for, say, a week, then one for another week because they don't learn to eat other stuff from one day to the next. I would also make sure I am weighting him every single day always at the same time to ensure he is not losing weight while weaning. Be very, very careful about weaning him properly because the alternative is a bird with issues for the rest of his life. (BTW, there is no way a breeder can tell the gender of a baby sunnie so I suggest you ask for a DNA when you take him next to the vet -you have taken him to one for a wellness check up, haven't you?).

As to his wanting to come out, yes, of course he does! Birds were not created to be in a cage or all alone for even minutes much less hours. They were created to be surrounded by their family from birth to death so you need to spend a number of hours with him on you, just cuddling and keeping him company so he feels safe and loved and doesn't grow up disaffected.

[Wolf]

First of all I would throw out the timetable that the breeder told you as the bird did not read it. Secondly if he is acting like he wants more and is begging for it, I would give it to him, he is still hungry and needs to eat. Thirdly, I don't feed pellets to my birds and in the case of a young birds such as this one they may still be too hard for him to eat properly so I would give him a budgie seed mix for now, and soak them for 2 or 3 hours first o soften them a little.
As for his continued diet I would start feeding him some fresh raw produce first thing in the mornings, more specifically a different vegetable, fruit and leafy green followed by a food we call gloop, you can read all about it in the diet section of the forum. It is an excellent food and once he is eating it well it can totally replace the weaning formula and he will like it better as well. I normally give this about an hour after the produce. And for dinner give him the seed mix and remove it when he goes to sleep for the night.
I don't know what kind of schedule that you have, but I would make use of the time that you take him out to feed him for some additional one on one time and I would also walk around with him and put him down for short periods in different places including on and in his cage, while you stand there with him. Make putting him in his cage and closing the door a random act so that you don't always put him in it to leave him there. This will solve the problem that is just beginning before it can become an issue.

[karenkc1994]

Well, yes, you are right, he does that because he is hungry - pellets are too hard and too dry for a baby so you need to give him two kinds of soft food served fresh twice a day. You can also offer some 'soft' seeds like millet, for example. Personally, I would not go from three times a day to none when it comes to feeding. I would do two for, say, a week, then one for another week because they don't learn to eat other stuff from one day to the next. I would also make sure I am weighting him every single day always at the same time to ensure he is not losing weight while weaning. Be very, very careful about weaning him properly because the alternative is a bird with issues for the rest of his life.

Hi Pajarita, thanks for the advice! The breeder says he doesn't sell his birds until they are fully weaned. I had to wait a few weeks before he let me take him home. He can eat by himself so I thought maybe the hand feeding was kind of like a bonding and trust thing. But I don't want him to rely on me to feed him all the time. Do you still think I should handfeed him for the next couple weeks like the way you said? I have a bowl of seed mix and another of Zupreem pellets in his cage, as well as a dish on the bottom of his cage for fruits and veggies.

Also, I have not taken him to the vet yet. I need to call around and see what vet does birds first.. What exactly should I ask for when I book the appointment? Just a check up or are there lab tests or other things I should get done as well?

[karenkc1994]

First of all I would throw out the timetable that the breeder told you as the bird did not read it. Secondly if he is acting like he wants more and is begging for it, I would give it to him, he is still hungry and needs to eat. Thirdly, I don't feed pellets to my birds and in the case of a young birds such as this one they may still be too hard for him to eat properly so I would give him a budgie seed mix for now, and soak them for 2 or 3 hours first o soften them a little.
As for his continued diet I would start feeding him some fresh raw produce first thing in the mornings, more specifically a different vegetable, fruit and leafy green followed by a food we call gloop, you can read all about it in the diet section of the forum. It is an excellent food and once he is eating it well it can totally replace the weaning formula and he will like it better as well. I normally give this about an hour after the produce. And for dinner give him the seed mix and remove it when he goes to sleep for the night.
I don't know what kind of schedule that you have, but I would make use of the time that you take him out to feed him for some additional one on one time and I would also walk around with him and put him down for short periods in different places including on and in his cage, while you stand there with him. Make putting him in his cage and closing the door a random act so that you don't always put him in it to leave him there. This will solve the problem that is just beginning before it can become an issue.

