help

debbie · Snr Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 71

ok ive told you about throwing zig zag in the deep end, well i got a delema.
before saying this i have to say we have rung three vets, one is revamping the clinic so hes closed , one is away and the other having family dramas ans cant get away.
when we first got the babies out of the nest , one was already dead , i would have to say dehydrated ,because you could pick up the skin on his back and it wouldnt go back down to normal ,it would stay there.
this dead baby had tiny tiny little red blood spots on him around his face , 4 in all wich i havnt seen before, i just thought it looked a bit strange.
now one of the babies that zig zag has been given to hand rear , the real healthy inergetic one passed away over nite ,yet he was eating well off the spoon and digesting the food well. on this bird he noticed the same tiny blood spots that were on the other bird wich died in the nest .
there was even a slight dab of blood on the paper towel under the bird .
these red dots were on this birds legs not on the face. ive thought of some kind of mites but i have never seen mites on birds this young .
what do you think and what should i do?
also we have just come across another problem , bare in mind he lives quite a long way from me so i cant just pop over and have a look , but he phoned this morning to say the smallest of the lot , who is about 1 week old, is weak and dosnt look well.
i ran through quite a lot off things with him, my first concern being a compacted crop but the crop wasnt hard, but he gently rubbed his crop for a little while and he seemed to be digesting the food ok.
so after talking about what it can and cant be , i thought i would get on here it is quicker than raking my brain.
i belive it to be bacteria infection or similar. im rattled now and the brain dont want to work.
zigzag said the little birds poos are grennish , we all know this is not a good sighn. but while talking to me on the phone and watching the other birds he seems to think the others poos are changing to. hes gone th the shop to get some nil stat ,so i said ill get on here and find out what i can.
i dont want to loose these birds as they come from the best pair that me and a friend of mine could afford.
they wernt bred in my avairies so that is making it even harder to diagnose.please kaka-riki or steps if you are on line please help i havnt come across this before in all the years ive been breeding birds.
the most ive had to deal with would be thrush and handrearing the odd neglected chic.
deb

Kaka-riki · Site Admin Joined: May 30, 2005 Posts: 363

The small spots of blood would tend to indicate mites. Hot dry weather is perfect for the breeding of mites and they certainly dont care how old their host is so finding them on chicks this size is not rare.

Small chicks around one week of age require constant heat and humidity levels. Not sure whether Zigzag is using a commercial brooder but we have found the humidity levels for young chicks are critical. The other concern is the use of a home made hand rearing formula. Young Kakariki have very different needs in their diet to other parrot species and what works in the majority of cases will not always work on young Kakariki chicks.

My suggestion would be to try and get hold of some Tropican hand rearing formula. This mix is very high in protein and seems to work best with very young chicks. Once the chicks reach pin feather stage they can be fed virtually anything.

So try keeping the chicks at around 32 degrees with a bowl of water in the brooder to increase humidity. Clean their bedding and spray the brooder with coopex. If you are really stuck you can use a small amount of Mortein fly spray as this will not harm the chicks if used sparingly. Use cat litter or tissues as bedding. We use the recycled paper type of cat litter as bedding but tissues and paper towel will suffice.

Make all feeding mixtures very watery and make sure the temperature of food is around 36 degrees at feed time. Only feed as the crop has emptied and this should flush the systems. I dont believe they have a bacterial infection as young chicks succumb very quickly and so would probably all have shown signs by now. If you need any more help let me know.

zigzag · Snr Member Joined: Sep 06, 2006 Posts: 65

I am using a box with a thermo film heat pad and a temp and humidity electric thermometer.

temp 30
humidity 37%

i will increse the temp but what should my hymidity be.

Kaka-riki · Site Admin Joined: May 30, 2005 Posts: 363

Humidity should be around 60 - 70 % for chicks under 3 weeks of age.

debbie · Snr Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 71

thanks kaka-riki ,you have certainly made james and i a bit stress -less.
were onto it and we will let you know more about the out come.again thanks for quick reply
deb

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

Another area matbe worth looking into is the acidity of the envitoment....
Unlike European and think Aiussie soils/water etc NZ is naturally acidic.
The envitoment may need a mist spray of vinigar and water????