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Hello! My return to taking care of birds.

HighFly

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Hello everyone! I'm Nidko and I have about 4 years of alone experience with birds. I currently have my peach-faced lovebird, Kiwi, who is only 4 weeks old.

KiwiAvatar.png Its gender is yet to be known so I have chosen a gender-neutral name for him/her. This is a picture I made that I use as my profile picture of him/her.

A bit of my history:

2005 - My parents have bought a male/female budgie pair for my birthday. It didn't end well as they were new to this and they started laying eggs(heard from stories) and in 2010 they layed an egg which would be my second experience.
2010 - The outcome of the first two, who had lasted a year after 2010 and died 3 months spaced out from each other's deaths.
2018 - I had bought a blue male budgie/parakeet. It hadn't lasted a year before it had passed away. Avian vets refused to take him in as they are relatively cheap in our country. That was my 2 year break period after that.
2020 - After all the unsuccessful attempts at owning parakeets and no good breeders of parakeets nearby, I turned to a breeder for a lovebird after I did a lot of research on it. Kiwi was born on December 12th, 2020 as a mix of a peach-faced lovebird and a fischer lovebird. It retained mostly the characteristics of its peach-faced parent. The breeder has an assumption that it is a female but it is yet to be known, as specified before. This is my first experience with any of the lovebird species but so far I love it. I am hand-feeding it, but it has already started weaning itself and eating less of the hand-fed offers. I have a lot to learn through his lifespan so I'm generally applying all my knowledge to him. Glad that I now have a forum to turn on in the morning and comment on posts and generally get some support at times where I feel stuck. The massive issue that arose was how to get an avian vet that will work with this species and I have found a vet that will come to your address directly in any case of an emergency.

That is it, hope to see you all soon!
 

sunnysmom

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Welcome to the forum!
 

Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue! 1.welcome signs.gif

I would take everything and anything the ¨breeder¨ told you with a grain of salt.
A good breeder would not create hybrid lovebirds, especially a Peachfaced and a Fischer´s. Aside from them generally having identity confusion, they are not worth as much money, and not as profitable for a breeder.

When researching, you will have to look at both species and pick the information that aligns with your bird.

At 4 weeks old, s/he should still be having 3 feeds per day. Average weaning age for a lovebird is approx. 8 weeks, though some wean before and some afterwards. Don´t rush weaning too much, it´s important that your bird is allowed to take their time and not have the feedings forcefully reduced.

I´m glad you joined, there´s a whole community here who will support you and your little one whenever you need help :)
 

HighFly

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Welcome to the Avenue! View attachment 370692

I would take everything and anything the ¨breeder¨ told you with a grain of salt.
A good breeder would not create hybrid lovebirds, especially a Peachfaced and a Fischer´s. Aside from them generally having identity confusion, they are not worth as much money, and not as profitable for a breeder.

When researching, you will have to look at both species and pick the information that aligns with your bird.

At 4 weeks old, s/he should still be having 3 feeds per day. Average weaning age for a lovebird is approx. 8 weeks, though some wean before and some afterwards. Don´t rush weaning too much, it´s important that your bird is allowed to take their time and not have the feedings forcefully reduced.

I´m glad you joined, there´s a whole community here who will support you and your little one whenever you need help :)
Thank you for the welcome and the information. The breeder told me that I should cut off the hand-feeding completely this Sunday. Is that bad? Kiwi is already eating millet normally without forcing him/her to do so in the cage. Apart from hand-feeding him twice a day, as told, I'm giving him egg food which s/he is eating, too.
 

Zara

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The breeder told me that I should cut off the hand-feeding completely this Sunday. Is that bad?
Very bad.
4 weeks old is too little to be cut off from formula. You have another 3-4 weeks approx of handfeeding.

Offer some finely chopped vegetables too, carrot, broccoli, green leafy vegs, carrot tops, peppers (any colours), pumpkin, cooked sweet potato, peas. Offer these just after the formula for best chance of the little one trying them. You can try them room temp, or warmed up a little. Finely chopped or mashed.
Egg should only be given a couple of times a week in small amounts.

If you plan on feeding your bird pellets as an adult, you should introduce those now, soaked, can be warm if your bird prefers that way.
 
Last edited:

Ripshod

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:welave: :hiya:
 

camelotshadow

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4 weeks is too young. Not a good breeder. Good you seem to be doing OK feeding the baby. Hope it goes well for the little guy.
 

HighFly

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Very bad.
4 weeks old is too little to be cut off from formula. You have another 3-4 weeks approx of handfeeding.

Offer some finely chopped vegetables too, carrot, broccoli, green leafy vegs, carrot tops, peppers (any colours), pumpkin, cooked sweet potato, peas. Offer these just after the formula for best chance of the little one trying them. You can try them room temp, or warmed up a little. Finely chopped or mashed.
Egg should only be given a couple of times a week in small amounts.

If you plan on feeding your bird pellets as an adult, you should introduce those now, soaked, can be warm if your bird prefers that way.
Thank you for the amount of help you provided me and potentially saved Kiwi from dying. I was a little bit suspicious also at the way she told me to just cut it off abruptly so I was planning on still continuing it without her knowing anything. This confirms my suspicions. :D
 

HighFly

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:welave:

4 weeks is too young. Not a good breeder. Good you seem to be doing OK feeding the baby. Hope it goes well for the little guy.
Thank you for the advice and well wishes. I will continue hand-feeding as Zara also confirmed it. I feed Kiwi twice a day with h/er eating millet and egg food alone in-between. :tup: :D
 

Zara

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Remember to ease up on the egg ;) Offer veggies or soaked pellets instead.

If you only wean onto millet, you may have a harder time later introducing vegetables to the diet.

I look forward to the updates :) :bliss:
 

HighFly

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Remember to ease up on the egg ;) Offer veggies or soaked pellets instead.

If you only wean onto millet, you may have a harder time later introducing vegetables to the diet.

I look forward to the updates :) :bliss:
Hey, quick update and some information. There was a miscalculation in the age of Kiwi. If he was born on the 12th of December s/he will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and 6 weeks old today meaning that what the breeder said should be correct. That also explains why s/he is eating millet and egg food normally and standing on perches as well as starting to play with some of the toys in the cage. S/he has not yet started to eat normal seeds so that is something I need to get h/er used to. Sorry for that misinformation :D
 

Zara

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I would take everything and anything the ¨breeder¨ told you with a grain of salt.
The breeder told me that I should cut off the hand-feeding completely this Sunday.
meaning that what the breeder said should be correct.
No. You never cut off a baby bird from formula. Even if they are 15 weeks old. It doesn´t work like that.
Keep feeding the bird food, 10% of their body weight per feed. (For eg. If your bird weighs 50g, you feed 5CC - if they want more you can give it) Once the bird is not eating all of that during feeds, you can reduce one feed per day. Once you are down to one feeding per day, that should be the night time feed (to be sure they have a full crop to get them through the night).
When you are only offering one feeding, and the baby starts to refuse formula, or eats a lot less, carry on offering it for a week anyway.

Most birds will wean like clockwork, but some don´t, and that´s ok.
Just be sure to introduce those pellets, veggies and the likes just after the formula feeds. Peas and broccoli have worked well in our home. I hear others having a lot of success with (cooked) sweet potato (can be made into mash, or left diced).

Please do reduce the amount of egg. It is something that should be given in moderation. Daily is a lot.
 

Zara

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S/he has not yet started to eat normal seeds so that is something I need to get h/er used to.
Offer them just after formula. It is when they are most receptive to trying new things :)
 
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