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Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

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.

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby chad84 » Wed Jun 22, 2016 1:49 pm

I can touch the tip of his beak without him crying out today. Doesn't seem as sore. Thank God. All he does is retract a bit but no crying out. I also noticed he started back licking me and nibbling my fingers. But he is extremely cautious. He isn't flying into me or jumping on me or tumbling around all over me.
chad84
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 80
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Flight: Yes

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Wolf » Wed Jun 22, 2016 11:48 pm

Well maybe he just flew into something a bit too hard and just bruised it.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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African Grey (CAG)
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2Celestial Parrotlet
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Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jun 23, 2016 9:45 am

That's good news! But why is he molting at 5 months of age? Could he be much older?
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: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby chad84 » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:01 pm

Hey guys it's been 2 weeks.
Weight: 922g

Age: 24 weeks

Robert's beak stopped hurting much after 3 days and completely after 1 week. ! week after that, the very tiny needle-like tip eventually broke off.

Robert has been so loving for the last few weeks. I wake at 5am and then wake him around 6am so he gets 12hrs sleep. Every morning for the last few mornings, he wakes just before me and flying down from his perch to my bed and wakes me up around 5am.
Recently when I start kissing him, he puts his claws on the side of his head. What does that mean?

Like this...
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As you know I have been trying to get Robert to eat for the longest time now. He simply 'plays' with his chop. He would break into tiny pieces but never swallow. My last bag of formula is 3/4 empty and I was running out of options.
I sat down with the bowl of fruits for me and started eating the stuff and he will come over. He came over to investigate and snatched a grape from my hand and ate it slowly. He then came back over and took 1 from my plate and ate it rather quickly.
This is a video I just took of him taking a grape being offered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_9tAubcRo

Is this the same Robert that doesn't swallow anything? That night he ate 8 (seedless black) grapes and 2in of (a medium) banana. I was blown away. He then politely picked up his feeding syringe and brought it to me. I fed him a mix of 40% formula and 60% chop pureed into a very thick mixture. He ate 60 ml, then begged for more and ate 100 ml total.

Newest batch of chop/gloop

Gabanzo, lentils, green peas, green beans
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Almonds, oats, corn, brown rice, quinoa, flax seed & chia seed (ground up by me)
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Broccoli, spinach, carrots, pumpkin
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Full view
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Made bite size
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Mixed
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Close up
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Bagged and frozen
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Took robert to the beach yesterday. Its a private beach. You have to drive 14 km along the very edge of Trinidad's tallest mountain to get there. You need a vehicle with 4 x 4 drive to climb it. The road was so steep. And it was made of loose dirt! They cut the side of the mountain to access the beach. The mountain is so tall that at the very top we were literally in the clouds! Robert loved the cold moist cloudy atmosphere.

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chad84
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 80
Number of Birds Owned: 0
Flight: Yes

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Wolf » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:41 pm

This is great, he is learning to eat and the more that he watches you eat and the more that he is allowed to share with you the more he will eat. This goes for his chop as well, if he watches you nibble on it at his meal times the more of it he will try so don't puree all of it, share some of it just like it is mixed in the bag and work your way to larger pieces that he can hold and eat. He is doing so much better. Thanks for shareing this, I am so happy for him.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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African Grey (CAG)
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2Celestial Parrotlet
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Flight: Yes

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jul 05, 2016 10:10 am

Wonderful update! Great, great news! His grabbing his head means he wants you to scratch it. I ask my birds if they want PicaPica (that's what I call my scratching their heads) and, if they bend the head and grab it with their foot, it means "YES!"

Please don't take this the wrong way but, please, please, please, do NOT take your bird out without a harness! I know you think that he won't fly away because he loves you but, eventually, they all do so it's ALWAYS a great risk to do 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: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby chad84 » Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:14 pm

Pajarita wrote:Wonderful update! Great, great news! His grabbing his head means he wants you to scratch it. I ask my birds if they want PicaPica (that's what I call my scratching their heads) and, if they bend the head and grab it with their foot, it means "YES!"

