Thank you so, so much for your kindness, everyone. Fostering littler babies is always a roulette, I know, and normally I can stay more impartial as a helper, but this one just hit so unexpectedly and deeply I couldn't explain how bad I was grieving to friends or family who might think of birds as less "conscious" or emotional than, say, a pet dog. I desperately needed empathy, and being given it from people who understand the loss has been helping me process and heal.
@expressmailtome ,
@camelotshadow ,
@Sylvi_ ,
@tka ,
@Hipcricket , thank you SO much for taking the time to share kindness.
@Zara , thank you for everything you've done! I have never raised any parrot babies under weaned age, and your experience has been invaluable, not to mention kept me from panicking constantly.
@Laurie , thank you for so much advice! I've been trying to harvest lovebird information from internet pages and not all of the information has been useful (like one that said to slowly work up to thicker formula over the course of a week or two, for example -- that's the opposite of what Jon needs!! Thanks to you I have him on non-diluted formula only and papaya occasionally if digestion seems off, and he's gobbling it up!)
Everyone's kindness and patience with this journey has been priceless. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
For a more positive update, Jon is coming along wonderfully. He has a few issues I suspect are due to abandonment that I'm working on. Initially, he was food obsessive, begging as long as he suspected anyone was nearby, well beyond the point of stuffed (until I figured that out, we twice got to where he would be begging for food as his overstuffed crop regurgitated it!! PANIC.) He'd scream endlessly if you held him, and sometimes in the incubator, too, if he noticed your silhouette. He also didn't want contact much, even though he was clearly lonely, and panicked if you touched his head outside of feeding.
I felt a little more competent to treat this, since I've seen the same behaviors fairly often in abandoned/nest-removed fledglings who went without food for a while before we got them. My current treatment (and please note any advice otherwise!) has been to feed him, hold him with gradually increased gentle contact, and slowly lengthen the amount of time I keep him out of the incubator with me before being put back (with a monitored heat pack to maintain his temp, of course.)
Over the last week he's graduated from screaming and hiding from hands, to screaming and hiding in a pocket, to grumbling and hiding in a sleeve, to begging occasionally and settling down in a hand, to starting to recognize fullness and running for a hand to snuggle with! Today instead of unnecessary begging he started making little beak grinds while I held him, and my heart about burst with relief. I have cautious hope that he's going to have a healthy little brain and body with time and care.