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6 weeks old baby amazon

BirdView

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I brought home a 6 week old double yellow headed amazon yesterday. Unfortunately the breeder did not want to keep the bird until its weaned so I am going to have to do the hand feeding for the next few weeks. I did extensive research about the subject and watched many videos before making the decision to bring the baby bird home. Feeding went well yesterday and today and the bird was very cooperative. I would like to know what other things I need to do in this early stage of development. How often should interact with the bird? Does the bird need help with preening his pin feathers? Is there any good resource about the care of hand-fed baby parrots? Thank you.

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Love My Zons

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You may find that handfeeding may go up to 12 weeks. Comfort feedings will continue after that.

Remember it is a baby, and you are the one providing the meals. Comfort feedings may only be 2 times a day.

If you see baby begging, even after mostly weaned, by all means give him/her alittle feeding. You can freeze a spare bag of handfeeding formula for backup.

Very cute! Best of luck.
 

finchly

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I don't! I handle them a lot, feed them when they beg.... don't forget to weigh the baby so you KNOW what the weight is doing. You cannot guess, it's too hard to see under the feathers.

What a cutie! (I think it's irresponsible of breeders to sell not weaned babies....)
Yep I see that all the time. IMO it turns out to be too much work for them. :(
 

Clueless

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Zara

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Cute bird, but I am sorry I cannot help with the questions you ask.

@melissasparrots and @Macawnutz will likely be much more help than me :)
 

melissasparrots

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Congrats on the new baby. Most of us would rather not support a breeder that sells unweaned chicks because it encourages them to continue doing so. However, since you already have the baby...Some basic pointers would be to make sure to get a gram scale if you don't have one already and weigh the chick at its most empty(usually first thing in the morning). By the looks of it, your baby may actually start to loose weight soon, which is not a terrible thing. A gram scale is just something you'll need for the rest of the bird's life anyway and it helps you monitor for any unexplained weight loss. Most baby birds hit a peak weight which for yellow headed amazons is around 45 days old give or take several days. After that, depending on the chick they will loose 8%-20% of their body weight in preparation for flying. I mention this because some people go out and get a gram scale, and then they get upset when the chick is loosing weight, and they try to get it to eat more, which delays flying and delays weaning which is not good. Also, if your chick starts going through a difficult to feed time very soon, you know why. It is instinctively trying to loose weight. Your job is to make sure it doesn't get unreasonably low and to make sure it isn't a huge uncontrolled loss. It'll also help you make decisions about when to cut out a hand-feeding toward the end of weaning. Later in life, you'll weigh him weekly or so to make sure he hasn't lost weight for no apparent reason which usually indicates time for a vet check even if they aren't showing symptoms.

For now, feed the baby when its hungry. Give it approximately 10% of its body weight per feeding or whatever it will take. If the baby weighs 500g, then 50cc of formula per feeding would be the high end. It looks like at his age, he might be picky and sometimes only want 10cc and that is okay. Offer food whenever the crop looks like it is getting close to empty during the day. At night, let the crop empty completely. If you ever find that the crop is not emptying, then you need a vet check immediately. Like that very day. If you find that the digestion time is slowing down, then you need to make a vet appointment to figure out why. If he has slow crop, don't feed more until all of the old is out of his system.

Right now is also a good time to introduce adult food. I'd offer veggies at least once a day. The chick may or may not eat them. More likely, it will scatter the food all over and smear it around. But, it needs to get used to the taste and feel of food other than formula. You are not weaning the baby now. Actually, it will wean itself if you do everything right. But, you are giving it a chance to learn about food. Warm veggies like cooked soft sweet potato served warm (not hot), cooked rice and beans, thawed mix frozen veggies, plus some of the really fresh food like bits of broccoli and peppers etc. Make sure not to have fresh food in there for him for more than a couple hours as it will become rotten and an infection hazard depending on your climate. Sprouted seeds are also good, but make sure you research sprouting and do your own sprouts. I usually get mine from chinaprairie.com but there are other good places to get sprout mixes from. Offer some pellets for him to crunch up. I usually save regular hard seed for much later in the weaning process.

You can hold him a lot right now. When I had baby amazons of that age, I'd spend a lot of time with them on my lap partially wrapped in a towel and helping them preen the tips off the pin feathers on their heads.

