by 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.