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I really hope you can all help, as we have surely learned our lesson.

We bought our Grey from what "seemed" like a great, clean place. We went to visit "Kobe" while he was being weaned. We knew his band number was 50, and would call periodically to check on his progress, as he was 1-1/2 hours away from us. We received a call on Sunday that he was ready to come home and was weaned. When we got there yesterday, Labor Day, they showed us his band, number 50, and kind of hurried him in his cage and did the remaining paperwork. We didn't think much of it, as it was late in the day and figured they wanted to leave soon. We got to the car and realized that "Kobe" was missing toes, but OUR KOBE wasn't. We took a closer look, and realized it wasn't our bird we had been visiting. My husband went back in, and they tried to tell him he was wrong, and when he asked if they could have two birds with the same number, they said it was impossible. They told him to go get the bird from the car.

I had taken pictures weeks prior, and noticed that OUR KOBE had a silver band and the one they gave us had a green band. By the time my husband got back in there, they came out with OUR KOBE and said they had two with the same band, but never apologized. They just did the switch, told us ours was a biter and the other was a sweetheart, and sent us on our way.

Now we don't know if ours was really finished being hand fed and ready to leave. It had baby food still on his face. Since being home last night, he is eating pellet and eating vegetables, but don't want him to have "issues" as he gets older if they pulled him too early. He does not BITE, like they said, and is very sweet. I have an appointment tomorrow, to have him vet checked, I just want to know what to look for to know if he still needs to be hand fed or not.

Thank you anyone and everyone for your help. We had the best breeder for our other 3, but she has health issues and no longer does it!!!

laurie0802 wrote:... It had baby food still on his face. Since being home last night, he is eating pellet and eating vegetables...

I think that's your answer, though weaning is a process, and the baby might want/need some spoon feeding too. Have you done that with your 3 older birds? There is most definitely no shortage of breeders all over the country. You might be happier finding a good breeder, even if shipping is a necessity, and not dealing with the health risks of a pet store. If/when you bring the Goffin's home, you'll need to maintain quarantine in 3 separate parts of your home to safeguard all the birds from each other for 30-60 days. I've only had to do that once and I surely don't envy you the task, especially not with a curious 5 year old to keep healthy. I hope you're up to the challenge. There's a lot at stake.

Laurie, I don't know very much about hand-feeding as I've only had to feed one baby bird, the rest of mine I adopted. Even with that, Sally was only on 1 feeding when I got her at 5 & 1/2 months. I never much liked doing the baby thing.

I'm sure there are people who have much more experience with hand-feeding than I. How old is your new baby? All I know is if that baby starts to cry, you should feed him soft mushy food like those weaning pellets.

Bev

So the store did give you the Grey that you were originally supposed to get? I have a difficult time believing that either bird was a biter. I got both my Greys as handfed babies, and although my second was maybe a little more feisty, they were both very sweet.

If the baby had a tan mixture dried on his face, then that does sound like hand feeding formula. If I lived closer, I would be happy to help you with hand feeding. I've hand fed Conures and an Eclectus. I use a syringe and I go slowly, but if you've never hand fed before, I wouldn't recommend feeding by syringe. You could try spoon feeding. If helps if the spoon is bent up on the sides. Do you know how old your Grey is? If he is eating pellets and veggies, you could give him some formula right before bedtime. Hopefully, he is old enough that he was on one daily comfort feeding?

One thing in your post that concerned me was that they rushed you out of the store. When I got my first Grey, the breeder took quite a bit of time with me to go over the diet the baby was used to. She wanted to make sure I'd feed him properly. She even wrote down the recipe for her cooked bean mixture and sent some baggies of food with me because she knew it would be fairly late when we got home. (I lived 4 hours away.)

Since you have three others, maybe they knew you were parrot experienced, but that was bothersome to me.

I wouldn't worry to much if you baby is eating pellets and veggies but if your concerned why don't you call the store and ask them if that one is weaned. It also won't hurt to give your baby a daily hand feeding from a spoon just for bonding puposes anyway. I have a new baby and I hand feed him once in awhile even though he's weaned just because he enjoys the closeness and the warm babyfood. I still give my 11 yr old Amazon a hand feeding once in awhile. just so if they ever get sick I know they will take something from a shringe. heaven forbid that never happens but you just never know.

Only a couple of things I could add/ask here that might help or lend credence to the above postings.

First of all you failed to mentioned how old your CAG was. I'm going to assume it is a CAG as if it were a TAG you would have said something different correct? And it isn't a Goffin correct?

It is important to find out how old your bird is as anything mentioned above would be moot. I am a firm believer in not giving "so called" comfort feedings to a fully weaned and fledged CAG for infectious reasons. A CAG crop is not something to mess around with. Once weaned you should completely flush out the crop (with warm 101-105 degrees plain spring water) and not force anything into that crop unless it is life threatening where you "have to" feed the bird this way, and only then, please allow a Vet to do this.

Sounds to me like this is a forced weaning situation, by virtue of the formula dried on the face. I would take your bird back right now and ask for a full refund. Many states have a law that require sales to be fully weaned. However with this evidence you can not be the one who is forcibly weaning this bird. Dam sometimes pet stores and unscrupulous breeders make it bad for the rest of us. It is an AFA policy that all birds be fully weaned prior to delivery, so check to see if they are certified.

Also pet stores do not fledge their birds appropriately and you wind up with a neurotic bird that doesn't know how to fly. Also most Vet's do not know how to trim their flight feathers correctly and you wind up with a plucked CAG. Which (IMHO) accounts for the majority of plucked Grey's out there. Incorrect trimming of the flight feathers is something that happens more often than not.

FLEDGING AND WEANING GO HAND IN HAND WITH A GREY. If you are not sure about this ask! CAG's must be fully fledged correctly along with the weaning process or they will get sick or other problems I will not go into in this posting.

So is this bird completely fledged would be my next question to you.

And lastly, what kind of diet is your grey on?

Hello,

I would suggest buying a good gram scale and weighing your baby and keep track
of his/her weight. If this baby is eating on it's own and able to maintain a good weight
then your should be OK? But if it is losing weight then you know he/she is not weaned
correctly and requires supplemental feedings.

good luck with your baby,