Also, introduce foot toys. Don't give them anything they can swallow that can't be digested (no small beads). But give them things they can roll around and play with. At this age, most of their "toys" should be food items. But, various hard plastic shapes and blocks of wood are good so they get used to them.
Also, let this bird learn to fly. Don't clip his feathers until he has been completely weaned for several weeks. You will have to be very careful about opening and closing doors and windows while the bird is out during this time. Pretty much, always put the bird back in the cage if someone wants to open a door. Keep blinds or curtains at least partially over windows so they learn that they are barriers. Flying helps them feel independent and learn to wean. Clipping makes them feel dependent and makes weaning harder and take longer.
 

BirdView

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I really appreciate all the feedback in this thread. I did not want to bring unweaned bird home, and hesitated for some time before making that decision. However, I could not find any breeder that will keep the bird until weaning age.

@melissaparrots, thank you so much for the valuable information that I didn't know especially about weight loss before flying and crop emptying. My big concern now is that the bird has not made any sound at all since I brought him in. He looks active and curious but completely silent otherwise, even in the morning did not beg for food. This is his second day and I am not sure if there is a problem or he is just shy. The breeder told me to give 3 feeding of 40 ml per day. Should I give the feeding as he told me or wait until the bird begs for food. The crop is small now but it is not empty. I will wait until the morning. If the crop is not empty, will take to the vet.

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Lady Jane

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Adorable photo. I hope all goes well and breeders will stop the unethical practice of selling unweaned babies to customers. If they cared about the babies they would not do that.
 

melissasparrots

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@melissaparrots, thank you so much for the valuable information that I didn't know especially about weight loss before flying and crop emptying. My big concern now is that the bird has not made any sound at all since I brought him in. He looks active and curious but completely silent otherwise, even in the morning did not beg for food. This is his second day and I am not sure if there is a problem or he is just shy. The breeder told me to give 3 feeding of 40 ml per day. Should I give the feeding as he told me or wait until the bird begs for food. The crop is small now but it is not empty. I will wait until the morning. If the crop is not empty, will take to the vet.
2 possible reasons for not begging: one is that he's in the loss phase and not terribly interested in food anyway. Two is that he doesn't know you as a food source yet. You are not considered mommy. I would continue feeding 3 times a day but don't sweat it if he wants a little more or less. Get a weight on him and use the 10% rule so you know about the maximum that it is safe to feed on an empty crop. If he cries, you can slip in a 4th feeding for now. Or just give him some warm soft sweet potato and see if you can get him interested in picking at adult food instead of getting formula. There will be times that you mix up a full feeding of formula and he doesn't want it. Don't push it, get as much as you can into him without reaching the frustration point and then quit. If it seems like you have to do a lot of sweet talking and start and stop in order to get food into him, just try to get maybe 10cc into him so you know his blood sugar is okay and then wait until the next scheduled feed. Or if he cries a little sooner you can feed then too. Many times, they seem to live on air for a few weeks and just don't take as much as the textbooks and internet experts say they should. And it varies by chick. I've had some that acted ravenously hungry the whole time and weaned on the later end of normal (male that weaned at 4 months and still wanted a comfort feeding at night). I've had some that were supremely difficult to feed, lost a lot of weight but weaned and were feeding themselves way early (female weaned at 10 or 11 weeks). Just go with the flow. My only hard rule is that they empty over night or come very very close to an empty crop. For an amazon sometimes that means 8-10 hours at night to empty and then roughly 3 or 4 feeds during the day. It may be that only the first feed is on an empty crop. The second and third feed might have about 10-20% of the previous meal left in it. That is okay, just know you might not want to stuff them again. They need to empty over night so that first you can monitor that their crop is turning over food normally and also because if they get a little bacteria in their crop, continually adding food also continually feeds the bacteria which can quickly escalate into a problem. Some people don't like to feed the chick ever until completely empty. But, my finding is that they don't grow as well that way. So, as long as the chick wants to eat during the day, I feed. Although really, by the time the baby is the age your's is, the amount fed is less important. Most of his growing has already been done. From now on its more about finishing up feather growth, gaining muscle and maturing mentally. The skeleton is close to being done growing. Most of his remaining growth will be a slow process of bulking up over the next year or so and regaining the weight lost while learning to fly and weaning.
 

macawpower58

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I don't remember anymore, so can someone please make sure the OP knows the correct formula temperature?
They may already be well aware of it, but many new feeders don't realize the importance.

