doesnt seem interested in eating

Question
First of all we have two baby Mccaws, about a week apart, one is 5 weeks the other 6 weeks, a couple of weeks ago I noticed the younger of the two did not want to eat, so adjusting the consistancy and the the temperature to no avail, we noticed the younger bird started toeat agasin, couldn.t figure it out, and now the older of two is exibiting the same condition, eh is almost 50% feathered and is over 2 pounds in weight, this just started, we moved them ot a full size cage a few days back and brought the heat lamp with them , the temp is about the same within a couple of degrees, we moved them because they wanted to stretch and flap their wings, it was impossible in the incubator that they were in, I'm wandering if it's time to mixup the food catagories for the birds at this stage or if the temperature needs to still be regulated closer to the 85 degrees, sometimes at night it gets down to 79 or 80, never less, I thought with the feathers it wouldn't be as critical;;;;;;;;; what do you think, I don't want them to start lossing weight, and he was suchh a good eater until the last few days, he still gets the intake of food , I'ts just become a real hassle to work with him to get him interested, ....the one thing I've done that helps is warm a wash closth and give him food in a syringe and  then put the warm cloth to the beek anf then we get the neck movment that they exibit when their eating good, also I'm wandering if the formula may need to be thinned out .......first time with Mccaws, '''''

Answer
Hi Joe,
 Was just wondering how your baby macaws are doing? Have they started eating any better?

Jan







Hi Joe,
 I am so happy to hear from someone for once who seems to be taking very good care of their birds. I hate to say it but that is too often not the case with folks that come to ask questions here.

 Have you had either of these little guys tested for bacterial infections? In the babies I have handfed, refusal or lack of interest in food usually signaled the beginnings of a bacterial problem. I don't know if you are stringent about each baby getting his own syringe and own bowl of formula especially since they are clutchmates, but that is one practice I always tried to adhere too. The reason for that is that if one baby does have something going on, it will not be spread through the syringe or formula to the other. Made me think of that when you said that forst it was the younger baby and then the older one.

Are you weighing these guys every day? If not, then it would be a good idea to do so and to record the weights of each bird every day. They should not be going through any prefledge weight loss at this young age. If you notice any weight loss at all during these daily weigh ins then you will know right away that you have a problem. Too many times it is too late to save a baby when the weight loss is visible to the eye.

Check you formula temperature to make sure it is right and I would keep the temperature still at 85 degrees for now. They probably look like big birds already but they are still such babies. Those of us used to smaller birds have a hard time adjusting to the fact that macaws and the big cockatoos actually remain babies for much longer than other birds, in spite of their size.

If none of this seems to improve I would get these babies to an avian vet to make sure they have not developed infections in their crops. Keep an eye on those crops to make sure they are emptying like they should.

My one other suggestion since you are a first timer with macaws is to look up "Abundance Weaning" on the net. It was developed by a lady by the name of Phoebe Linden/ She raises some of the most physically, socially, and pyschologically sound big birds of anyone I know. One of the reasons for this is that she does not wean them as early as some folks and when she does wean them, her birds are so healthy and happy, not stunted like so many of the macaws I see.

Hope this all will have been of some help to you. I'm terribly jealous ya' know... I would love to be handfeeding a macaw right now. :-)


Jan