I strongly
discourage selling unweaned parrots as the risks are big. Crop burns can occur
as well as pneumonia (If a parrot accidently inhales the formula which can
happen if food is pushed into the baby's mouth either too fast or too slow) and
fungal and bacterial infections.
No, that won't happen to me, you'll think. Well, I thought it was a piece of
cake as well and I made a terrible mistake with that. I am not proud to tell
this but I really feel you should know this, it might save you from buying
and unweaned parrot with all the terrible consequences that are coming with it.
I was very un-experienced with hand feeding but this store-owner made me believe
that it was very easy to hand feed a baby parrot and wean him. It was just:
Making the formula with hot water and then feeding it to your parrot. So I got
myself talked into this and bought the smallest senegalparrot of the clutch and
I named him Iago, after the parrot in Disney's Aladdin.
At first I fed him his formula and everything went okay but after some weeks he
suddenly started to returgirate his formula. I was worried and went to see a
vet, who only gave me some antibiotics without knowing the cause of all this! He
also didn't know that Iago was a senegalparrot, and he was said to be a bird
specialist..
It didn't go any better and I went to see another vet as I didn't have any trust
in that I went to see before. This one didn't know Iago's species as well and
gave him an injection with antibiotics. For the rest he did nothing than sending
me away with a huge bill.
It went a little bit better for some days and Iago started vomiting again. I was
worried sick and went to see a good doctor in Amsterdam. At least, it has been
told he was very good. I had to leave my sweety there for some days and when I
collected my bird he didn't even know me anymore! I got a huge bill and they
told me that they couldn't find anything.
One evening I was feeding Iago again and suddenly I noticed that he had spoiled
some of his formula. At least, that's how it seemed! I noticed there was a
huge hole in his crop where his formula got out with the same speed as I gave
him his formula. It was scary to see and Iago didn't make a noise and he didn't
show he was in pain. It broke my heart to see him so very sad... He was such a
big boy, he didn't make a sound when I touched the wound. I rushed to the vet
and she stitched him.
A week later, a second hole in his crop emerged. I rushed to the vet again and
she stitched him again. Luckily there were no holes emerging in his crop after
that incident anymore..
It was also very difficult to ween him as Iago didn't want to eat his veggies
and fruit. He liked the formula too much I guess.. Luckily, he started eating
himself in some months but I would never recommand hand feeding your own bird as
you really take the risk of cropburning. With me it turned out okay thanks to
the vet's expertise..
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