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  • This forum is for advice about initial treatment given to your injured/sick bird until a qualified avian veterinarian is available.
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Urgent Red bellied parrot

Shaerah

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Shaerah
Good evening,

My husband and I went to a pet shop and saw this little baby who was 4 weeks old and much smaller than his siblings.

We took him as we didn't want him to not make it...

He was really ill. However, with alot of Vet care and nursing we got him back to good health...

He is now 11 months old...we weaned him off cereal prior and started pellets.

He ate it for months with a fruit and veggie diet.

He suddenly now refuses to eat it...we took him to the Vet twice and they consider him to just be fussy...

All he wants is a seed mix.

We tried everything we possibly could and we failed to make him eat... we were so desperate that we started to feed him cereal again.

We also noticed that he does take out a few feathers....

His cage is cleaned twice or three times a day and his food and water is changed daily
Does anyone have a any advice for me?I would really appreciate it
 

Clueless

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melissasparrots

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It's hard to advise about this sort of thing over the internet. It could just be that he is being over fed seed and is eating it to exclusion of all else, just because he can. At 11 months, I would think most red bellied parrots would be past the baby begging stage. I'd be hesitant to revert back to hand-feeding for fear that I'd have to re-wean him and that may make things complicated later with regard to getting him to eat a healthy diet. Personally, I'd be weighing him daily. I'd also make sure the vet does a culture and sensitivity (not just a gram's stain) of the crop, choanal slit and may fecal depending on what they recommend. I'd also have blood work done. If all looks good, I'd let him eat seed and see what his weight does. If he maintains weight on a seed only diet and his poops are well formed, that means he is in fact eating enough to sustain himself so his appetite is decent. If the vet lab results all come back good, I'd be inclined to think he's just being picky. Sometimes, eating mainly seeds for a few months after weaning is not a terrible thing. Especially if the baby was kind of sick and skinny. Seed can be good for putting weight on a bird and he probably isn't going to die of poor nutrition after just a few months of eating a mostly seed diet. If after a while it becomes clear that he's eating enough to sustain himself, his weight is good and all blood work and lab work come back normal, I'd start rationing seed so that he is forced to eat pellets and veggies due to not much else being available. It can be a slow transition. However, I would not be pushing the less favored foods until it's very apparent that the bird is healthy otherwise. Also, eating enough seed to maintain himself on his own is a preferable situation to hand-feeding him and loosing independence. However, if the bird is clearly ill and obviously not maintaining weight at all on his own with seed, then he probably needs more vet care and possible hand-feeding. I would not have a panic attack if the bird looses a few grams when you stop hand-feeding. I'd start getting worried though if its a few grams a day over several days and it doesn't stabilize on its own within a week or less.
 

Shaerah

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Shaerah
Thank you

I took him to his exotic specialist twice...the did tests and checked his crop and he was good

I tried just leaving pellets and his water for the day and completely starved himself until he got what he wanted

He did lose weight and the vet got concerned and asked me to feed him what he likes and give him cereal

He does have another appointment coming up
 

iamwhoiam

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Sometimes birds can become very picky when it comes to food.
Have you tried avicakes or nutriberries? Those consist of a combination
of seeds and pellets. Which pellets have you tried? Some birds are just
not fans of pellets and some birds will eat them for a while and then
decide they no longer like them.
 
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