Pictures New Adopted feather baby

[OpalRaven]

Hi! So I adopted a male yellow napped amazon. He is about 30ish years.
He is not handleable so I have my work cut out for me. The vet told the previous owners to get him on a better diet (which I'm so happy about) but he is still eating a seed and peanut mix along with nutriberries because they said the vet told them if you take away the seed all together he will die? I know when I pet sat him it took him a good 48-72 hours to settle in and eat. He did not eat dinner last night but I did get him to eat a peanut piece before bed and saw him drink water once the lights were out. Also the vet told them to get a humidifier for his room. Does anyone know at what humidity a room should be for Amazons?

Sorry for the long post, any tip or hints appreciated!! THANKS

 

[Clueless]

The vet probably said that because you can't completely change a birds diet at one time. They won't have anything they recognize as food.

My amazons were amazingly easy to switch onto pellets.

Is the humidity in your home comfortable to you?

Strongly recommend some natural perches for his cage (makes the birds feet flex and change positions as they walk). Dowel rods are not good for their feet.

 

[OpalRaven]

@Clueless thanks! I do plan on getting more differant things in his cage. I did not want to change too much at once since when I pet sat him he clung to the bars of his travel cage for 48 hrs and I felt so bad! He only clung to the bars of his cage for about an hour so we are already making some small progress lol. I think the humidity is comfortable... I am buying a thermometer/ hydrometer to put by his cage. I only gave him some strawberry, banana and pasta this morning with his regular food, hopefully that will tempt him to eat something.

 

[txdyna65]

Im pretty much going through the same thing. We took on a 20 yr old Orange Wing on a bad diet.
Try this link Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
I found it very helpful with a ton of good information. We put out the food we want to switch her to this morning first thing and she actually ate some of it.
I also changed the paper in the bottom of the cage to monitor her poop to make sure she is eating.

 

[Clueless]

Absolutely love that you both have older amazons too.

How about toys? Mine didn't know what to do with them. Parrots Treasure has those Little Pops. They were the first toys that the zons at my house discovered

 

[iamwhoiam]

Congrats. on getting your YNA. Thank you for adopting her. I have a 31 year old YNA, Shannon. She was on an all seed diet and I added pellets which she would eat sparingly. I tried Zupreem and Roudybush. When I switched the birds to Caitec Oven Fresh Bites she became a pellet lover. She still gets her seed mix but the first thing she generally eats are her pellets. No idea about humidity. I don't use a humidifier here.
Even though I knew Shannon for many years before I brought her home it took her a while to start eating enough food. In fact she lost weight which was actually OK in her case because she was overweight when I got her.

 

[sunnysmom]

Congrats on your new bird. : )

 

[Wthensler]

Our rescue Mickey (DYH) was on a sunflower seed only diet, but he very quickly ate just about anything we put in front of him. The vet guessed his age at 30ish, and he certainly bore the signs of a poor diet.

Our Red Lored (Bo) is a far pickier eater. He was also on a seed and peanut diet, and still prefers nuts, which we now limit in his diet. He likes peas (yeah!) and pasta (we try to limit).

Thank you for adopting, and we’re here to help however we can. Unfortunately we’re in FL, where lack of humidity is never a problem!

 

[OpalRaven]

He ate yesterday!! Also how much should I be feeding him? Like if he is mainly eating the nutriberries how much should he get a day? I don't want to under or over feed. But I also have no way of weighting him yet. I'm going to be starting target training but until then.... Also any tips for training? It would be nice if I could pet him, but even if I could just have him step up onto my hand to move from place to place with out biting. His owners said he is now unhandleable and unpredictable . She had used gloved and a towel to het him into his travel cage.

 

[zoo mom]

Congratulations and thank you for taking in an older bird.

 

[BirdManDan]

First off thanks for rescuing your YNA. We only have rescued birds and an YNA is one of them. It is great that you are working on switching him to a healthier dietas an all seed and nut diet is lacking in nutrients and way too heavy in the fat department. I feed my parrots a well balanced chop in the morning then in the evening TOP's Organic cold pressed pellets. My birds get plenty of natural unfiltered sunlight so I don't need to supplement with Vitamin D.

If you are trying to convert you birds to a pellet diet supplemented daily with a chop of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, there is a good conversion guide and another guide you can download for free in a PDF format. They are for one brand of pellets but the same can be done with whatever pellets you decide to go with. As I said before I love TOPs. The pellets are softer than most and can be eaten by most parrots from small to large.

Pellet-Useage-Report-.pdf

pelletconversionguide.pdf