New bird in the house

[JRKRACING1]

My wife and I are the proud new owners of a 5 week old Green wing named "Gator" (yes we're from Florida ). He is doing well and eats like a mad man. He's getting his red head and the wing feathers are just starting to pop. I will try to get my wife to post pics if she can figure out how to. I need to post pics of the whole gang. "Torrie" our U2 is the oldest before "Murry" our yellow nape zon. We are new to birds but defenitly have caught the bug. We really did alot of research before getting our first bird but after that we kinda went crazy. We work very closely with our breeder and a very knowledgable local pet store staff who has been very helpful getting us up to speed. We love the hand feeding. The two older fids are down to one feeding a day but of course Gator is still 3 times a day. He's a trip he really gets into the feeding and is somewhat tough to kepp a hold of. All he seems to be interested in is eating at this point which I'm sure is normal for 5 weeks old but I just thought I would check and see if thishas been everyone elses experience. Wish us luck.

[Irish]

Congratulations on your new baby GW. 5 weeks old is pretty young! I hope you have experience in handfeeding, or a very good local mentor. So many, many things can go wrong if not done right. Also, you should be weighing him daily before first feeding.

Get us them pix, eh? :-)

[PenelopeGem]

Congratulations on your new Greenwing Macaw baby. I wish you the best of luck with the handfeeding. Although, I have not owned a macaw that young that is still handfeeding, I have handfed other species at that age. I think three feedings per day may not be enough feedings for a baby that is so young, and probably not eating anything on it's own yet. It could be the reason he/she is only interested in eating. I would check with the breeder on this.

[JRKRACING1]

Experience? Well no not a lot of that unfortunately but we are in the same area as the breeder we got him/her from so she is available if need be. We have learned a lot in a short amount of time not to say we are experts by any means. The breeder said the baby was on this current feeding schedule so that is what we have followed. I did finally get a scale today so I will be weighing this morning before I feed. I was told 10 percent of their body weight in grams so say they weigh 500 grams then I would feed 50 cc of formula. This is what the breeder instructed 3 times a day. We just got the bird on saturday. So far so good anyways. My wife and I work shift work on opposite shifts so someone is always home with the birds. I appreciate all the information and advice I can get and all we want is what is best for Gator.

[JRKRACING1]

Update: "Gator" is doing great! He is really growing like a weed. I've been weighing him every morning before feeding and keeping a record. He gains weight every time on average about 25-40 grams a day. His feathers are coming in nicely and he has what looks like a little red flat-top hair cut coming in nicely. He is getting well socialized with the kids my wife and me. He weighs about 613 grams this morning and he is just under 6 weeks old. We don't have an exact hatch date but we are putting it right around the 4th of july (independance day baby ). Anywho just thought I would provide an update. Any comments as always would be appreciated. Thanks. John.

[kellywess]

Wheres the pics? I know I speak for many when I ask that question. Its good to hear that he is growing and socializing well with you and your family. They are gentle giants and very very sweet babies.

[huntress]

Hmm, five weeks? Id feed more often than three times a day.

[JRKRACING1]

We are taking plenty of pictures of course but we have not yet figured out how to post them on this site. My wife is usually pretty good when it comes to such things and can not as of yet figure it out. Any tips on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again. John.