Grey have lost his appetite :(

[ambrose8]

Hello,

 

I have a 10 - years old african gray that is not agreed to eat independently. Grey stopped eating when he lost his dear friends four years ago. We have handfed him ever since. We are completely hopeless, because he dosent even have a appetite. So, if you have any ideas how to start a weaning and to make him an interest at food. Otherwise he is happy and a veterinarian has also examined him. I would really appreciate your help.

[judygram]

My first suggestion was to take him in for a vet examination but you have already done that and the vet was of no help then no wonder you are asking for help.

 

This bird must have been strongly bonded to his human family but to grieve this long is very unusual, poor thing. So in other words he wouldn't eat unless you handfed him, right?

 

This is way beyond my scope of knowledge, hopefully some of the more knowledgeable members will come on and give you some answers or at least some insight into how you may be able to help him.

 

In the meantime, why don't you introduce yourself in the welcome & introduction room and tell us some more about you and this grey, what is his name?

[Dave007]

Even though it's untentional, you're adding to the problem by doing what you're doing. There isn't a healthy bird around that will starve itself. In your eyes, the bird has lost it's appetite. Normally, that happens to an ill bird and eventually a bird needs to be looked at by a vet. This isn't the case with your bird. Your bird doesn't eat, you see this and rush over to make sure that he eats.

If a bird really lost it's appetite, he wouldn't be eating when you decide to fed him so you can rule out the loss of appetite due to illness.

You'll have to be strong and ignore the bird when you see this. He already knows you're coming to the rescue because they're able to pick up on habits very well.

Eventually, true hunger takes over and a bird will eat. Birds aren't the type of animal that starves itself because of a loss in the family.

The only requirement on your part is to make sure that the food he's given is the same type of normal diet he always eats from you.

There are certain items that need to be handfed to a bird and the reason for that is their inability to grasp it, and eat it without it breaking loose---example, a slice of banana. Gooey, soft, easily breakable. The banana dirtys up the bottom of the foot and claws. If you don't give your bird the chance the eat by itself, you'll be stuck with a problem bird. I'm sure he wasn't handfed by his previous owners all the time they had him.

It may bother you to see him like this but he will eat. Not only will birds eat but if there's no food around that they can eat by themselves, they'll start picking at other things like newspaper and with some birds, their droppings.

If you see your bird not eating for hours and hours while you're around, he'll eat when you're not around such as the night time. Healthy birds can't sleep on empty stomachs and that goes for outdoor birds whether they're hookbills or softbills.