That's an adorable baby! Looks bright and energetic. :)
 

melissasparrots

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Correct formula temp as measured with an actual thermometer is about 104-108 F. 110F is the top end of the scale and I usually try to keep it just a little cooler in case my thermometer is a couple degrees off. Some babies have a strong preference for formula on the higher end of safe though. Use a thermometer not your wrist or back of hand. I use my hand to double check the thermometer and the thermometer to double check my hand. Either can fail and too hot means crop burns which can go all the way through the crop and lead to formula dripping out. Lots of medical bills and you pray. I've never had it happen to one of mine but every now and then someone on here that doesn't know what they are doing burns their baby's crop.
 

Mockinbirdiva

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I really appreciate all the feedback in this thread. I did not want to bring unweaned bird home, and hesitated for some time before making that decision. However, I could not find any breeder that will keep the bird until weaning age.

@melissaparrots, thank you so much for the valuable information that I didn't know especially about weight loss before flying and crop emptying. My big concern now is that the bird has not made any sound at all since I brought him in. He looks active and curious but completely silent otherwise, even in the morning did not beg for food. This is his second day and I am not sure if there is a problem or he is just shy. The breeder told me to give 3 feeding of 40 ml per day. Should I give the feeding as he told me or wait until the bird begs for food. The crop is small now but it is not empty. I will wait until the morning. If the crop is not empty, will take to the vet.

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I'm curious if the breeder gave you any hands on hand feeding techniques. This would have been the best case scenario to have a mentor teach you mixing formula, temperature and feeding by syringe . I would suggest keeping the thick layer of paper towels and getting rid of the wood shavings. Just a safety precaution to keep the baby from possibly ingesting any of the shavings. I wouldn't be concerned about him being quiet. Would love to see a video of you feeding if you can.

@melissasparrots covered everything. Sure is a cutie... looking forward to seeing your baby grow up!
 

Clueless

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He is beautiful.
 

Rain Bow

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I love the curiosity pic looking over the edge of the side of plastic tote! Welcome to AA!!! I can't wait to see more pics...

Always love it when we get a new Zon owner around here :heart2:

:hug9:Rain
 

Anita1250

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He is the most adorable baby! Reminds me of my Sam bird. I brought him home at 11 weeks, and had to hand feed him for an additional 6 or so weeks. That was back in 1983 when there wasn't an internet and not a lot of info about it. He is now 37, and a
"senior" bird. Just go slow and enjoy your time with this baby. Just like kids, they grow up fast.
 

BirdView

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Today, I had the pleasure of watching a bird takes his first flight ever. I am truly amazed with how much progress my baby Amazon has made. It a complete transformation from a shy little chick to a confident beautiful bird. I was told that Amazons are smart but he has far exceeded my expectation. Everyday he was learning a new skill. He was not intimidated by other birds I have and he adapted quickly to the new environment around him.

Today was a huge milestone for him. In the morning he was able to climb over the side of his plastic box and perch on the edge by himself. He kept exercising his wings the whole day and I was thinking he will probably fly within few days, but later in the afternoon he decided he could do it. It was an incredible moment, he was flapping his wings on a perch and you can see in his eyes the hesitation until that magical moment when he realized he could do it and with no hesitation he took off towards the play stand and landed on one of the toys there. You can almost see the excitement and happiness in his eye after his first flight. I took him down and returned him to the his box but few moments later he flew again this time towards the ceiling fan (like the other birds were doing).

I have to put in the cage now, I can't leave him outside unsupervised anymore. I would like some advise about this. Should I put his plastic box inside the cage on the bottom? It will be a bit low close to the floor and might be uncomfortable for him. Is it okay to put him in a big cage now or do need to get him something smaller. The other issue I am having is feeding. It is getting more difficult to have hime take the hand feeding formula. He refuses to eat after 10 or 20 ml. He is tasting the food in his box (veggies, spray millet, supreme pellets, sweet corn, and sweet potato) but he is not eating enough. I think he lost about %10 of his body weight since I got him. I would like to know what is the earliest weaning age known for baby double yellow headed amazons. Is there anything I can do to make him take more of the formula. Thank you

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