Need advice

[crystalv]

I had a sun conure that i hand fed & was 9 yrs old who recently passed away for no reason. I have other birds as we well which i also hand fed. I got 3 sun conure babies yesterday. 1 is 13 days old, 1 is 10 days old & 1 is 5 days old. I am tryin to see if anyone has an approx weight range that the babies are supposed to be when crop is empty? All the birds ive hand fed were older than these little guys so i wasnt as worried. This mornin they weighed 38 g, 25 g & 12 g. The guy had just pulled them from the nest the day before i bought them. Thanks in advance, Crystal

 

[sunnysmom]

Hi. I don't have conure experience but wanted to say welcome to the forum.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

No conure experience but welcome! Maybe @Newbie GCC or @SandraK can help or @Dartman can help you

 

[JosienBB]

@melissasparrots @srtiels

Birds don't pass away for no reason. If, God forbid, it should happen again, please take the bird to the vet for a necropsy.

 

[Birdiemarie]

 

[Newbie GCC]

No experience with baby birds at all, but hoping someone will come along soon with more knowledge.

 

[SandraK]

I'm afraid my experience with baby conures is limited to gccs - the sun conure I have was already 4 years old when he came to live with us. I've also never pulled a baby from a nest to hand raise since I work full time.

 

[Dartman]

I don't know if I'm any help at all. We rescued a baby female house finch from a crow and had to hand feed her. She made it, bonded to us, and lived with us for a year and a half till she caught a chill that eventually took her out. We used baby bird powdered formula we heated till warm and used a eye dropper to get it down her gullet. She'd eat till her crop was really full then nap a while. She pretty much self weaned as she started pecking at finch food plus whatever we were eating. Never weighed her, just tried to make sure she was eating and doing well.
She was happy, sang, and played with toys, miss the little thing.

 

[melissasparrots]

I would have a necropsy done on the dead bird. I'm sorry for your loss, however if you intend to sell the chicks and have had a recent death, you need to know what the bird died of in case it was something contagious that can be spread to one of your buyer's flocks. Also if it was bacterial, you can have a culture done on those chicks to make sure they don't have it or get them treated before symptoms break. Also, because it seems like you are bringing birds in from a breeder, that ups the disease risk for your flock. Personally I'd be having a little anxiety attack if I frequently brought in new birds from other people and one of my older birds died. Piece of mind is golden for me and I always do the necropsy unless its just a ridiculously old bird with a previously diagnosed problem. Sudden deaths always get necropsied at my house. Thankfully, its been several years since I had one of those. Birds don't just die for no reason. It could be a complication related to diet, something in the air, fungal, viral or bacterial infection, cancer, blood clot etc.

You might want to try posting on the breeder forum on this website to reach sun conure breeders for the weights. I don't do conures myself.

 

[crystalv]

She passed away a couple weeks ago. The babies i bought are in a totally seperate part of the house & ive only had them for a couple days so i know it wasnt their fault. I am keeping these little ones. I dont sell birds, i got them for pets. I was so upset when she died i buried her so its to late for a necropsy now. Her love bird friend is doing great so i dont think it was contagious.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Birds are masters at hiding illnesses.

 

[camelotshadow]

Welcome & good luck feeding your new babies

 

[mythic55]

Contagious. Genetic or user error.
Birds dont pass away for 'no reason', and you need to know what that reason is, otherwise it has the potential to happen again. and again.

If nothing more, detail the care and symptoms of your late feathered fiend so we can make assumptions as to cause.

 

[mythic55]

The guy had just pulled them from the nest the day before i bought them. Thanks in advance, Crystal

You dont know how to feed, weigh and analyze the health of your birds... but a breeder pulled birds form the nest the day before you bought them?

 

[crystalv]

Mythic55, i dont know where you got i dont know how to feed, weigh, analyze my birds, etc. I do know how to feed, weigh, etc my birds. I was just curious about how much other birds weighed at that age. I weigh them every mornin & they gain weight everyday. They are very happy little guys. As far as my 9 yr old that passed, she was perfectly fine that mornin & dead when i got home. I dug her up & the vet said she was egg bound which is what caused her death. She had never laid eggs before.

 

[Wolf]

I am sorry for the loss of your 9 yr. old. I can't help you with the babies as I have no experience with birds of their ages.

 

[aooratrix]

Hand reared Sun Conure babies thrive after a shaky start - Hamilton Zoo

This is all I could find. Good luck. At least by weighing them, you can calculate what they should be eating in grams.

 

[Joseph012]

It doesn't really matter what they "should weigh" at this age. These are very young birds ( especially the 5 day) and need to be kept brooder that stays very steady at 85*. The 5 day needs to be fed around the clock every 2-3 hours. The others can go a little longer between feedings, however being kept together will probably beg and giving them some inbetween full feedings is ok. It's not always avisable to feed on top of formula, but I don't think it will do too much harm as long as the temperatures are consistent and the crops are emptying regularly.

Now to the weight- weigh them everyday. The youngest one maybe a couple times. Record the weights and make sure they are gaining weight consistently. A drastic drops over night means there is a problem, which are too numerous to list.

 

[Applebutter]

Hi, Crystal

I'm just curious as to why he pulled them so soon? My Sun baby is 7 weeks old and still being weaned, it will be sometime yet before I can bring him home.

I have no advice, but it sounds like you have your hands full! Goodness!


Sorry for the loss of your other Sun .

 

[Wolf]

Well it has been close to a month and I would love to read an update on your babies and perhaps see a few pictures of the little ones. They are so cute when they are just babies.