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Whole seeds in crop? :'(

yonswac

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Hi there all,

so , this little guy hatched 1 day ago, and the parents do feed him well :heart:, but i noticed that his crop is full with whole seeds, is this normal?

Thanks guys?

 

saroj12

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The parents should be getting soft mashed foods they can easily rregurgitate for the baby. Like cooked rice or oatmeal. I have no experience, just seems the common sense thing to do.
 

Birdbabe

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Soft foods, oatmeal, cooked brown rice, sweet tators, a mash of sorts, scramble egg,,,,stuff like that. Baby can't digest whole seeds very well. What the parents eat,,,baby eats,,,,sure is a cutie!
 

yonswac

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Thanks, the parents didn't grow in my house, i tried every trick to make them eat soft foods with no success. so they only eat seeds.
 

yonswac

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SO is this dangerous for the babies`? should i handfeed them.?
 

Bokkapooh

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yonswac said:
Thanks, the parents didn't grow in my house, i tried every trick to make them eat soft foods with no success. so they only eat seeds.
Take away the seeds first thing in the morning and offer fresh for an hour. Then add seeds.

Lots of tricks in the book to try to get your birds on a better diet.
 

Bokkapooh

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Its not dangerous, the seeds are hulled by the parents. But not healthy to be eating strictly seeds.
 

yonswac

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i tried this trick as well, i'm happy that it's not dangerous :)
 

yonswac

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can i assist the fathers, or the seed diet only is enough?
 

sunnysmom

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Bokkapooh

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can i assist the fathers, or the seed diet only is enough?
The seed is not enough, you need to get your pair of birds eating a proper diet. Sometimes it takes a while to get birds onto a proper diet, but you have to have patience and persevere.
 

yonswac

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i think i will handfeed them then, they just can't eat another food,
 

Milo

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i think i will handfeed them then, they just can't eat another food,
I think you're misunderstanding Mercedez. She's saying that the seed only diet is not good for your parent birds as well as the babies.
 

yonswac

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yes i know, i tried some egg food today mixed with seeds, and they were screaming, right now i'm assisting the parents with handfeeding, hopefully the babies can make it.
 

Monica

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Check out this thread.

Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum



The majority of my flock consists of rehomed birds, and some of them came to me eating a poor diet. All of them eat well! Except for one picky bird... he does eat healthy, but he's still picky! lol


Personally, I would recommend keeping the chicks with the parents, and keep offering healthy food to the parents, especially now! Try sprouted seeds, broccoli florets, carrot tops, parsley and similar vegetables. For broccoli stems, carrots and similar veggies, try to chop these up fine. In fact, it may help to take 3-5 different types of vegetables, finely chop these up together, then mix in a little bit of seed and try feeding that to the parents.


If you allow the parents to wean the chicks, it may be even easier to convert the family to a healthier diet if you continue to provide fresh foods *EVERY DAY*. Chicks are very curious and are more likely to try new things simply because they haven't been "hard wired" yet to avoid anything. This means that they may be more likely to nibble on new foods, and if they do it, the parents might follow suit, if you can't get them to eat foods now.


However, it's still important to be feeding them fresh foods *NOW*. Don't wait.
 

melissasparrots

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I would generally recommend against trying for a major diet overhaul while there are chicks in the box. You can add stuff to their diet, but I'd be hesitant about taking away their familiar food. Finding seeds in the crop can be a problem or not a problem. I frequently find seeds in my baby parrotlets that are parent raised. In fact, sometimes for the first couple of days after I take them away for hand-feeding, I'll even find seed in their droppings. In my case, the babies are fine and healthy and have been growing well. If I were you, I'd be weighing the babies every morning. Your weights won't be super accurate because the amount of food in the crop will vary depending on how much the parents have fed them. However, if they are gaining weight every day and your seeing about a 10% increase in weight every day, then most likely the seeds are not a problem. In many cases the parents will feed softened seeds, so while it looks like the babies are getting full seeds, they are still digesting them. Its a problem if the parents are feeding the chicks a large amount of seed that has not been pre-digested at all. So in answer to if seed is bad, it depends.

Make sure to offer the parents a lot of variety and if you are concerned, supplemental hand-feeding is okay. Just make sure that your instruments are super clean because some people have found that excessively hand-feeding babies that are still in the nest makes the chicks more prone to yeast infections. If the chicks are doing poorly and you know this because they aren't gaining weight properly and/or they look dehydrated, then it might be time to pull them and hand-feed entirely.

I have a pair of amazons that simply will not feed their chicks pellets. If they don't like whatever I offered for veggies that day, they just won't feed their babies. The babies will beg and fail to gain weight and it will look as though they are being neglected. If I feed the parents what they want, suddenly they are great parents and produce healthy chicks. I feed the parents a huge overabundance of anything I think they might be willing to eat and the chicks turn out fine. My parent amazons really like frozen and thawed sweet corn, peas and sometimes they will pick at something else. Sometimes they will feed lots of seed, other times they won't touch much other than the sunflower and will hit the corn in a big way. Healthy babies every time.
 

iamwhoiam

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Great that things are going well. They are very cute.
 
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