Well, baby is growing up. No longer squeaking much at all, every now and then if I grab him he'll squeak, but mostly doing what I assume is growling followed by a muffled cooing sound. He's also getting the white at the base of his little beak and starting to get some pretty green and purple feathers on his neck. I need to get him out and get another photo of him showing the pretty feathers and less dorky looking beak (still not fully filled in white, but getting there).
I also now have him on about 3 inches of sweet PDZ in his cage, so I just scoop the poop with a kitty litter scoop once or twice a day and it stays a lot cleaner, no more poopy feathers or feet. I also found a strangely shaped branch that's about an inch and a half diameter and put that in there for a perch and he seems to like that. One thing I'm doing differently as well is I am not giving him any dishes other than his water dish, the grit and food I am just putting down directly on the PDZ in one of the corners. PDZ is safe for them to eat and even use as grit some, so if he eats some it's not a problem. I'm giving him a mix of chick grit from
TSC and the small bird grit from the pet store (the small bird grit has oyster shell mixed in and anise, so I use some of it along with the chick grit). It looks like a bird exploded in there, he's apparently going through a molt. He doesn't LOOK like he's losing feathers but they are certainly all over the place...
Also, he can now flutter up about a foot. Still not enough that I think he will be releasable, but enough that I have had to chase him around the room a few times because he got out of his cage and took off... Luckily once he gets on the floor he just runs and doesn't try to fly again...
