Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

Everything about Alexandrine baby

Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.

Everything about Alexandrine baby

Postby Nariman » Wed Jun 20, 2018 7:16 am

Hi everyone,
I am new to you, and also new to the acquisition of a baby Alexandrian parrot :irn: , named Jojo, aged only 5 weeks, and I do not know whether it is female or male, can you help me in providing the necessary information to take care of it? The amount of eating? And feeding periods? Can I feed him fruit, vegetables and boiled eggs? Can I touch it and hold it? Can I train him on something in this age? and when can I begin his training?
Please answer me ASAP. ;)
with best regards
Nariman
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Baby Alexandrine
Flight: No

Re: Everything about Alexandrine baby

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:27 am

Hi, Nariman and Alex baby! Welcome to the forum. I hope from the bottom of my heart that I misunderstood your posting and that you do not have in your possession a 5 week old alex baby because buying such a young, unweaned baby without any knowledge whatsoever is a recipe for disaster as there is no way you can learn to handfeed a baby bird properly by just following whatever instructions I or anybody else can give you over the internet. It's something that requires hands-on knowledge acquired by watching somebody do it many times and practicing under a mentor's eye [it's VERY easy to make them aspirate, give them the formula too cold, too hot, too thin, too thick, etc. and not doing it right can cause an eating disorder in the best case scenario and death on the worst with a fungal infection or an impacted crop in the middle]. But, of course, I will share what I know with you.

A five week baby requires, at least, four feedings a day (breeders will tell you one or two but it's not true] with the first one at dawn [this time of the year, around 5:30 am) and the last one at deep dusk [around 9 pm]. The temperature of the formula should be constant and no less than 100 and no more than 105 degrees. By constant I mean that you can't allow it to get too cold as you are feeding [you should put a food thermometer in it and keep the bowl inside another, larger bowl filled up with hot water]. If you are going to warm it up in the microwave, make sure that you stir it well before filling up your pipette or syringe because nuking leaves pockets of intense heat and of cold. You need to make sure that its crop is empty early in the am before you start feeding it because, if it's not, there is a problem there and you will need to take the baby to an avian vet. The bird should have a box or a parrot nest of an adequate size where it can be kept during the day because parrots need darkness to finish developing their eyes [exposing them to light during this process makes it so their eyes do not develop properly]. It also needs to be kept extra warm [around 90 degrees - but be careful what you use as a heating element because heat lamps are not good, you need a heating pad of the kind that doesn't shut off automatically after two hours set on low or medium]. Also, putting something cozy [like a soft baby blanket, for example] inside the nest give them a sense of safety and comfort [it kind of replaces the warm body and support -it can lean on it- that would have been provided by its siblings in the nest].


It is too young to get any kind of other food than formula but, in another three or four weeks, when you are down to two feedings a day, you can start putting soft food in its cage. Soft food is, as the name implies, food that is soft but it's also food that is easily digestible, highly nutritious, warm and easy to eat - things like cooked whole grains, couscous, pastina, polenta, etc cooked to softness and mixed with either pureed produce and/or baby food from jars [things like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, blueberries, pomegranate, etc - but stay away from spinach and too much kale]. Soft food should be served fresh and warm twice a day during the weaning period and it should be accompanied by soft seeds [like millet, for example, or other seeds like safflower or hemp that have been soaked for, at least, 24 hours] and raw produce [it will not really eat the produce until much later but putting it there everyday starts getting them used to seeing it as food which helps later on when it's learning what is food and what is not]. No boiled eggs EVER! Parrots do not eat eggs in the wild, it's animal protein and it messes up their liver -parrots, with the exception of two and possibly three species that are not normally kept as pets, are all classified as herbivores and not omnivores as popular belief would have it so no animal protein at all - not ever!


