breeding gryes parrot

Question
I have problem with one of my breeding pair after 25 days or less i found the baby is sick and some already died i found the baby catch cold this happen 2times same pair I read about they said there is bactiria in water supply cuse this resperotary problem and some pair kill thier baby when I inspect the nest box  also I need to know the best diet when the pair feeding baby   thank you

Answer
Hi, Habeeb.  Thanks for posting.

Babies are born without any immunities to illness/disease.  Immunities develop as they grow older and are exposed to these "bugs."  Parent parrots must be healthy and eat a healthy diet, which in turn is feed (regurgitated) to their babies, in order for their babies to develop these immunities so when these "bugs" come around, the babies' bodies are able to fight off these bugs before they make the babies sick.  

How do you know the babies are dying from colds/respiratory problems?  Has this been verified by an avian veterinarian, i.e., has an avian veterinarian performed diagnostic testing on them (or necropsies...animal form of an autopsy) and confirmed respiratory problems are causing their illness/deaths?  Baby parrots can die as a result of many things.  Are the parent birds healthy, i.e., are they carrying any kind of respiratory illness that they are passing down to the babies when they are feeding them?  Are the parent birds not caring for the babies properly, i.e., are they not keeping them warm enough so that they are getting sick?  I need more detailed information here.

You mention bacteria in the water supply.  Are you referring to the public water supply to your home?  If this water is contaminated and the parent birds are drinking this water, they are also feeding this contaminated water to their babies.  You must eliminate this source of water!  Parrots that dunk their food in their drinking water and then drink that water can get sick with pseudomonis bacteria.  What happens is any time food or a parrot's beak contaminated with food or liquid vitamins (or anything else) is dunked into their water source, bacteria starts growing.  When they drink this bacteria water, there's a chance they can get sick from it.  This is why it's important for parrots to have fresh, clean water at all times (water bottles come in handy here).  Illness/disease is also spread if/when droppings come in contact with their water or food sources.  Illness/disease can also be spread through the air (airborne contamination).  Illness/disease can lay dormant until the infected bird is under stress, then that stress can result in an illness/disease being "shed," i.e., released into the air, etc.

It is rare for a parent bird(s) to kill their young.  This can happen though if a pair feels their babies are in great danger that they won't survive (danger from other birds/animals/predators), if a parent bird knows their baby(ies) are ill and won't survive, if the parent bird(s) are so ill they can't feed or otherwise care for their babies properly, etc.  I've never known parent bird(s) to kill their young because their human opened their nestbox.  In this case, the adult bird(s) will usually attack their human before harming their babies.

Adult/parent parrots should be on good diets LONG before they lay eggs.  Adult parrots cannot produce good, healthy babies if they aren't good and healthy themselves.  In my opinion, parrots need a healthy, varied diet at all times (not just when babies are present) consisting of fresh, clean, raw is healthiest, vegetables, fruits, whole grain foods, pellets, some seed/nuts (very limited amount), pasta...basically, anything healthy for humans is healthy for parrots (except baking chocolate, caffeine, sugar, salt, avocados, soda, dairy products).  All my parrots love cooked brown rice with various vegetables mixed in.  Just need to be aware that a parrot won't eat anything it does not recognize as food.  Therefore, if you offer your parrot some type of food it's never seen before, don't expect s/he to eat it right away!  The parrot will have to learn what it is (that it isn't a toy for example) and that it's acceptable to eat and not alive!  You'll need to keep offering the new food(s) every day (not everything every day...try 1 or 2 new things every week) and eventually a parrot will try the new food once s/he realizes it's something to eat.  Bottom line is if you want your babies to be nice and healthy, you must feed the parent birds healthy foods long before babies arrive.  You shouldn't change their food when babies arrive except to add more of it because they will be hungry all the time when babies are being fed!  In other words, if you feed your parrots seed when they don't have babies, which I hope is not the case (very poor nutrition), and seed is all they know, then you can't really change their diet once babies arrive because they won't recognize other foods.  While feeding babies, parent birds need extra nutrition and extra food because they are feeding their babies the nutrition their bodies have available.  If/when their bodies are out of nutrition, then the health of the adult bird's suffers, as well as the babies.  

I recommend you get to the very bottom as to why these babies are dying so young.  This means you will most likely have to work with an avian veterinarian if you aren't already.  You may have to think of pulling babies at 10-14 days for handfeeding with a handfeeding syringe and baby parrot formula in order to eliminate some of the problems you are having.  Check with an avian veterinarian to try and determine the underlying cause(s) of the deaths of the babies and go from there.

If you can provide more detailed information, I might have other advice for you.  Thanks.

Chrys