Sleeps alot

[Kwagga]

Hi there! My 31day old lutino irn sleeps alot. He is only awake for about an hour before feedings. Is this normal? Should I worry? Also, during the day he is in a small cage at my office (seeing that I still have to feed him) and in a much bigger cage during the afternoon and night. He is not moving around as much in the bigger cage - is this just because he is more used to the cage at the office?

He is such a lovely little bird!! Loves cuddling and kisses

Thanks!!

[phildez]

Hi

without sounding rude, how has it come that you are in possession of a month old chick? It should be that for you to be rearing this chick, which at this age is what you are doing, you ought to know how to do it without asking relatively inexperienced questions!
I hope you haven't been sold this chick at such a young crucial age by a pet shop or breeder - cos if so, thats wrong!
Thanks

[rod038]

A bird that age should be kept in a dark warm enviroment and most of the time it will be asleep when its not being fed. Think about if it was still with its parents it would still be in a nest box or hollow log for another month. Its natures way of them preserving energy and growing strong and healthy. I agree that birds this age should not be sold.

[Kwagga]

Hi Rod and phildez! Thank you for your very late response to my relatively inexperienced question! You can both relax your panties as my irn grew up to be a healthy and strong little one. He is flying and playing happily in his cage. And it seems he has weaned himself - he is on only one feeding in the evening. So, even though this was my first time and maybe I did not have the experience to hand raise an irn, I asked a lot of relatively inexperienced questions and did a lot of research - all enabling me to do this right. Just one question to you phildez, without sounding rude, how did you start raising irn's?? Surely you were also inexperienced and learned as you went along??? Apologies for my ignorance - surely you were born knowing everything.

[phildez]

keep your panties on kwagga, ur question said it was posted mid oct this year, 3weeks ago.............and yes - I was born knowing everything.

[Kwagga]

and so it was phildez! Which makes my Rusty almost two months old now. So most of the growing up pains are gone, he eats, plays, started flying, the whole toot! Just waiting for him to realise he can pick stuff up with his feet! He's very amused with them!

Must be great knowing everything!

[Blueberrybird]

Good for you! That's what this forum is for right? I'm so happy that your birdie is doing well. I kinda wished I had bought mine a little younger, but the breeder wouldn't let me take him till he was fully weaned. Lucky for you you had the time to hand feed your baby. Please keep us updated. I got mine at 3 1/2 mo. Old, have had him for 4 months, I love him to pieces but he is still very cage aggressive. I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix that.

[Kwagga]

Hi blueberrybird! I must say, even though most people object against it, I am very glad I got my irn so young. Sure, I had my moments of panic and of worry. Regardless of the advise you get you still worry that you are doing things right! But I am telling you, nothing beats the feeling of wellbeing raising a little one. Loving it and caring for it is the pits!! I will keep you posted, hopefully we will be taking a couple of photos soon, I will try to post them (the last time I tried posting photos the site would not allow my, something about reaching its max or something). You must see the little bugger now, he puts up one hell of a scene when I go into the kitchen to switch on the kettle to feed him - jumps up and down and runs from one corner to the next - just to refuse to eat his formula!! He shakes his head as soon as he's got a mouth full and it is just formula all over the place!! The only time he really still eats some of his formula is with the last feed (around 9pm) and even then it is so little that I don't know why I am wasting my time! Anyways, I can ramble on and on the whole day about Rusty and all the mischief he gets up to!

[rod038]

I had trouble posting photos too going through the forum process. In the end I opened a photo bucket account and host my photos there, then copy the link directly to your post and the photos appear in your post.

In photo bucket when you bring up one of your photos you have selected you left click on the IMG code in the links box and it automatically copies it, then you paste that link into the box you are putting your post on here in. Then when you click submit it appears as a photo in your post.

[Kwagga]

Thanks Rod!! I will try that next time!