amazon yellow crown baby

Question
we recently bought an amazon yellow crown baby.
She is about three months old.
when we feed her we feed her a formula that we buy at the pet store. An employee at the pet store suggested that we give her banana mixed with the formula.So we fed her that and also added a bit of pear to it.After a couple of hours the bird began to vomit.She vomit everything that we fed her.It made me and my mother worry because we have another parrot like her but older and he's never vomitted with us. I just wanted to know if this is something we really should worry about and take her to a vet or if we should just stick to feeding her the formula.Another also is that she's been having respiratory problems.She has a bit of mucos on her nose sometimes.Can you give me advice on how to get rid of that.

Answer
Hello Rocio,

 I am sorry it took me a couple of days to get back to you. I no longer have a computer at home and so must wait until I am at work to check my email.

 I think you need to get your baby amazon to a vet immediately. If she is not holding formula down and if she does indeed have mucous on her nose area, you probably have a very sick baby. Have you ever hand fed a baby parrot before? There is a lot more to feeding one than just buying the formula. It has to be mixed to the right consistency and be exactly the right temperature. You also must know how much to give the baby so that you do not overfeed it and cause it to aspirate the formula or do damage to the crop.

 The other thing that concerns me is the advice you got to add bananas and pears to the formula. If you are using a true handfeeding formula, you are doing more harm than good by adding anything to it other than the water that the instructions tell you to mix it with. These formulas are specially made to provide all the nutrition a baby bird needs.

 I do not believe anyone should sell a baby bird to someone who is still handfeeding. There is too much rthat can go wrong and there is no way that someone who is inexperienced can teach someone how to feed properly. Hundreds of baby birds die every year because of improper handfeeding techniques.  I spent three months with a friend learning how to hand feed from her before I ever tried it on my own.

In any case, please get this baby bird to vet that has bird knowledge immediately. I am afraid that what you are thinking is mucous may actually be formula that it it has  vomited and aspirated. It may very well develop pneumonia if so. Any time a bird vomits and any time a bird has nasal discharge, something is wrong. It is a serious situation in an adult bird and even more so with a baby.

 I hope everything turns out for the best for you.

Jan