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Baby IRN(ring neck) growth queries

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Baby IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Aizen » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:57 am

Hello everyone i am new to this forum. I have recently bought a baby indian ring neck parrot. The breeder told me it was 1.5 months old and asked me to feed him only 3 times a day but i didnt believe him it seem too small to be of that age. can you guys guess his age? so i know where i am starting from? it has been a week since he/she is with me so i want to know if monty(his name) is growing up fine.

1- I feed him 4 times a day with 6 hour gap and the last feed is between 10-11pm.(12 to 20ml in each feed deciding based on his crop fullness) is this enough????
2- i made a brooder at home and he seems to be okay with it no shivering e.t.c
3- i have attached images of monty. the first one is from the day i bought him exactly 7 days ago. the rest of images i just captured today.
4- since my mother is doing the feeding because i am on job most of the day he seems to be going along well with her but with me he seems a little afraid not biting but just a bit afraid and shivers when i get too close.
5-should i increase his play time with myself? or wait until feathers fully come so he can maintain his temperature then start to socialize with him????
6- Does he look like male/female? breeder said its a male but i just want u guys to give an opinion

Please answer these queries. it will be of great help

Link to pictures:
https://ibb.co/Z10j6sM
https://ibb.co/P5Qk1JT
https://ibb.co/LnHPjhZ
Aizen
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 3
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Indian Ring Neck
Flight: No

Re: Baby IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:08 am

Hi, Aizen and Monty, welcome to the forum and congrats on your new baby! Going by the pictures you posted, he must have been around 4 weeks old when you got him and is about 5 weeks now. Six week old IRNs have all their contour feathers out and hardly any pins left so, yes, it was much younger than what the breeder told you. Also, there is no way anybody can tell if an IRN baby is a male or a female (especially when it's a phenotype and not a sex-linked mutation) unless there was a DNA test done, in which case the breeder would have a certificate for it.

Now, first of all, please take him out of the wood shavings nest. It's not healthy for it. Aside from the fact that parrots do not use any type of nesting material for their babies, it grows bacteria AND the baby can end up ingesting some of it creating an occlusion or crop impaction. Use some sort of soft material with a heating pad under it (get the kind that does not shut off automatically every two hours) and check the temperature at different settings - it should be a consistent 90 degrees where the baby is. Change the material for a clean one often and do not expose the baby to bright light, it damages their eyes (parrots nests, where they keep their babies until they are ready to fly, are dark cavities because their eyes end up developing after birth and light messes up the process).

As to the feedings... well, if the baby asks for food, give it to it. People like to say: "Give so much every so many hours" but the truth is that all babies are different (and this goes for all species of animals, including humans), some eat more, some eat less, some digest faster than others, some are bigger, some are smaller, etc so each baby should be treated (and fed) as per its individual needs. But, to give you an idea, each feeding should be about 10 to 12% of their body weight and you need to make sure the baby is growing and gaining weight each day so, if you haven't gotten a scale yet, get one and weigh the baby every morning at the same time (like before it gets its first feeding of the day) and write it down, 12% of this weight is what each feeding should be. The formula should be made fresh for each feeding, kept at a consistent good temperature (around 88 degrees) throughout the entire feeding (meaning, don't start warm and end up cold), make sure the baby does not aspirate (get food into its lungs) by pointing the syringe down at the 'bowl' of the lower beak from the left to the right, and that its crop is completely empty once every 24 hours - all these things are needed to prevent sour crop which is a fungal -yeast- infection that can kill the baby. As the baby gets bigger (start next week, when he is 6 weeks old to do this and do it very gradually), the formula should become a bit thicker (this will make him feel full for longer periods of time) and you will need to mix it with pureed fruits to reduce the protein a bit and make it more 'natural' (baby formulas are crap made out of soy and man-made vitamins).

There should be no 'play time' until he is much bigger. This is a VERY young baby and, as such, is very insecure because it has no mother, no siblings, no other birds around him which is what nature ordained it should have so it feels VERY insecure. What you should do is feed it yourself when you are home and putting him on your lap (on top of a baby blankie or something like that and with the heating pad under it) after you are done, cover his entire body with your hand (resting it on its body but not putting any real weight on it). This serves two purposes: 1) it destresses and comforts the baby (because your hand will feel like its mother setting on him, protecting him and giving him body heat) and 2) it's pretty much the best bonding technique there is for a baby bird aside from feeding it in its beak. It will make him regard you in a parent role - which is the best bond you can achieve with a bird when it's young.
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 IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Aizen » Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:08 am

hey thanks alot for ton of information

1- I have changed his bedding now its more like 2 3 layers of clean cotton cloth its very soft.
2- Also the place where i live already has ambient temperature of 35 to 45 degrees centigrade which is around 95 to 105 Farenheit these days so is it really necessary that i get him a heating pad underneath?? because he doesnt seam to shiver or feel cold and is mostly relaxed.
3- I have just started feeding him kaytee exact formula. I was feeding him cerelac before which although showed growth in terms of feathers but showed no real growth in terms of his actual body weight so now i have bought kaytee exact hand feed formula.
4-I am feeding him 3 times a day now with 8 hour gap. The reason i go by hours is because he never really asks for feed but when i feed him at his feed time he happily eats his feed and does not give any sign of forced feeding what so ever.... Is this enough? or should i go back to 4 times a day with 6 hour gap because in 4 times a day his poop is a bit you can say more liquidy and in 8 hour gap his poops seem to be very well formed.
5- yes i follow all your feeding techniques thanks alot for the information
6- I will keep the play thing in mind from now on because i think he is still taking time to adjust to his new home and that is the reason he is scary so i will try to make him comfortable and i already feed him the way you said by putting him on my lap in a small blanket.
Thanks alot for your help its greatly appreciated :)
Aizen
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 3
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Indian Ring Neck
Flight: No

