- Joined
- 8/5/18
- Messages
- 10
Hey folks,
I'm hoping you can help me out. We got our baby white cap through a breeder who shipped him out on Sunday. Breeder said he was weaned and eating solids and drinking for weeks and would only occasionally accept a comfort feeding. He's twelve weeks old today.
He arrived two days ago via Delta and seems to have fully regressed to wanting to be hand fed. I'm sure he's totally freaked out with the change in location and the loss of his previous family. I've been doing my best to try to get some formula into him twice a day (10-15 mL @ 107 F, he weighs approx 170 g) and he's eating some food on his own but he cries quite a bit and sleeps constantly. We've been responding to his cries after feeding by making cooing noises back to him as any direct contact seems to upset him farther. Is there anything else I can do to comfort him? He has a vet appointment tomorrow to rule out any physical issues.
Second question is he seems very, very, clumsy and uncoordinated. He can't turn around on a perch and seems very uncertain climbing on the sides of the cage. Unfortunately the breeder seems to have clipped all his primaries so I'm sure that's contributing to his uneasy feeling. He tries to perch in the food dishes but managed to fall out of those too. We had a giant cage for him but there's no way he's confident enough to use it so he's been chilling in his travel cage but even then he barely moves around in it most likely because he's afraid.
I know you should never force a bird to interact with you and I've been trying to hand feed him through his little cage setup but its very messy and awkward. I'm stuck between wanting to give him space to adapt to his new environment and also the necessity of trying to make sure he gets adequate food and his needs are met.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'm hoping you can help me out. We got our baby white cap through a breeder who shipped him out on Sunday. Breeder said he was weaned and eating solids and drinking for weeks and would only occasionally accept a comfort feeding. He's twelve weeks old today.
He arrived two days ago via Delta and seems to have fully regressed to wanting to be hand fed. I'm sure he's totally freaked out with the change in location and the loss of his previous family. I've been doing my best to try to get some formula into him twice a day (10-15 mL @ 107 F, he weighs approx 170 g) and he's eating some food on his own but he cries quite a bit and sleeps constantly. We've been responding to his cries after feeding by making cooing noises back to him as any direct contact seems to upset him farther. Is there anything else I can do to comfort him? He has a vet appointment tomorrow to rule out any physical issues.
Second question is he seems very, very, clumsy and uncoordinated. He can't turn around on a perch and seems very uncertain climbing on the sides of the cage. Unfortunately the breeder seems to have clipped all his primaries so I'm sure that's contributing to his uneasy feeling. He tries to perch in the food dishes but managed to fall out of those too. We had a giant cage for him but there's no way he's confident enough to use it so he's been chilling in his travel cage but even then he barely moves around in it most likely because he's afraid.
I know you should never force a bird to interact with you and I've been trying to hand feed him through his little cage setup but its very messy and awkward. I'm stuck between wanting to give him space to adapt to his new environment and also the necessity of trying to make sure he gets adequate food and his needs are met.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.