The walking miracle
“Walker” was the first “Third Chick” of the season that we brought home. We did not post about his arrival mainly because we were really worried about him.
We took him out of his nest late in the afternoon, as soon as he finished hatching. He was very weak and weighed just 18 grams (very low hatching weight for our chicks here). He hatched 8 days after his first sibling therefore his chances of survival in his nest were pretty much zero.
Walker’s development was extremely slow. He battled to gain every single gram in his first days of life. He had slow digestion issues and he never stopped begging and crying, even when his crop was full. At some point, our lead vet, a very optimistic person, said, “Maybe he will be the first one that dies in our nursery”. The sky was very dark for our Walker. He weighted just like a 5 day old when he was already 9 days old!!
That day, our expert on breeding macaw chicks, Mark Moore arrived to TRC. Mark is an expert aviculturist, co-owner of “Hill Country Aviaries” and volunteer board member of the America Federation of Aviculture. Under Mark’s care, our Walker started to shine. Little by little, his digestion started to improve and in a few days, even his skin was glowing!!.
The last day of the year, December 31st, we placed Walker to his new nest. It was a very special moment for all of us. At the time, Walker was 24 days, the same age of his new sibling. Although both chicks had very similar weights, Walker had a better body condition and appearance. His foster mom was a bit hesitant for the first 30 minutes but after that, she started preening him a lot. Now Walker is slowly learning how to be fed by his new parents. Both, foster mom and foster dad are preening him and showing him how to be a wild macaw chick.
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