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6 weeks old baby amazon

Gokha

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Try giving him pellets soaked in water, they become mushy and easy to chew. You could feed it to him using a small spoon and after some time try removing the spoon and let him eat on his own
 

Mantis64

Rollerblading along the road
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2/26/20
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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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Such a cute baby.
 

melissasparrots

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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
I used to transition babies to a smaller cage that was low to the ground so they couldn't get away from their food and sit and be hungry as easily. The one I used was a slightly larger version of this one. Prevue Pet Products Travel Bird Cage - Chewy.com

If you put him immediately into a tall cage, he will go to the top and sit at the top and not venture down to eat. Then he will be desperately hungry and yet not progressing through weaning. A small dog or cat carrier might also work if you can find one that he can't fit his head through the bars. Food has to be super easy to get to. As in, he almost can't take a step without finding food. Also, babies that are just learning to fly tend to fall a lot, which is why I always did a smaller cage at first. Once I thought they were weaned and hadn't needed a hand-feeding for a couple of weeks, then I'd move them to the big cage before selling them just to make sure they could handle the change without regressing. Or I'd do part of the day in the big cage and part in the small cage. At his age, he probably won't get much accomplished toward weaning in the big cage for now.
My yellow napes(very similar to double yellow heads taxonomically) tended to wean between 12 and 16 weeks. The youngest was around 10 weeks and she was crazy difficult to feed, hated formula, lost a decent amount of weight but weaned early. I think the question you should ask yourself at this point is less "how should I get him to take more formula," and more "how do I get him to eat more adult food." The answer to the second, is to give him whatever he'll take in formula (even if its just 10 cc) and then put him immediately back in his cage with fresh warm veggies. Its good if you can give them a few minutes to fly before hand-feeding. After feeding, immediately back in the cage and the human walks away and doesn't come back for a while so the baby can focus on eating instead of begging and trying to sweet talk you into coming out. Every time you hand-feed, put something new in his food bowls. Make sure he has LOTS of food bowls with a variety of food to sort through in each one. Again, make it so he can't not run into food. Mine really like sweet potato or winter squash cooked until soft and mixed with boiled soft quinoa, rice and beans. A little bit of banana mashed into it is also good. A hand-feeding usually takes away the worst of the hunger pains, and gets them in the mood to explore more food on their own. I used to do the sweet potato mash at least once a day, a chopped fresh veggie mix later in the day. Either meal could include some thawed frozen veggies. Pellets always available no matter what. Once a day, a little bit of dry seed or a lot of fresh sprouted seed is available. Sprouted seeds should not be the kind you get from the store. Chinaprairie.com makes a good sprout mix.
Right now, he will seem to live on air. It won't get better for a little while. It seems like about 1.5-2.5 weeks after they start flying is when they really start eating adult food well. Until then, he'll continue to lose weight. Hopefully not a lot, but there isn't much you can do about it that won't interfere with allowing him to wean himself. Offer formula a few times a day but don't chase him around begging him to eat it. He needs to feel hungry and he needs to learn that eating on his own makes hungry feelings go away. The time to try for a good feeding and maybe do a little sweet talking is in the evening right before bed. I always made that my best effort at getting a decent feed into a baby. Although, better to just give 10cc and put a healthy baby to bed for the night than try to force 40cc and aspirate the chick and kill it. If he won't take it, don't push to hard. Even the bed time hand-feed should be followed up with fresh pellets and seed in the bowl and at least 20 minutes of peace and quiet to explore eating on his own. Or if he's been eating exceptionally poorly all day, another try at the warm sweet potato, quinoa and rice mash. I used to freeze a big batch in ice cube trays and store in baggies, so its no big thing to just take a cube out, warm in the microwave, check for hot spots and put it in the bird bowl.
 

Clueless

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Always check for microwave hotspots. Baby or big parrots!!!
 
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