You should not train at all - it's like sending a 3 month old human baby to school, all you will do is traumatize the poor thing! This does not mean that the baby will not be learning - it will! But it will learn the same way that human babies learn from their mothers and pretty much the same thing - basically: to trust and love you. This time is the very foundation of your entire relationship with this bird and what will determine how this bird will grow up and behave as an adult so spend as much time as possible with it in a loving and patient way. Some people will tell you that should start off the same way that you are planning on continuing but this defies reason and common sense. ALL altricial babies, human or animal, require special attention and long hours of company. It comforts them, it makes them feel safe, it makes them feel loved and this, in turn, allows them to grow up into well-adjusted individuals. Parent parrots in the wild spend months and months caring for their young - and that's ALL they do all day long. Now, obviously, you are not going to be able to do that but you should spend most of the day with it.

As the bird becomes mobile on its own [flying around and such -I do hope its wings are not clipped because, if they are, that's a HUGE booboo!] it will learn to step up, step down and come as well as learn words like "good morning", "night, night", "No!", "Good bird" "Bad bird", "yummy, yummy" or whatever words you choose to use. [I suggest you use the generic 'bird' instead of 'boy' or 'girl' as you won't know its gender for another 2 years or so unless you are going to have it DNAd before that].

Also, all birds need to be kept at a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk in order to keep their endocrine system healthy so, please, take that into consideration when establishing your daily routine with it [which should never be deviated from one single iota for the next 10 months or so - you can be a bit more flexible after that].


Please let me know if there is something that I missed... but I bet you had no idea this was going to be so complicated, right?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Everything about Alexandrine baby

Postby Nariman » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:29 pm

Hi Pajarita, I am very thankful for your answer and your help :) . I would like to assure you that Jojo is okay :thumbsup: because he has been 12 days since I bought him;) . I have no problem with how to feed him or how to prepare his food, and his wings are not cut, and his activity is very good :danicing: , but I do not put him in a dark place. Is that harmful to him? Can I take him out of the box and carry him on my hand a lots or does it affect the speed of his growth? The temperature ranges from 24 to 35 Celsius Is it suitable for him? Sorry if I ask too much. And at first he can't walk, is that normal? But yesterday he began to walk. And he still cant stand right on my hand, is it too early for that? This is his photos, does he look okay compared to his age?
Attachments
IMG-dc1ab5b18028e85573c37766badad0b7-V.jpg
Jojo's photo 1
IMG-dc1ab5b18028e85573c37766badad0b7-V.jpg (46.72 KiB) Viewed 3970 times
IMG-25b0a2490d103da73b351ff78f0708aa-V.jpg
Jojo's photo 2
IMG-25b0a2490d103da73b351ff78f0708aa-V.jpg (61.9 KiB) Viewed 3970 times
IMG-9a7adb8843a9373a99e88d519c7f23f6-V.jpg
Jojo's photo 3
IMG-9a7adb8843a9373a99e88d519c7f23f6-V.jpg (48.08 KiB) Viewed 3970 times
Nariman
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Baby Alexandrine
Flight: No

Re: Everything about Alexandrine baby

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:05 am

Sorry I did not answer before. I am having all kind of issues with my laptop - I couldn't even turn it on yesterday [Keku chewed up the On/Off button :roll: ].

I am no expert on baby parrots because I only rehome, rescue or adopt but the amount of feathers looks to be about right for what I remember from quaker babies. I don't like it that you say it can't stand right but I think it might be more a matter of your subjective perception than any real difficulty on the bird's part because when birds are babies, they don't really perch the way adults do by wrapping their toes around a stick, they prefer flat surfaces [like the 'floor' of a nest would be].

If you have already exposed its eyes to bright light during the day, the damage is done and there is little you can do now because you, pretty much, lost the 'window'.

As to carrying the bird around in a hand... I would not recommend this.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Everything about Alexandrine baby

Postby Nariman » Sun Jun 24, 2018 5:16 pm

Thanks a lot :thumbsup:
Nariman
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 5
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Baby Alexandrine
Flight: No


Return to Health, Nutrition & Diet

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot] and 9 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store