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Need advice on stunted lovebird baby

S3rious

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3/12/23
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Sohail Ahmed Khan
Hi All,

A breeder (whom I had purchase some chicks earlier) recently gave me a 14 day old lovebird chick for hand feeding and adoption(He did not have experience for handfeeding). When I got the lovebird chick, I noticed the chick is quite small for the age and has a deformed backbone. It appears to be stunted and not growing. The deformation and stunting may have happened by dehydration as the weather is quite hot (35-40 Degree Celcius)
I am feeding the chick since 4 days and did not observe any changes to the bird's body, however the chick has accepted the handfeed and recognizes the feed time as a normal lovebird chick would do.
I don't have an avian vet nearby and so need some advice on how to assist the baby chick grow. My Feeding schedule is every 2-3 hours except when emptying the crop completely(overnight).

Thanks.
 

Zara

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Have you been weighing the chick? Is he gaining weight?
 

S3rious

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Sohail Ahmed Khan
Have you been weighing the chick? Is he gaining weight?
No, I havent, I dont have the gram scale yet, and I plan to purchase the scale and start weighing the chick in a day or 2.
 

S3rious

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Sohail Ahmed Khan
Here is a pic , its a bit hard to make out from the image, but you can just check the size as compared to my hand.
 

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Zara

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The main thing to observe is if the bird is gaining weight. When they stop gaining weight, or lose weight is usually when they don´t survive. You would have to race to your vet to try and seek treatment.

If your bird is eating well, has open eyes, pooping well, nice crop movements, gaining weight, then things look hopeful.

The back issue you mention, I would recommend taking her to the vet asap for that, because structural issues to the bird have a better chance of being corrected while they are still small,.

I had a chick that grew very slowly, her siblings were much bigger, and she took a long time to grow into a fully formed bird, she also took longer to wean, but she got there in the end.
 
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