Help! baby lovebird won't eat.. 6 weeks.

[asailorssway]

Hello everyone! First time poster here, just brought home my black masked cobalt lovebird thursday. Thursday night he refused to take his formula, I figured this was okay because the breeder had told me that he was eating the weaning pellets and millet. Luckily, he is eating the millet... but not the pellets. He has no concept of his water dish... and I am really beginning to worry. Day three and he still wont take his formula. Also, I am aware that this the time they typically lose weight to better enable them to fly. He is flying, but due to this stressful situation with the formula, ( I don't think he was handled gently before) he hates it, and he is beginning to resent me for trying to get him to eat. he's still eating millet, but nothing else... no water. any suggestions? I am trying to keep him alive, and in the process i am causing him to hate me. his crop is almost flat, about 1/3 filled w/ millet btw. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

 

[Anne & Gang]

you have to be prepared to hand feed asap. sounds like he is not weaned. I would also recommend you give him a good quality seed mix..he may not like the pellets. He might be drinking water when you are not looking as you cannot possibly watch him 24/7

 

[Birdbabe]

Try to feed him from a spoon, and maybe if you mashed the pellets with warm apple juice, he may go for that. Try anything...oatmeal, scrambled eggs, softened cheerios....if you still have problems, you can call the breeder or a vet for advice. He may be weaning, but you dont want him losing alot of weight. Keep us posted.

 

[Greycloud]

Try offering tiny pieces of cut up apple, grapes, thawed frozen veggies such as peas and corn. How are you preparing the formula? Temp, consistency? He should be almost weaned but still be showing interest in other foods. Placing flat food dishes on the bottom of his cage will help too.

 

[asailorssway]

Try offering tiny pieces of cut up apple, grapes, thawed frozen veggies such as peas and corn. How are you preparing the formula? Temp, consistency? He should be almost weaned but still be showing interest in other foods. Placing flat food dishes on the bottom of his cage will help too.

Thank you everyone for your advice... It got a whole lot worse before it got better.. I went in to check on him and he was cold and lifeless.. His feet had twisted into fists and he looked like he was a goner. I had my fiance hold him while I heated up some formula.. I made it very soupy as he was not in any shape to be chugging.. and i heated it a little more than the breeder said. I got 6 cc into him, wrapped him into my shirt and proceeded to throughly heat him up. he then proceeded to nibble on his millet. still no interest in other foods, I am going to try some applesauce and i bought come organic baby pear puree(?). It's going to be a rough night. Any other suggestions? we have kicked up the heat in the room, my bdrm is now about 86 degrees. along with the heat pad. the one good thing to come out of this, he is no longer scared of me. also, the breeder told me one of his siblings plucked his head and neck feathers.. he, sadly, looks like a mini vulture. does plucking by other birds trigger stress, as well? I'm sure the environment change hasn't helped, either.again, thank you all.. I will keep you posted.

 

[blackivory]

What age did the breeder remove him from the nest box to hand raise? Or is he parent raised and a fledgling?

 

[Katy]

Poor thing. This breaks my heart. Hang in there and try everything!

 

[blackivory]

Lovebirds [esp Masks] can be very difficult to give formula to if they were not pulled young enough. Sounds like your little guy was just fledged and still being fed by his parents.

I can help if you're in my state but I highly doubt you are even in Australia?

 

[Birdbabe]

You get him to a vet now dear, he sounds like he needs supportive care for a bit.

 

[Bokkapooh]

He needs an avian vets care.

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

 

[yvette]

 

[yvette]

A heating pad would help keep him warm. Hope hes doing better.

 

[Greycloud]

He is no longer scared of you because he is to week to fight back. This last post is concerning. This baby needs to be vetted. A crop culture needs to be done and probably IV fluid injection.

 

[asailorssway]

Thank you to everyone who helped me with Azarias, (hebrew for "God helped".) He is doing much better, now i can't get him to stop eating! i have been offering him his formula (which he gobbles,) applesauce, water, a high quality seed (bought from holistic bird supply, he wants nothing to do with it) yogurt sunflower seeds (i think they scare him) and weaning pellets. He loves applesauce, still doesnt drink water... I switched the water and applesauce trays... trying to trick him, didn't work. He is flying around the bdrm now, and starting to peep when he needs something. I hadn't noticed before but he never made a peep those first few days. This was extremely scary guys, I thought he was dead. I had to keep jarring him to wake up, he was so cold... it was awful. My fiance told me later that he was praying during all of this. Anyway, things are better... he's hanging on my shoulder atm.. I know I shouldn't let him, but he's had it so rough... perhaps i am babying him too much. any suggestions on how to get him to eat his seed? he only wants the millet, which we know can't sustain him.
Some info the breeder had told me: he was pulled at 4 weeks, sadly. he was supposed to be on weaning pellet snad millet... he was not. said he was handfed... I have grown to think that handfed wasn't the correct word, so much as force fed. poor little thing. I've got my work cut out for me.


here's a picture! you guys helped so much, thank you!

 

[Lady Jane]

Keep the faith and pray as we all are doing. He is a little cutie and needs your care and love.

 

[CheekyBeaks]

Even though he is showing some improvement I would still get him checked out by an avian vet, it is not normal or a baby to become cold and listless, it's better to safe than sorry.
Also introduce some fresh fruit and veggies to his diet

 

[asailorssway]

I took him to a vet.. It seems that he was almost dead. She checked him and said that he wasn't dehydrated, which surprised her. When i told her what had happened, she commented that if if he were that close to death, by the time i had goten him there it would have been too late. She told me to keep up his feedings, keep the temperature up and to constantly give him different food options. He is doing pretty good right now... all about flying, atm. this morning he wasn't interested in his formula but he is eating the applesauce, water and come various seeds out of his mix. Things seems to be brightening up... keep your fingers crossed, people, we're going to need it. thank you again!

 

[Love My Zons]

I am going to toss this one out there for you. Coconut water is very beneficial with added electrolytes and potassium. Is he eating hand feeding formula? The applesauce hopefully isn't loaded with a bunch of sugar. You can make a puree for him to eat using papaya and other soft mushy type foods. He appears to be awfully young, glad your Vet has seen him.

 

[asailorssway]

I am going to toss this one out there for you. Coconut water is very beneficial with added electrolytes and potassium. Is he eating hand feeding formula? The applesauce hopefully isn't loaded with a bunch of sugar. You can make a puree for him to eat using papaya and other soft mushy type foods. He appears to be awfully young, glad your Vet has seen him.

He is eating his formula, he is just picky about when he wants it.. I bought organic unsweetened applesauce so no need to worry about excessive sugars. He is about seven weeks now. Thank you for the papaya idea.. and I am also going to try coconut water. I will update you on how that goes. Thank you. -azarias, cobalt black masked lovebird.