Need urgent help fattening my macaw (+Berta Pic)

[Alyce Johnson]

Pic of Berta can now be seen if you go to my profile page.
(My husband couldnt figure out how to load it as an avatar or as part of a signature.)

Current Problem:
Since her beak injury Berta has continued to lose weight slowly.
She is now at 1015 grams, down from 1022
That's on the low end of what a scarlet should weigh, and she's a GW cross with a scarlet, so it seems to me she really ought to be heftier than this.

And 1022 was already down below what the vet had recorded for her (although I thought his weight of around 1034 was on the high side - it was higher than anything I'd ever gotten at home). He didnt think the drop of 10ish grams was too much to worry about at the time (several days after the beak injury, when she was just managing soft food). But now she's lost 7 more (on the same scal too, so it's not the measuring device).

So now I'm worried, and I want to fatten her up.
Ideas? She will eat the following:

Protein (chix & hard boiled eggs), bread, fat (as in butter on bread)
nuts (sunflower seeds, pine nuts, penut butter & other nuts chopped up) these are a few of her favorite foods. She'll also eat people food - chix enchiladas for ex. Or pizza crust. Chicken bones. All of these are favored foods. I can also usually get warm oatmeal down her (with or w/out vitamins in it). She turns her beak up at veggies (unless they're dipped in gravy first) or the "healthy" mixtures like Beak Appetite or Kay T's Kitchen Creations. Wont have any of that at all. Will eat the Beak Appetite if I mix in parmesan cheese and make it with chix broth rather than water - but she wont eat much, even then. Will eat a little bit of banana. No pellets - just flings them about the room. Does the same with sprouts. (I'll post pics of that soon - that's really cute!)

What do I choose to fatten her up in a healthy kind of way and stem the weight loss?

[The Outlaw]

I have the same problems with my pretty redhead. She was sick last year and has never really gotten any weight back. Her former owner loved her a lot, but didn't really know how to fatten her up. She's a very,very picky eater.

What I'm currently doing is using all of my super powers in the kitchen to win her over. My Eenie is approximately 25 to 30 years old and only weights 1107 grams of of yesterday morning. That's at least 100 grams light for a GW, even a small one.

She was allowed to eat only junk such as peanut butter crackers, pretzels, sunflower seeds and the occasional apple. Offering pellets and other better foods was very frustrating and eventually her former owner just tried to get her to eat anything at all.

I am currently converting her to a fresh diet. Its been a bit difficult for she can be ornery, but she's slowly coming around. A treat for all of my macaws is for me to make them my special sweet potato mash. I simply nuke a couple of sweet potatoes, then remove the skin. I mash them with a fork and add a a big scoop of peanut butter and the juice from 1/2 fresh squeezed orange.

I feed it warm usually off of a spoon and they line up with mouths open whenever I appear with the bowl. Since none are babies anymore, its really funny to witness.

Avitec.com sells a product called Instant Ounces. You can add it to any soft foods to boost the caloric intake. It's been my experience that macaws love warm mashy stuff. You might even want to add some macaw baby formula to her soft foods, too. I also like to soak Zupreem Monkey Chow (Primate biscuits) in warm apple juice. Its one of the old timers things often offered to weaning baby birds. Again, I add some juice in bowl and nuke that and the biscuits for about a minute. I let it cool down and mash with a fork.

I think the warm mash reminds them of the cuddling they got as babies. Its really comfort food. Give these things a try. Let's see how well they are doing in one month's time. We should be seeing gains in weight.

[Monica]

Alyce, you can check out this link if you need help postin photos...

Posting Photos

[Alyce Johnson]

I'm off to the corner store for some sweet potatoes and an orange (or some juice)! She loves penuts and will nibble at penut butter, so that seems like something she might actually eat. And it's certainly simple enough - I can try it tonight, even.

Thanks for "weighing in" on this issue, Nancy! I really appreciate your input, because I've never tried to fatten up a bird before. As I've said before, I know about cats, but birds are a really different thing, and I'm pretty new to working with them.

[The Outlaw]

Alyce:

Use a fresh orange. None of my birds like bottled or reconstituted orange juice.

[Winged_Victory]

Relax..............

Her weight is fine considering a beak injury. I have several scarlets and a Ruby macaw like you. Our scarlets are small compared to our Ruby. Nancy has given you some excellent advice, you might add macadamia meal to your nut mix or sweet potatos for added fat calories.

Gary

[The Outlaw]

Just checked her photo. No wonder you thought Berta was a GW. She looks just like a greenwing! I'm curious as to how you found out her true lineage. Did someone find hatch papers?

[Alyce Johnson]

Well - no. We dont actually know much about her at all. We're her 2nd foster parents, so what we do know is 2nd hand thru the first foster mom, from the owners (and maybe not even directly from them to her). Very little is reliably known.

I'm honestly not at all sure she *isnt* a GW. But, if she is, she must surely have been the runt of the litter (um, clutch). She has a lot of yellow in her green, is what made me wonder if she might be a hybrid. And per the personality profiles in another post, she sounds way more like a scarlet.

When I took her to see Dr Speer he walked into the room, and even before introducing himself said "Ah - a Ruby!" So, since he works with them in the wild (and wrote the vet section in that big macaw book we all love) I figured he must know. Right? Or maybe not.

So anyway, I really dont know - and Berta doesnt seem to remember her parents - or if she does, she aint talking. (Perhaps she's heard mixed marriages are controversial - I dont know.) LOL

But like I say, she's sure small, if she's a pure blood GW! I have a picture coming that will show more of her back - maybe that will give those of you who know better than me (which is pretty much most of you) a bit more info to work with. I'm open to persuasion, as to what she is.

One thing that made me think they just might sneak in a little interbreeding in the wild is that I have seen pics (cant remember where though) of birds at a feeding station for wild birds, taken in their native habitat range that looked *exactly* like her - mixed yellow with green & all. So...I think it's an open question, really, as to what she truly is. (Other than absolutly wonderful, that is!)

[Alyce Johnson]

Nancy's sweet potato mash is a big hit!
She seemed to like it quite well! Thanks again for that input - I just made some up and she lapped it right up off my finger tips. Even ate it from my husband's hand w/out trying to bite him - a sure sign she likes the food offering and wants to keep more of it coming!

[The Outlaw]

Alyce:

I think she may be a Greenwing. If she's thin, she may not be in really good feather. Eenie will only get prettier as she molts out these feathers when her dietary changes kick in. I can't tell much by looking at Berta's colors in your profile. How about putting some photos up in the Album section under Macaws? Its easy and not so confusing as posting within the post. Or, maybe you'd rather email them to me and I'll take a peek.

Did her initial veting show any liver malfunction or any dietary deficits? If so, that could explain abhorant colors. When Barb orignally got Allegra, he was suffering from some fatty liver disease. She changed his diet (feeds only fresh) and within a few molts his feathers went from an ugly olive green to a bright yellow green that is normal for a YNA. Just shows what a good diet can do.

Of course, she may be a real Ruby. I've only met 3 and all looked different from GWs to me. Their colors where brighter red and I don't think they had facial lines. Can't remember for sure. Gary (Winged Victory) has a pretty Ruby. Perhaps he'll post a shot. I'll look in my files for a photo of my girlfriends Ruby.