New young B&G losing weight

[Jan Pope]

Big hello to all. I am thankful for finding this forum. I have a 5 month old female and she seems to be losing weight. I have had her for almost 2 1/2 months now. Her keel bone is starting to protrude some. I had her vet checked and blood tested etc. All came back fine. She is on a vitamin supplement she gets daily. When I give her the supplement she acts like she is being hand fed with the suringe. I am trying to get her used to fresh and dried fruits, vegetables, table food etc. Is she losing because of her age and still growing???? Or am I doing something wrong. I feed her in the am, afternoon and in the evening. She seems to throw alot of the foods on the ground. I don't know whatelse to do to make sure she is actually eating. Maybe to many different things to fast....... any ideas????

[wildirish]

So if I added right you got her when she was not quite 3 months old. If that is the case she was no where near wened properly. Most larger birds, will take up 6 months or better to wean. Look up abundance weaning you will get tons of links.

Are you hand feeding her at all.... Do you know how..... If not either have a breeder or vet show you how to do so, as alot of things can go wrong. If you don't know how, try buying some macaw formula and heating up to around 100, not in the microwave, leaves hot spots, then feed her from a spoon. Alot of birds even older ones weaned will revert back to baby feeding behaviors when placed in a new home as well.

You can also offer her warm mushy foods like oatmean, cream of wheat, etc from a spoon. Do you have a postal scale, so that you can track her weight... what did she weigh at the vets.....

Sorry I lost my question mark key to a CAG LOL!


Sorry for all of the questions, but they will help and I know others on here have a lot of experience, so the answers will help with helping you out! Depending on where in OH you are I know someone a little north of central OH that could help you and show you how to handfeed if you don't know how.

[r2rusmc]

To add on to the questions.

What are you feeding as a primary diet? My B&G that I weaned was eating a pelleted diet. Ate like a pig and crapped up a storm but was progressively loosing weight. Vet visit showed nothing wrong except weight loss.

We went over the diet and questioned the pellets he was on. We thought that maybe it was the food "not agreeing" with his system and we switched him to a different food. Bingo, he started gaining pretty quickly after that.

This was in 1990 and the quality of pelleted diets are much better and much more available.

Just something to consider.

Where abouts in Ohio are you?

[birdsnreps]

You need to be handfeeding her, and you need to start asap!! that baby does not know how to eat food on her own and needs the handfeedings to keep her weight up. without the formula, she will keep loosing weight and eventually die, basically she will starve to death cause she does not know how to eat on her own, no matter how hard you try to get her to eat her own food, shes just too young to understand right now. she may play with adult food a little bit, but she doesnt really know that its food and shes supposed to eat it. it usually takes at the very least, 6 months to fully wean a baby macaw. whenever you take her out to hold her, take her bowl of food with you and just stick little pieces of food in her mouth, let her play with each piece and taste it in her beak. dont do it forcefully though, just play with her, with her food. she will eventually pick up more and more food on her own, and eventually wean. it just takes time, be persistant about it and she will wean herself. whenever she leaves her cage to go play on a playgym, make sure she has food there too, not just in her cage. the more you "surround" her with adult food, the more she will be interested in it and pick it up on her own. in your case, she might take a little longer, just cause shes already loosing weight :( mix her formula with peanut butter, and instant ounces if you can get it. that will bring her weight back up very quickly. you can mix some gerber baby foods (fruit and veggie ones only) in the formula, and that will do wonders for her growth as well. you can give her any types of adult foods, its not too many at the same time, its just that she doesnt really know what to do with the adult food.

if you have any more questions, feel free to pm me, ill try to help you any way i can. im sorry the store (or breeder) sold you an unweaned baby, its not your fault, its theirs. they should never sell an unweaned baby to someone who doesnt know that they still need to be handfed, it can quickly become a life or death situation :(

[Jan Pope]

She came out of Texas. Poor thing travel all the way here and not weaned yet. She was 846 grams when I took her to the vet. I was given a supplement vitamin to give her each day. My scale will be here in a few days. Ordered one today. She is starting to eat fruits and vegies. Seems like the pellets end up on the floor of her cage. I am giveing her Harrisons as well as a couple different kinds to see what she seems to like. The vet recommened the Harrisons pellets. Can I get the supplement on line or at a pet store? I do not live far from a pet store that specializes in birds and they hand raise Macaws there also. I am sure they can help me. I think I will supplement her feedings. If anything it will help with the bonding. :) She is out of her cage all day except when we leave the house or at night. She has food on top of her cage as well as water. Her temperment and energy seem fine. Playful sometimes as well as cuddly other times. She is socializing very well. I have another question...... I know they love to chew wood. Can I give her an apple tree branch to climb on and chew? It has not been treated with any pesticides. I live in Geauga County. Snow burbs here... So far so good this year weather wise.

[Sashagirl]

Yes it is okay to give her apple tree branch as long as it's not treated.Try giving her a deep dish and not too much food in bowl to start with so she won't waist as much.She is on the young side and should be still hand feeding.You need a hand feeding thermometer to take the temperature of the formula so you don't burn her.

[birdsnreps]

i get instant ounces from a friend of mine, who is a distributor of pheonix unlimited products, but you should be able to find it at a bird specialty store, or just order it online. its wonderful, i have never raised a macaw without it. i never really have trouble getting my baby macaws to eat pellets. sometimes i soak the pellets in hot water, or i just leave them as-is. i feed the babies in a large ceramic dog bowl on the bottom of their cage. its about 4 in tall and about 10-12in wide. even when they swish around the food in the bowl, almost all of the food stays in the bowl so they can eat it instead of dropping everything to the ground. mine also love soaked monkey biscuits mushed up and put on top of their other food.

[blissfulmom]

I am soooooo glad I read this post, I am awaiting bringing home my bird, I know that I have to hand feed him, but know one said anything about supplements and baby food! I am going to go see my vet in person before I bring Hindrex home. I was also told that he would be weened fully around 16 weeks not 6 to 9 months.
I am wondering if our babies came from the same place in Texas. I leaned my lesson and will only get my next companion from an reputable adoption aviary or breeder.

[Raylene]

With the age of being fully weaned, we had both our macaws from the same breeder the 1st we got was 18 weeks and fully weaned and the other was 21 weeks and was fully weaned by 19 weeks. the breader did say they she had some that has taken an extra couple of months to be completey weaned.
I have never known one being fully weaned by 3 months.