ZuZuFuzzyButt

Wow, I had no idea that kaytee had a recall. I'm tossing that canister as soon as I get home. I've fed him 4 times with that mixed with the zupreem. Thanks again for letting me know. I hope my batch was OK, but I won't take the chance.

Hi there, I'm taking my Grey and two conures to This Avian Veterinarian on Saturday morning. All three are going for simple wellness exams. Zuzu because if I don't it will void my warranty with the place I got him from, and my conures because I need to as part of an application to foster parrots for a local parrot rescue. I have only one concern I will bring up regarding one of my conure's feathers. But what else should I be asking for during this visit? She lives a little far from me so I want to get my travel's worth from this visit. thanks!

Thanks, I went out and found zupreem hand feeding formula. I didn't think I was going to find it so halfway thru my search (I had to go to 3 stores to find it) I also bought kaytee hand feeding formula. The kaytee smells more like what I used 20 years ago when I bred birds. but I'm just mixing the two for now. I'll get some sweet potato tomorrow and make a batch of that and freeze it like I used to do for my (human) babies when they were learning to eat solids. Then I'll give him some of that in the mornings, and formula in the evenings. Yes he wants to fly. When I would visit him at the store, I'd take him out of his tiny cage and he would flap his wings until he was tired. How I just want to keep him from losing weight while he adjusts to us. Since he can't fly anyway, I just want to keep him healthy. He flaps his wings a lot during the day still.

It *is* a shame and I wished that I had spoken up about not getting him clipped the second time. I had no choice for the first time. But the second, I was standing right there. They usually do the first 7 wing feathers. Isn't that a bit drastic?! Seven feathers? I used to do 3 in the middle. Anyways, I can't wallow in that fact. The best I can do is make sure he is well fed and adjusted to us and that he becomes used to his harness because once he flies, he will be flying outdoors with his harness on. I'll take a picture later tonight to show you what they did.

Jayd, I looked at your page on aretop.com That's very cool but is there an app, software, or website that one could use to track the progress of their pets? Zuzu is only one of 10 pets that I currently have and I would love to have a place to track their health and habits. Similar as iHerp.com is for reptiles. I use that to track the feedings, sheddings, etc.. of my pythons.

OH, about flying. He does not fly because they clipped his wings (twice!). I want him to be fully flighted so he will not be getting clipped again. He has already crash landed a few times after his last clipping where the lady practically cut every feather she could lay her eyes on. (I wanted to slap her!) But that's in the past....

Thank you for your advice. I give him veggies in the morning but he barely touches it. And this is surprising because the same store employee who told me she hand feeds him in the evenings, told me that he LOOOOVES veggies and will eat his own and anything the other birds leave behind too. So I'm thinking that his unwillingness to eat on his own now is due to the huge change of coming home with us. He's also gone from a tiny cage to a huge one where he sleeps on the floor at night. Poor guy... I'll see if I can find the baby formula at a local store today so I won't have to order online and wait for shipping. I'm glad to know feeding him like this is not going to ruin him. When I hand fed my first CAG, she started eating on her own early so I didn't need to hand feed for too long. She also already lived with me and was used to her surroundings from day one.

We've had our CAG home for 3 days now. He's 15 weeks old and supposedly fully weened from the parrot store that hand fed him from the first couple weeks of age. They won't let a baby go home until at least 7 days after they have stopped hand feeding them. But one of the store employees admitted to me that she was feeding him once in the evenings because he still begs for it. Even tho the man who oversees the rearing of baby birds told me that my CAG had not been hand fed for 2 weeks, now I think that girl was telling me the truth about hand feeding him still. Coming home to us is a big culture shock, I'm sure and I wasn't surprised to notice that he has not been eating on his own. His crop is always so empty and concave even. So I started hand feeding him 2 days ago. Just 24 hours after he came home. I used to breed birds so hand feeding a baby bird is no big deal for me. I hand raised my first CAG as well from the age of about 6 weeks. But that was many many years ago and I wonder if I should be feeding him formula or continue doing what I'm doing which is to take his zupreem natural pellets, soak them in hot water, microwave it, mash it up, wait for it to cool a bit, then spoon feed it to him. He gobbles it up like he's starving. I've been doing this once a day in the evenings. Is the zupreem good enough , or should I purchase hand rearing formula instead. I suspect I will only be doing this for a week or two. He's already 15 weeks old. And he will likely start eating more on his own once he adjusts to living with us. What do you think?

also, the leg band can be removed by anyone. I think I will leave the footband on my cag for now. The dual identification is good. If only I could put a GPS device on my CAG too.

thanks for sharing your insight on this. May I ask what microchip co. did you go with? My dogs both have avid, but it seems like homeagain is gaining popularity. thanks! -Tania

Hi, this is my very first post here. My name is Tania, I live in South Florida and I'm bringing home our new CAG (Congo African Grey), ZuZu, on Friday. We have been visiting him since he was 7 weeks old at the bird store and he has been weened now for about a week. My previous CAG didn't have a foot ring, but this one does. When I was growing up and interning at a veterinarian's office for 1 year, I saw parrots come thru with terrible injuries from their foot rings. What are your thoughts on keeping this foot ring? Also, what are your thoughts on getting a CAG microchipped? My previous grey didn't have either. She died of teflon gas poisoning (sad story) 10 years ago. And I just now could bring myself to getting another grey and I'm extremely happy about it !! Zuzu will be fully flighted bird and will be harness trained as well so he can fly outdoors without getting lost. Because he will be a flighted bird, I worry about him getting lost one day. I want to do everything in my power to make it easy to find him should that ever happen. Altho, I think the chances of finding a lost grey are slim to none no matter what I do, I want to tip the scales to my favor however possible. thanks!! -Tania