JendayConure

[kristiharsh]

We just bought a baby Jenday and shes not eating very well even though shes always in her food bowl and we thought she was eating a lot but we took her to the vet and he said she lost a little weight and gave us this mixture to make muffins for her. She has been tearing the muffins apart but we dont know if shes getting anything inside of her. We are so worried, does anyone have any ideas on what they absolutely love to eat thats healthy. Other than that she seems very happy. Shes always with my son, her owner, and seems so happy with him. Is she just stressed because we have only had her 4 days. Does any of this sound familiar or should we be as worried as we feel? Although we have only has her 4 days, she is already part of our family.

[Chantilly]

Hi kristiharsh, your baby may not be eating due to stress(moving to a new home, and if you are handling her to often). So keep a close eye on her poos. If they are just black and like tar this means either she is not eating or has internal bleeding(Dont get worried this is verry unlikely to be the case.) If she has been eating her poo should be green or brownish/greenish, and have a little section of white(urites) and a watery section. Her poo should be soft. I dont think that it is uncommon for a new family member to stop eating for a while, she is probably quite freaked out and wondering what the hell just happened. So make sure that your son dosnt jump at her... let her choose to come to him. She might be happy to be with him or she might be feeling like it is the only option, and please do not take this the wrong way, because birds have a completely different way of handling the situation than we do. So just keep an eye on her(lol i keep saying it is a her :p ) poo. I know it is really hard not to just scoop her up and cuddle her all day long, but I dont think this is the best thing strait away.(I did this with my bird, and she was fine with it. But I have read things against it for various animals including birds and I do understand the reason) Let her choose who she wants to be with/where she wants to be. If you could reply with some info on her droppings appearance and smell it would help allot. After a few days she should begin to eat if she hasnt been. just keep a close eye, and if she hasnt ate anything in 3 days i would take her back to the vet.
If she hasnt been drinking try to ofer her a bath, this will encourage her to drink.
Here is a link on signs of good and bad poo. http://www.beautyofbirds.com/poopology.html
If you are unsure what to look for in her droppings you can post a photo and we will try to help, but dont stress it to much
hehe sorry this is a pretty crppy paragraph! lol
This is just my advice, fellow members will probably be able to give more advice.
I'll reply to you asap, but after 1hour and a half will not be able to reply until tommorow.
cheers,
Chantilly

[kristiharsh]

Thank Chantille, I just typed all this stuff and I just lost it. I was just saying I hope your right. He said her poop was greenish. The vet said she had lost weight and gave us some stuff to make muffins but Jake (my son) said she wasnt eating it. The vet said try baby food like oatmeal so he is going to try that. We also got a space heater because the vet said try to warm the room to 80 degrees and to put a blanket over her cage except where she can look out and see Jake. Other than that she seems so content. She immediately went to Jake and got on his hand walked up his arm and snuggled in his hair and went to sleep. She also loves to get on your stomach and snuggle in your arm and lay on her back and just look around at her claws or you and then she will sleep llike that also. She is so cute and it is like we have had her forever. She is already part of the family and we are so scared something is wrong. I am hoping like you said that she is probably just freaked out because we have only had her for 4 days but she just doesn't seem freaked out. She seems so content. The vet gave us some medicine so hopefully she will start eating tonight. My son is absolutely in love with her and if something happens to her it is going to be awful. Thank you for your answer, I really hope she's just a little scared and needs time to chill.

[Chantilly]

Itus really annoying when you loose everything you type lol, it has happened to me a few times,
Even if she isnt scared she may just be very suprised, what medicine and what is it for? Also how often is she looking at her feet? all day or just at a night or when it is sleep time? I ask because birds will do this of a night when sleepy, but if it is constant 24/7 this is a sign of a problem.
sorry i keep having to stop in between scentennces because my gcc wont stop flying off! She just decided she wanted a bath, so now shes sitting on my shoulder content so i may continue.
If her poo is green some sources will say this is a sign of a problem but it depends on the diet.
Not trying to be gross but this is what my birds normal droppings look like(Tilly just pooed on me)

Tilly's normal poo, as you see it has the actual poo(green), solide urates(wite) and liquid urates(clear, though they just soaked right into my shirt).
Scroll to see the full pic. :)

image.jpg (85.9 KiB) Viewed 2248 times

Her poo will vary density and raitio of the green to the water, depends what she has ate, (pellets, vegies, seed or fruit) and if she has just bathed, but in general her poo is usually that colour. oh also i dont think it shows the whole picure so to se the full pic scroll down/up on it.
Sorry for such a late reply. I will reply again tommorow(I go on after midday for two hours).
But if her poo is green it sounds pretty good, and she is eating,. But please do tell me what the medicine is and what for. Thanks
~Chantilly
Edit: I just thought to ask, is your vet an avian vet, or just an ordinary vet? Ordinary vets really dont have a great deal of knowledge on birds, so if so, reasearch his advise, or call an avian vet and ask him for some information mabey? and if you have any questions about what your vet has advised, feel free to ask us. Its not that we know more than them, but different things to them. And different members on this forum have talked to different vets and gotten different oppinions.(My bird due to the fact that i am in the middle of knowwhere, has never been to a vet,but i still get talk to people who know a great deal on birds, illness/symptoms/problems ect:) And I have read on this forum about avian vets advising the wrong kind of foods and all that, so nobody knows everything.

[Pajarita]

It's common for baby birds to regress when they are rehomed (it's the stress of the new, unfamiliar environment and humans that does it) so it's always recommended that you handfeed them for a while and offer them soft foods served fresh and warm twice a day. You can handfeed from a spoon but, usually, baby birds are used to been fed from a syringe. Get yourself some handfeeding formula at the pet store and follow the instructions on how to prepare it (the consistency should be thick like oatmeal, for example) and offer it to her warm from a spoon twice a day. If she doesn't eat it from the spoon, you will have to try the syringe (they sell them in the petstores, too) and what you do is touch the side of the beak with it (to get the 'feeding response' where they open their beak) and inserting the tip of the syringe from the left side of the beak and downward (pointing to the 'bowl' at the bottom of the lower beak -this is to avoid choking her or making her aspirate it), you squirt a teeny tiny bit of it, take it out and allow her to swallow it before you do it again - it's time consuming but it's the safest way to do it (if she aspirates, she will die). She should also get soft foods (she is still weaning even if the breeder told you that she is already weaned) in her cage. Soft foods are just that: foods that are soft: oatmeal (the plain old fashioned kind), grits (also, plain old-fashioned), polenta, couscous, cream of wheat, tiny pastina (the teeny tiny noodles used for Italian soup), that kind of stuff. You should mix them with baby food from jars (sweet potato, carrots, etc -no spinach) and serve them fresh and warm twice a day.

Let me know if you have a doubt, question or if there is anything else I might be able to help you with.