Need Urgent Advice on my Christmas present (New baby CAG!, Yes..I'm a Mommy again)

[rubiojwls]

Hello everyone,I'm writing this e-mail looking for some suggestions.
Yesterday, Christmas evening, I went to the pet store to buy food for my other birds (2 CAGs, Coco and Shadow) (1 Yellow sided green check) when I was walking through the store (Not a good idea, because I want all the birds) I saw a baby CAG. He/she cought my attention because unlike the other CAGs in the store, this baby was plucked (Not severely, but all of his/hers feather's wings are completely chewed, the rest of the body was white cotton like feathers). When I asked about him/her the person in the store told me that a lady had bought the bird from another shop (completely feathered) and that about a week or two later the bird started doing the damage to his feathers. The lady came to the store and dumped the bird and asked the manager to help her sell the bird. I asked how much was she asking for him/her and the manager said $600.
These types of birds are around $1500. around the area where I live. The manager continued explaining that the previous owner did not had the time for the bird and that she did not realize the amount of time that these birds required (that was her reason for dumping the baby). The baby is about 6-7 months old, his eyes are dark gray. I had told myself that I was not going to get another bird, as they require a lot of time and toys, food, etc. And that costs a lot of money (if you spoiled your birds like me!).
Anyway, to make a long story short, I got the bird for $500. and bought him enough food and toys.
Now the problem is that on the first day (yesterday) he would not eat at all. I brought him/her home around 1pm and by 7pm he had not eating anything or drink any water. My mother was at my house and we were thinking that maybe the baby is not completely weaned! So we offered the bird some soft food in a spoon and he ate it all. Today 12/25/05, he is eating some seeds but I'm still offering soft food from a spoon and he/she is eating everything, so I'm happy about that. Now the plucking is still going on.....I have some avicalm that I had given one of my CAGs because she started plucking and now she is okay. I know is too early for the medication to take effect, but I don't know what else to try to help him/her stop plucking/chewing. His/her cage is full of toys, all over. He has food and water, plus I'm giving him/her soft food and he is eating.....I know that this baby needs love, and we have a lot of that around here. He does well with all of us, he does not bite and I already thought him how to step up....that was amazing because he learned in one day. He is also eating from our hands and this morning when he seen me he wistled at me....How sweet, he can tell that we love him already.
I'm planning to give him a bath tomorrow, and i have some feather powder to put in the water that would help the itch (if that is bother him).
I just need all of your imput on this baby, and what to do. I think I'm getting a little bit frustrated when I see the baby picking his/hers feathers .....I know is a lot of change for the baby and maybe I'm expecting too much for now.
I know that at the end, he will be fully feather and healthy just like the rest of by other babies.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Doubleyolk]

I would suggest a Vet check to make sure that are no medical problems.

If the tests come back negative then there are different things you can try.

I would also suggest Quarantine until your Grey gets checked out.

[rubiojwls]

Quarentine even if he was around other healthy birds? Tell me more because right now he is in the same room as the other babies!

[kp_in_scott]

Quarantine would have been a good thing, but if he has already come in contact with your other birds, it may be a useless action now. The vet check is a must. He most likely has some illness that has caused him to pluck this early in his life. The bath is also a good idea, and I would continue the Avicalm at least until the vet checks him. I know that you feel that the baby will stop plucking once he knows how much you love him and I surely hope so too, but be prepared that to love a raggedy plucked bird if he doesn't stop. I have a plucked cockatoo, who came to us with lots of issues(adopted by us at 8 years old). We love him and he has plenty of toys and a good diet. We use Kings Pluck No More, and his plucking has slowed considerably, but his belly is still nekid. And that's ok.
This baby obviously needs the intensive love that you can give him. Continue to spoon feed him what ever he will accept from you with plenty of foods available for him to explore. Hopefully the environment that he was in is the cause of his plucking and not disease. I wish you good luck with your new baby.
Any idea what you're gonna call him?

[rubiojwls]

Well, yes....he is in the same room with my other birds already! So I guess is too late. As for the name? I don't know yet, I would have to named him/her today. As for sex preferences, it doesn't matter as I already have a male (Coco) and a female (Shadow) both were DNA tested. So this baby is just a blessing from heaven. I know that he will be fine, one day he will have all of his feathers, but if it doesn't happen that way.......we will still love him, Hey we all have issues right?
He is now eating from his food. I was going to offer him some soft food but I saw him eating so I'm going to wait until he finish and then I will offer some more. This morning they will have steamed vegetables.
I will definately take him to the vet, and continue with the avicalm. That really worked for Shadow, and I hope it will work for him too.

[poi_lover]

I agree that you need to take this bird to vet right away. The plucking may be because of some illness.

It is also possible that the plucking behavior is from the stress of not being weaned before it was shoved off into its first home. She may have not been getting enough food to eat in her first home if the person didn't realize this. I had this problem with my Meyer's when she was just a baby. She had actually been plucking some before I got her. I noticed that one of her legs was looking a little barer where her band was, but it really wasn't that easy to notice. After bringing her home, she started plucking more and pulled out the feathers in her chest. She also took out all of her tail feathers. It probably took a couple of months for her to settle down and start feeling more comfortable and then she stopped. I had been told she was eating solid food on a regular basis, which I found out right away was not true.

[Jer]

I would definitely say a vet check, and also if this baby is still so young, I would personally offer it some baby bird formula as they are known to regress back to baby personalities when being taken into a new home. And I would think even more so with this one, since it sounds like it this baby has been through some stress with its age so young and being in so many different places. Good luck, hope all goes well.

Jer

[FeatherLover]

I don't have any suggestions other than what has already been said, but I wanted to say good luck and keep us updated.

[rubiojwls]

Thank you all for all of your support. Chico (that's his name) is feeling much better today. I will definately take him to the vet this Friday, I will call tomorrow to schedule the appointment. He has not plucked today He is eating more and more of his pellets......but I will still offer him some baby food I bought for him yesterday (Kaytee, exact hand feeding formula). He has not plucked or chewed his feathers today, he was preening but it was the healthy type of preening. He was all over the cage (full of toys) and checking them out. I will give him another bath tomorrow in order to keep his skin moistured and to encourage some healthy preening. He has been eating all day today so I skipped the baby food but I will feed him this afternoon so that he goes to bed with a full belly. I also covered his cage yesterday and he seemed to slep better.....as he had more energy to wonder around the cage today.
Every time I hand feed him, I get really upset thinking about all the irresponsable people who sell birds that are not completely weaned and not even telling the new owners about it. Then, I get more upset thinking about the owners who would rather get rid of the birds (don't care about what they are doing to the bird) instead of trying to find solutions for their problems. I have the feeling that this was the problem with Chico. I will take him to the vet just to make sure that he is okay and to weight him to keep track of this.
But I know this.....Chico was meant to be with my family