Re: Baby IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jun 03, 2020 8:54 am

I would leave the 8 hour gap for the night but feed him more often during the day because that is what the parents would do. Little birds digest their food completely (meaning, from the time they eat it to the time they poop it) in about 2 hours so if you feed only every 8 hours, there is a loooooong period of time when his crop (and his stomach) is empty. I hope that you did not do any lasting damage by feeding him a human cereal instead of a product for birds but this is actually a big no-no for all birds, babies and adults, because they all have too much iron in them which ends up killing birds (birds require VERY little iron while human cereals have HUGE amounts of it because humans need it so, when you feed too much, the body cannot get rid of it and stores in the liver which, in time, creates a fatal and incurable condition called hemochromatosis). Now, I don't think you bird is going to die from it but, most likely, it did not do it any good and that was the reason why he did not gain any weight. Never feed food prepared for humans to your bird, the nutritional requirements of humans are completely different to the ones of parrots.

It is so hot where you are, it doesn't need a heating pad but make sure he is warm at night.
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 IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Aizen » Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:51 am

Thanks alot for the information and i am sorry i just went with what the breeder said to feed him since i never had this young aged parrot before. he told me cerelac so i gave him cerelac but luckily after one week i have shifted to baby parrot food.

Rest assured its been 2 days since monty is eating the kaytee exact formula and has gone from lazy to being very active. also his poops are totally perfect so i really hope cerelac didnt do liver damage because it impacts the poops in one way or another but he is enjoying the new food which i am feeding him 4 times a day now instead of 3.

Also i have noticed that he is removing wax from his blood feathers now every now and then. Also in his brooder box which is made of thermopore sheet he is nibling at those themopore with his beak. Not eating them but just trying to get them off. Also i see him trying to find any solid particle and tasting it with his beak even his poop :P if i dnt clean it which i do. Does it mean he is starting weaning stage? because when i put my fingers on his mouth hi nibbles on them alot and during his feeding session he is playing with his feed creating a mess. I am just guessing that he is beginning weaning process am i correct or not? should i introduce him to soft foods or keep feeding him formula????

thanks alot for the help btw
Aizen
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 3
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Indian Ring Neck
Flight: No

Re: Baby IRN(ring neck) growth queries

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jun 05, 2020 1:03 pm

Aha, you see? The right food makes all the difference!

What he is doing is called 'beaking' and it is the same thing that humans babies do when they put everything in their mouth: they are learning to feel. People think of a bird's beak as something that is similar to a long human nail, with no feeling and more of a 'weapon' than anything else but it's not true. For one thing, it has a 'live' matrix inside (which allows it grow) and nerves that reach almost the very tip of it and, for another, parrots use it as a third hand. By touching and chewing on things, he is learning different textures, how hard something is, how much pressure it can apply without breaking it, how it tastes, etc. It is a normal phase of their development and very important because each 'lesson' he learns is incorporating a new neural path that he will use as an adult.

But, yes, by all means, do give him soft foods! Pre-weaning and weaning does not mean 'either/or', it means both formula AND soft foods. Soft foods are the parrot equivalent of a human toddler's food: something soft, nutritious, easily accessible to the baby, highly digestible and yummy for them. It is VERY important that a wide range of foods is offered so the baby can learn to eat a good, healthy diet because this is the time in their lives when they are pre-disposed to learn about food as it is the time when the parents teach them what to eat and what not to eat in the wild. You are now the parent so it's your job to teach the baby (and this means you need to educate yourself on the subject of parrot natural diets and nutrition, too). Soft foods are grain-based (cooked whole grains that are small in size or chopped into smaller pieces, whole grain cous cous, polenta, Irish oatmeal or regular oatmeal -but make sure it's the old fashioned kind with nothing done or added to it) with added veggies and/or fruits. At the beginning, you use pureed veggies/fruits (from baby jars) but, as the baby gets older, you need to increase the size - like you start with grated and very finely chopped and gradually make the size bigger until you get to things like corn, peas, diced carrots, chopped broccoli, etc. I always recommend using gloop because it not only fulfills the requirements but it's also something you can continue feeding the parrot for the rest of his life - it's also what I feed all my parrots after doing research for a loooong time on their natural diets. Babies should get two different kinds of soft foods served warm and freshly prepared twice a day (dawn and dusk) and, when yours gets a little older, you should also offer soft low protein seed (like millet, for example- because babies need more protein than adults) and pieces/chunks of raw fruits. veggies and leafy greens. I give mine one fruit, one veggie, one leafy green (or a cruciform) every day and I make it a different one every day of the week, every ten days or, depending on what it is, even more seldom. I have found that if I offer them a selection (like a fruit salad type of thing), they end up always eating their favorites so giving them only one choice of each and a different one every day widens the range of raw produce they end eating.
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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