Hmm, I wish I knew about this gloop before I purchased 3 different bags of seeds and pellets for this guy lol. Sounds like a much healthier and yummier option for my bird. Well, I guess I need to start eating a little healthier myself so I can feed him some fresh produce every single day. Oh well, I guess it all works out anyways since I just signed up for a gym membership

Can you direct me to a post or webpage that can teach me specifically how to make this gloop? All I can find are different recipes I guess but I'm not sure how to cook this, such as method and time of cooking, etc. Thanks

[karenkc1994]

Actually, nevermind. Found a gloop recipe for Dummies post
Sorry, still new here lol. Thanks Wolf

[Pajarita]

Well, the fact of the matter is that no conure is 100% weaned at 6 weeks of age. I don't breed parrots and, as I rescue, I hardly ever end up with a young one but I ended up with lovebird, budgie and cockatiel babies due to different circumstances (parents that came with a tiny baby or on eggs and, with the budgies and one pair of lovies, they hid the nest so well that I did not realize they had it until they had started to incubate) and, as I don't believe in hand-feeding, I allowed the parents to raise them on their own timetable and the lovebird and cockatiel babies did not even come out of the nest for three whole months. So, taking into consideration that the larger the species, the longer it takes for them to grow up and, hence, the longer the period of time they stay in the nest and with their parents, it's safe to say that conures take even longer which makes the 6 week complete weaning nothing but wishful thinking.

The truth is that breeders, as merchants whose product is baby birds, need to move the 'merchandise' as soon as possible so as to boost their bottom line so they will 'adorn' the truth skewing it in their favor and the too fast weaning is one of those things they all do (unfortunately for the birds). Do baby conures eat on their own at 6 weeks? Yes, they do - the same way that a 2 year old will eat on his own but mothers don't just put a plate of grown-up food on the high chair tray and leave it at that, they feed the baby special food at the main meals and give them something to munch on their own for snacks. Well, it's pretty much the same with baby birds. They eat on their own but their parents still supplement their intake for quite a while. Let me give you another example with which I am VERY familiar: canaries. Canary babies leave the nest at exactly 3 weeks of age but the father still feeds them for another 4 or 5 weeks - and canaries are tiny! So, you do the math.

So, please, handfeed the baby as often as he asks for it and serve two kinds of soft food fresh twice daily. Soft food is exactly what the name implies, food that is soft and easy for them to eat like gloop, polenta/couscous/pastina mixed with baby food (from jars), some nice whole grain bread (like Arnold's Nutty Almond or HealthNut), etc. And don't throw away the food you bought, you can always use the seeds and pellets for dinner once he is a bit older. I don't recommend pellets because they are not the best dietary option for parrots but it's not as if the bird will drop dead from eating some...

[karenkc1994]

Well he's actually around 11 weeks now but you're right, he is still very young and needs to be fed foods other than the pellets and seeds I have given him in his bowl. I guess I didn't realize since he's so young that he still cannot eat the adult food properly. I just thought that if he was old enough to leave the breeder (or in his case, his mother/caretaker), then he is old enough to take care of himself... which is obviously not the case. Thanks for the human comparison, I've never thought about it that way actually. I will keep feeding him his formula and I'm planning on grocery shopping for him very soon to make this gloop you guys speak of Last night, I gave him his dose of formula, then gave him a slice of apple and he loved it! Ate the whole slice (minus the skin lol). Is it alright giving him a small slice a day? Or is that too much sugar?

[Pajarita]

No, the 'high sugar content in fruits that will make the bird fat' theory is nothing but a fallacy put out by pellets manufacturers (I had a long argument with Dr. Harrison -the one that makes the pellets- on this subject). For one thing, what is bad for everybody (humans and animals) is the processed sugar which is sucrose that has been bleached so it crystallizes and becomes white (aka table sugar) or the high fructose syrups -basically, anything that has been 'made' by man. What fruits contain is fructose which is also a sugar but it's metabolized differently by the body PLUS fruits have high fiber and HUGE amounts of water so the fructose ends up super diluted. For another, fruits are part of a parrot's natural diet so nature already gave them the necessary enzymes to process it into energy very efficiently. So, yes, give him a nice slice of apple (just make sure it's organic because apples have consistently been the No. 1 'dirtiest' produce on the list for years and years (each apple has more than 30 different chemicals on it ). Blackberries are also good for them and they don't need to be organic but blueberries, strawberries and cherries (also very good for them) do. Watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, bananas, oranges, sweet potatoes are OK but cherry/grape tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, kale, peppers, potatoes, carrots need to be organic.

[karenkc1994]

Yeah, I've heard fruits are littered with chemicals... Sad how almost all the food we buy from the grocery store nowadays are all GMOs. If I could grow fruits where I live, I would totally do it all year round. But sadly, I can only grow very limited amounts of fruit and some vegetables. Also, I read somewhere online that even though these birds are meant to eat very large amounts of fruits in the wild, we shouldn't feed our pet birds too much due to the fact that sugar means more energy/activity which wild birds need for travelling purposes. Something that our beloved house birds don't necessarily do. Because wild birds travel such long distances, they need the energy and sugar, right? What are your thoughts on that?