Question by tode909: EXPERTS ONLY please, about green cheek conure babies?
I know my crap, so I need some help from some EXPERTS. I know nothing’s better than a vet, but the vet I’ve taken my birds to has seriously given me some bad information that has messed up my baby birds. He even killed one by force-feeding it, then charged me $ 600.
I’ve been breeding green cheek conures for over a year now and everything has been going smoothly. However, I got some bad advice from that vet I mentioned, and he said that you should let your birds breed whenever they like (BEFORE I found out he was crazy). While common sense told me that sounded like a bad idea, I left the nestbox in from August, 08 to February, 09 and have so far ended up with 3 clutches, back to back.
So I have finally pulled the nest box (after consulting another vet, who told me my previous vet is crazy), and I pulled the babies. Turns out the pair ate the youngest one (for reasons unknown), and the second youngest baby died from crop impaction (the parents stopped feeding him and he ate the wood shavings). So now I only have two babies left, the oldest two, and I’m having some serious problems.
#1: The babies are 2 1/2 months old and the youngest one has NOT opened its eyes! Could he be blind? He has tried to open them, but just closes them again within minutes. He’s very responsive and always has an appetite.
#2: Neither of them have their feathers yet! By now most green cheek babies would have most of their feathers in and are beginning to wean! And they’re actually LOSING some of their tail feathers!
#3: I was told these could be signs of beak and feather disease… But they have not had contact with any other birds, ever. I ordered a test for both of them that should be in within the week, just in case.
#4: The “blind” baby has lost most of the toe nails on his left foot.
#5: I feed them every 2-3 hours, all the right temperatures/mixtures of Kaytee Exact handfeeding formula and they CAN’T gain weight! I’ve even tried mixing in Pedialyte to help with dehydration and some chicken Gerber baby food. Nothing has helped. They’re little sticks.
#6: Several times, we have had severe storms where I live and it has knocked us out of power during the night for hours, and the heating pad in the babies’ brooder was knocked off. They suffered severe exposure to coldness and trauma from it, but there was nothing I could do at the time except hold them and warm them up.
Could this all be due to the fact that their parents had bred too much previously and the babies weren’t given the proper amount of vitamins/nutrients they were supposed to have in the egg? I feed the parents Zupreem pellets and fresh fruits daily, but I think that the constant back-to-back breeding might have momentarily messed up my hen. I keep waiting for their feathers to grow in and for the littlest one’s eyes to open, and they seem to just be at a stand-still. At this rate, they won’t be weaned until about 4-5 months old. I compared them with pictures of other baby green cheeks at 2 1/2 months, and with the condition my babies are in, they look like they’re MAYBE one month old! Both have great appetites and are very responsive to me. SO what could be going on?!? HELP!!!
Best answer:
Answer by Kimmie
I moderate on a parrot community board and have heard through various sources that since Kaytee redesigned their handfeeding formula about 1-1.5 yrs ago, there have been dozens of deaths and/or failure-to-thrive cases of domestic raised parrots.
I would have both babies re-evaluated by a certified avian vet (travel the distance if you have to, well worth it!). Have blood panels drawn, and test for crop issues, as well as disease and infection testing.
It does seem odd that you are seeing failure-to-thrive signs on both babies ie: eyes failing to open, feathers failing to grow.
An easy way to determine if the formula is causing the distress, is to switch to a different brand and see how the babies do over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure if the babies can afford another 2 weeks of time if there ARE underlying medical issues.
I really think you need to investigate the formula connection and failure-to-thrive symptoms.
I hope your babies pull through!!
What do you think? Answer below!
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