New Amazon underweight with feather issues

[Jrb4290]

Last night I went a rescued an Amazon from an unfortunate situation. He is in way too small a cage, which I will rectify, but he was only being fed grit and some seeds. As a result he is rather skinny and is missing a lot of feathers. So my main order of business is to get him on a better diet to get some weight on and hopefully help with his feather issue (I’m adding supplements as well). My conure is on a pellet based diet and I want to get him on this as well, but I’m also thinking of offering him fresh fruits and veggies as well. What is the best way to go about doing this? I’m hoping he’s easy and is fine with me just taking the seed away, but should I do it slowly or all in one go? He’s 30 years old and I have a feeling he’s never been given a proper diet and am just looking for some pointers.

[Pajarita]

Hi, welcome to the forum and thank you for taking an older bird with medical issues. First and before anything else, please make an appt with an avian vet because you need to find out where you stand, medically speaking, with this bird (older birds that have been fed seeds all along are overweight and your is underweight which indicates a medical problem - usually, advanced liver malfunction). You do not want a real bad surprise and heartbreak...

Now, the first thing you need to do is to put him on a multivitamin/mineral supplement every day (but find out first what else the bird was eating or if they were giving him any type of supplement because, if they had fed the bird just seeds and nothing else, the bird would be dead by now so they must have fed it either eggs or meat or something that has D3 in it or a supplement). You should get the powder kind that dissolves in water and, in order to ensure that he is getting enough, you should take the water away at night, when the bird is already asleep, and replace it at dawn with the medicated water.

You should also start a detox regimen immediately with liver and kidney cleansers because, at his age, and eating seeds all along, I can assure you he already has liver malfunction - there is no 'if' about it, there is only how much is the damage (you should ask your vet to do a bile acids test on him asap). Aloe vera juice (not gel) from the inner filet (not whole leaf) in his water (1/4 aloe vera, 3/4 water) along with milk thistle liquid non-alcoholic extract (half a dropperful in 4 to 6 oz of water) and, in his soft food, you should add methionine and dandelion root (from capsules but not the whole thing, a sprinkle of each).

Now, I don't feed pellets because, after more than 25 years of research, I have concluded that the are not and never will be the best dietary option for parrots (I can elaborate) and I am a bit of a maniac about what my animals eat but, when it comes to certain species, pellets are real bad - and one of those species are amazons. Let me explain. We do not have many good studies done on avian diets or their nutritional needs for the simple reason that the only good ones would have to be done on wild birds (as they are the only ones that eat the diet they evolved to eat) and it would take too long (parrots live very long lives) BUT we do have a very good one on Amazons (they followed a wild flock for an entire year collecting their poop and analyzing it). And they found that the ONLY time they eat an average of 17% protein is when they are raising young. Problem is that pellets are all higher than this and, for a bird that evolved to eat a diet of only raw food that is 85 to 95% water, a processed food that is, at most, 10% water and too high in protein is not good at all. Add this to the fact that any liver and kidney treatment requires high hydration and you can see that pellets are the worst thing you can give an old bird with liver or kidney issues. I know that pellets are the easy answer but for an older, sick bird, you can't use them.

The good news is that amazons are GREAT eaters and super easy to switch to a good diet so I urge you to try making gloop for him because it's moist, mostly unprocessed (you just cook the grains and pulses to make them easily digestible, reduce fat and infuse them with water to reach the right moisture), VERY nutritious and they all love it (my zons can't wait for me to put their bowl in their cage and start stretching their necks to reach it and pick something while still 'en route' )

As to veggies and fruits... I doubt you will have too much difficulty. There will be things that will take a while for him to get used to but, eventually, he will try them (as I said, they are really good eaters) but there is stuff that they all like from day one - corn on the cob is a super favorite of ALL birds, apples, grapes (if he doesn't know them, start him off by 'opening' the grape skin so he can see the juicy inside), cantaloupe, mango, red/orange/yellow peppers (I buy the mini and just cut the green thingie, leaving the seeds inside), celery (not very nutritious and a bit high in sodium but with good fiber in it and a great favorite of them), red Swiss Chard with the whole stalks (my zons go crazy for it to the point that they even eat the old, wilted ones they can find), Brussel's sprouts (another 'shredding' favorite). The trick to switch birds to a good diet is timing and presentation. Amazons are early feeders so their fresh food should be served about one hour after the sky gets light in the am (you should always take away the bowl with the leftover seed/nut dinner at night) and, although some like small pieces (I have an old hen that has bad arthritis in her toes and feet and can't hold things in her 'hand'), most of them like chunks they can hold BUT this is strictly a matter of individual preference so play around with the placement and cutting -try a big piece stuck between the bars, smaller pieces put on a paper plate on top or at the bottom of the cage, try skewing them on the little ends of branches (you do use natural branches as perches and for them to climb up above the cage, right?), try putting pieces in a bowl, etc. Personally, I like to make things as 'natural' as possible so I tend to give them bigger pieces unless it's something like blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes, etc which I put either on a bowl or a small stainless steel dish (they sell them for cats) but try and see what he likes best.

You have your work cut out for you but, if this bird is a wild-caught (which he can be as it will 30 years on 2022 that we no longer import wild birds), he is much stronger than the ones bred in captivity (natural selection and strong, healthy parents that fed on their natural diet) and, even if he isn't, he could be a first generation -which is better than later generations. He will, most likely, require a special diet and liver and kidney supplements for the rest of his life but you can bring him back - and I know because I've done it. I have two 41 years old (one in GREAT shape and the other is pretty good, too) and one that we don't know for sure but we knew she was, at least, 26 years old thirteen years ago and, according to my old avian vet who checked her out when I first got her, must be in her fifties, at least (my vet said she had to be well over 40 when I first got her) and they are all doing very well now even though they had been fed seeds and people food for a long time. The old one, Mami, no longer grows a tail and a couple of primaries on her right wing (her alula on that wing is all messed up, too) and her feet have missing claws, very gnarled toes and she can hardly open her left foot but she eats, drinks and poops well, climbs up and down her cage, makes a nest every spring, loves her girlfriend, sings every morning and every evening and drives us crazy with her never-ending 'I love you's

Let me know if there is anything else we can help you with and, again, thank you so much for taking in an unhealthy bird - that was real kind of you!