Please don't take this the wrong way but, please, please, please, do NOT take your bird out without a harness! I know you think that he won't fly away because he loves you but, eventually, they all do so it's ALWAYS a great risk to do this.


If you look closely in all his pictures you will see a red harness attached to him. It's ALWAYS on him when we go outdoors.
chad84
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 80
Number of Birds Owned: 0
Flight: Yes

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jul 06, 2016 9:56 am

Ahhh, great! No, I did not see it, and still cannot (my eyes are not as good as they used to be) but I do see the leash now. One more thing, I would not use spinach. Spinach is great for people but it's way too high in iron and oxalic acid for birds...
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: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby chad84 » Mon Aug 01, 2016 7:08 am

Hi guys.
So much has happened since I last updated you all. And boy do I have quite the long story for you. Buckle up, it's gonna be a long one. Exams are done and now I have a few days off from university.

I moved into a new apartment about 3 weeks ago. The previous landlady's son suddenly decided that my Robert is not a suitable pet for a tenant! Even though she gave me permission to have him. So after caring for my Robby for over 4 months (who has been extremely quiet), the landlady's son started making trouble. He soaked my birdie and his cage down with a pressure (power) washer claiming he was just washing his car next to my cage which is in the porch. And various other acts of mischief. Mind you this is a grown man.

On a more cheerful note, Robert has been eating reduced amounts of Harrison's hand feeding formula and has taken an interest in the food I put in his cage daily. He eats between 30 ml - 45 ml 2 times a day. He misses his morning feed sometimes too. He can't wait for get out of the house and into his cage right after feeding. He sleeps on a perch in our bedroom from about 6 pm or 7 pm until 5 am. One we wake, he also wakes and flies unto our bed and begs for cuddling by bending down with his foot on his head and looking at us constantly. We give him all the cuddling he wants before we feed him and put him in his cage.

Last week a friend of mine (whom we only met once when they got their macaw 3 months ago) who has a scarlet macaw (Zayn) a little younger than Robert, flew away. Zayn's wing had been cut but still gained enough lift to fly away. It was a Friday evening he left. The live about 60 km (1 hr drive) away. Saturday morning ( a few hours later) as soon as the dawn hit, we drove down to see them and assist in recovering the macaw. Entire family was sad. We drove and drove looking for Zayn and finally found him. They were so happy. We used Robert to find him.

Below is a few pictures and a video of Robert as of a week ago.

Playing with Robert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEFFgEYMTnI

Supervising while I work.
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Sometimes he just day dreams out of that window and I don't know why
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My ladder is his play gym. he likes it so much.
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This is what he has everyday between his morning and evening feeding
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After he eats, he goes to work (play)
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This is Zayn and Robert after we recovered Zayn (when he flew away)
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chad84
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 80
Number of Birds Owned: 0
Flight: Yes

Re: Baby Green Wing macaw refusing formula at 11 weeks old

Postby Pajarita » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:59 am

I am SOOOO glad to see he is doing well! I was very worried about him... But, my dear, the way you interact with him is going to backfire on you. For one thing, you antagonize him with your hand the same way you would a puppy and you are failing to read his body language telling you to stop. Parrots don't play that way with each other - predator babies (like dogs and cats) do but not prey animals. Do you see how he leans back on the opposite direction your hand is, crouching down and putting up his foot trying to prevent you from reaching him? That's a CLEAR indication that he does NOT like what you are doing. He is asking you to stop and, to make matters more confusing, you are telling him he is a good boy! Your actions and your words don't match - and your actions are telling him that his desires are not important to you. And that's not the message you want to convey to him - you want him to know that you can always be trusted to only do good things to him. He puts up with it because he is a baby but these birds have powerful beaks and you do NOT want to establish a relationship where he feels that you are antagonizing him for no good reason and that you don't care about his feelings because, as he grows up, he will become much more self-assured and a time will come when he will prevent you from doing this with a good bite in your hand (and it will require stitches!). You are also caressing his body in a sexual way and this is fine now that he is a baby but it won't be fine when he matures sexually. Parrots bodies are always off limits to humans.
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

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