Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.
I'm so relieved to hear that Truman seems to be feeling better and you're noticing an improvement.
You've done a great job handling everything through this ordeal Michael. I can only hope that if my guys get sick or injured I handle it in much the same fashion. Kudos to you Michael.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Laura's Bird World Blog - http://laurasbirdworld.blogspot.com/ Jessie - Senegal Lucy - Red Bellied Kylie - Meyers
Truman is still on and off with feeding here. I'm trying to reduce the hand feedings but then he starts losing weight. For instance this morning he started at 307g. I left him alone with his pellets for a few hours. I came back and there was a lot of powder on the bottom so I thought he was eating them. But when I weighed him he was like 305g. Ok, he probably just took a poop but clearly more came out then went back in! He must have been just playing with the pellets rather than actually eating them. So I gave him a hand feeding that took him back up to 315g.
The fact that he is at least interested in food and plays with it is definitely an improvement from before but he still won't sustain his weight on his own without my supplemental hand feedings. Oh and he's off medication now entirely. He can sort of step up but with difficulty. He does fly a lot though. He spends long parts of the day just resting on one leg on the tub bottom rather than the perch.
Truman barfed up the hand feeding formula I recently gave him. Not sure if there is a greater problem or if it is the result of over feeding. Jean suggested not feeding him any more formula for 12-24 hours and establishing the trend with his weight. I have been "artificially" forcing him to hold 305g-315g by hand feeding him up to maintain that balance. It's possible that he has lost more body weight and thus to get him to 315g I'm over stuffing his crop on food. She suggested starting over again and letting him get more empty and drop in weight and see what he maintains to get a base line weight to work from.
Once again, behavior and use of foot is slightly improved. Weight is even less again. Now he is operating in a range of 300-305g and more recently 295-300g. I haven't hand fed him for several days now and he is definitely eating on his own. But with each progressive day his weight is a little bit less.
I have been taking him out into the open aviary a few times and he seems to like it. He flies a lot at home but not in the aviary. He seems pretty fed up with being in the tub but I'm worried that he might fall in the cage.