mandapandah Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hey everyone. My name is Amanda! My husband and I are adopting a beautiful baby CAG, in 1-2 weeks, named Kirra. We are very excited and can't wait until she gets to come home. Kirra is 7 weeks old and has started the weaning process today. This is our first grey and my husbands first bird. We still don't have a cage but will be ordering one this weekend! I cannot wait until our baby gets to come home! :woohoo: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hello Amanda and welcome to our family, we are so glad you could join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Kirra. Are you going to be continuing the handfeeding process if you are bringing Kirra home in 1 to 2 weeks? Do you have experience with this? If you are not experienced we like for people to leave the handfeeding and weaning to the breeders. You will find lots of useful information in our many threads and do ask questions you may have and we will help you in any way we can. We love pictures here so if you have some of Kirra you would share with us we would love to see them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandapandah Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 Thanks for the warm welcome! I've been doing a lot of reading online today and found that most babies aren't weaned until around 12 weeks but the breeder (who is also a veterinarian) we are adopting Kirra from says that she will be fully weaned in 1-2 weeks. Which, would make her 8-9 weeks of age. What should we do? He has been breeding/raising birds for 50 years. I'm not really sure what to trust or do/say here... I do not have photos of Kirra yet but we'll be going to see her sometime this week. I will try to remember to take photos then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JillyBeanz Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hi Amanda ~ welcome to the forum. I would agree with Judy about leaving the weaning to the breeder. My breeder would not let Harvey come home until he was 12 weeks old/or fully weaned (luckily at 12 weeks he'd made the transition). Nine weeks is very young ~ I wouldn't like this responsibility. Why don't you approach your breeder and ask if you can bring Kirra home when fully weaned - a responsible breeder will have no problems whatsoever with this. Can't wait to see photos - I love the babies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Well if your breeder is an avian vet then he should know but 8 to 9 weeks of age is awfully early to be weaned, my grey was over 20 weeks of age before I brought her home as she was a slow to wean. Dave007 is a breeder of greys and maybe he will give you some insight into what he thinks of your g rey being weaned at 8 to 9 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandapandah Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 See, that's what I thought but he says she will be ready. She was already moved to the "weaning cage" yesterday and we haven't been updated on how she is doing yet but we are hopefully going to see her tonight -fingers crossed- What should we do? Can we ask him to continue feeding her for another couple of weeks? Will he charge us even more for hand feeding/keeping her longer?<br><br>Post edited by: mandapandah, at: 2009/11/16 18:43 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave007 Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 """says that she will be fully weaned in 1-2 weeks. Which, would make her 8-9 weeks of age. What should we do? He has been breeding/raising birds for 50 years. I'm not really sure what to trust or do/say here..."""" 50 yrs of breeding birds? Well, no medium to large sized parrot is ever fully or partially weaned by 8 to 10 weeks. A bird that age should still be handfed with formula for a much longer time and that handfeeding should be done by an experienced person. Any person buying a bird that young who has no ability or knowledge of formula feeding is only asking for serious trouble. Someone may say that a bird is fully weaned by 12 weeks old but more than likely, it takes longer to get to a fully weaned stage. Actually, I'm surprised that as a vet, he would say something like that. Unweaned birds shouldn't be sold to anyone and maybe someday the US will create a law that prohibits the sale of unweaned birds just like the UK which has that law. You're playing with fire and you're compromising the future health of that bird and it really doesn't matter to me whether he's a vet or not. A person doesn't need to be a vet to breed birds.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/11/16 18:54 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandapandah Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 We do have experience hand feeding several different kinds of pets (puppies, kittens, sugar gliders, etc) but have not hand fed a bird before. But again, any suggestions on what we should do/ask the breeder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JillyBeanz Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Hi Amanda - I think Dave has said it all - don't take the bird unless it is weaned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Well, I have a different story. Talon my tag, had weaned herself at 8 weeks of age, and was shipped to me at 8 1/2 weeks. I agree that she was very young compared to others. She was eating everything you gave her, continued gaining weight and did very well though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandapandah Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 We went and saw Kirra tonight. After looking at some pictures on the web earlier today and seeing her in person/up close she looks older. He told us 7 weeks but maybe he got her confused or typed it wrong? She perches and steps up. If you go to this site > http://www.babygreys.co.uk/12-weeks.htm you can see different ages of babies and she looks like she is in between the 8 and 9 weeks. We also talked to the breeder for about an hour. He says that her mother had a foot injury while incubating the eggs and so she had to get medical care, leaving the babies to be incubated by the breeder. Kirra is the only baby that hatched out of that clutch. He says she is a really smart girl and has learned step up in just two days (still a little confused but I held my hand to her and said step up, pushed on her a little and she got on my hand the first time!!!). She is SUCH a sweety. She nibbled on my finger and puffed her feathers out at my husband because he was wearing a beanie and it frightened her. LOL! She is SO cute and cuddly! She even tried to talk to us. We kept saying hello, you are such a pretty girl and she would make baby noises at us and nibble our fingers. Hehe! I cannot wait until we get to bring her home!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvparrots Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Wow what a great visit you and your hubby had with your new baby, Kirra. How very exciting and sounds like a lot of fun!!! Can't wait to see some pictures when you get her home!<br><br>Post edited by: luvparrots, at: 2009/11/17 05:05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayd Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 Spock here, Amanda, please listen to what these good people have said. I visited the site you posted and there's a lot I don't agree with. If a grey is eating the proper food, no supplement is needed. It took me 26 weeks to wean, and longer to fly. My caretakers say "Hand feeding a baby bird can be scary and heart breaking", and they do it all the time, I've also seen them cry when a baby dies in there hand. Bonding with a fully weaned baby is just as rewarding as with a 10wk old. Check out the "feeding and food lists" on the Forum, etc. Sorry to be so blunt, but there was a lot of mis-info on that site. Spock,Jay and Maggie, [and the rest of the flock] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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