6 week old Timneh Question

[Gerhard]

Hi all, my first time on the site, read through some threads and liking it here.

 

Question, I have my first baby Grey "riempies" he eats well and I feed him every 4 hours, very loving and he knows me as the daddy already and starts chirping for food when he sees me.

 

My question though, being winter, he is kept in a large plastic container with a blanket over the top to keep the heat and allow humidity and heat so his temprature is perfect, but being cold, I need to know how it will affect not being handled and interacted with as much as I would like.

 

How much interaction is needed with them at this age?

 

your input would be appreciated.

 

Also, I hear that weaning them is recommended at 12 - 16 weeks, is this correct? I have heard of people weaning them at 9 - 10 weeks

[danmcq]

At six weeks old, a temperature of 70 degress is fine. I am uncertain of what temperature you may keep your house at. The interactions during feeding times are normally enough at this age. He/she may wish to stay awake and interact for a while. Do so if you wish. They will still spend a lot of time sleeping at this age.

 

Weaning does not normally compete until 16 to 20 weeks old. You can certainly start introducing all types of proper foods at around 8 weeks for him to start beaking and sampling the taste and texture of. They will wean when they decide to, not when the breeder or owner want them to. There is certainly no set time. Some will still enjoy a warm hand feeding even when they are years old and some will shun a hand feeding completely once they are weaned.

 

Anyone claiming a grey is weaned at 9 or 10 weeks old is full of "you know what" in my book.

[judygram]

I would recommend that you let the bird decide when its ready to give up the formula, some greys take longer than others with some requiring longer than 20 weeks. It sounds like you don't have much experience with this and you should get some advice from the breeder you got the bird from. In my opinion the bird should never have been sold unweaned as there are many things that can go wrong. I would suggest you read thru the threads especially in the nursery room for lots of useful and helpful advice and pay extra attention to the stickys.

[Gerhard]

At six weeks old, a temperature of 70 degress is fine. I am uncertain of what temperature you may keep your house at. The interactions during feeding times are normally enough at this age. He/she may wish to stay awake and interact for a while. Do so if you wish. They will still spend a lot of time sleeping at this age.

 

Weaning does not normally compete until 16 to 20 weeks old. You can certainly start introducing all types of proper foods at around 8 weeks for him to start beaking and sampling the taste and texture of. They will wean when they decide to, not when the breeder or owner want them to. There is certainly no set time. Some will still enjoy a warm hand feeding even when they are years old and some will shun a hand feeding completely once they are weaned.

 

Anyone claiming a grey is weaned at 9 or 10 weeks old is full of "you know what" in my book.

 

Thanks a mill for the reply. The Temprature inside the container is fine, it's is average 70 - 74 humidity around 55%.

 

It is my first TAG, had other birds before, but I am just making sure about the attention needed as I do not want him to feel neglected, but at the same time I do not want to get him ill because I want to have him in and out giving attention while the tempratures fluctuate from inside and outside.

 

Other than that he is a happy boy, squaking each time he sees me and reaches out the container as he knows I will be feeding soon.

 

I have placed him on a slightly different schedule since yesterday, I noticed that 6am 10am etc. does not work, as the crop will be emty at different times, so sometimes it takes 2 hours for the crop to emty other times shorter, I keep the food at the same temp and decided to watch the crop, just before he has it completely emty I will feed again. he takes 35 -45 cc easily, but I try and keep him at around 35 as I do not want the crop to stretch (heard of this before but not sure how true) I then only let the crop empty during the night, so by morning he will be pretty hungry with last feed being around 10pm at nigh as well. So the feeds will be slightly different each day, between 4 and 5 times a day.

 

 

I would recommend that you let the bird decide when its ready to give up the formula, some greys take longer than others with some requiring longer than 20 weeks. It sounds like you don't have much experience with this and you should get some advice from the breeder you got the bird from. In my opinion the bird should never have been sold unweaned as there are many things that can go wrong. I would suggest you read thru the threads especially in the nursery room for lots of useful and helpful advice and pay extra attention to the stickys.

 

Thanks I appreciate the the concern, it is however best for the bird to be at his owner while still being handfed, normally from 6 weeks or so, this way he gets to know who his parents are and get attached to them and the house he will be living at for the rest of his life. BUT that said, it depends on who the person is that looks after the bird if they are untrained or unresponsible and not willing to do research, then I agree, it should stay with the breeder until weaned, I owned many birds from 4 weeks onwards, even wild birds that fell from nests have been fed by me until they were big enough to feed themselves. this is my first TAG though and although I know how to keep the temp in the containers, correct feeding etc etc, I was just asking the question from an attention point of view in order to make sure I do not neglect him, each bird type has a different personality, this one I do not yet know

 

You are correct by stating that the birds should stay at the breeder until they are weaned, problem is, some breeders out there are purely breeding them to make money, so they would not care for the bird the same as I would. I have seen breeders that will feed chicks 3 times a day until they are 10 weeks old, they will then just place bowls of food in the brooders and the chicks have to either start eating themselves or starve. the sooner the are weaned, the sooner they leave. to me that is not the right way. unlike some breeders, I'll fight for the bird's life to the end, So I prefer to raise them myselfs.

 

But this depends from person to person, there are thousands of people out there that should not even own a bird at all, let alone own try and hand raise a chick

Edited May 31, 2011 by Gerhard
adding quote

[Gerhard]

Oh, one more question. The petshop where I bought him from have been allowing him to spill food on his beak and crop area and never cleaned it, I have carefully cleaned the beak as there was food around the nose area and feared that he would get nasal infection perhaps. I do not want to use a wet cloth to try and clean his body outside of his house as he might get a cold, would it be ok for now to just let the food come of by itself as the feathers grow, or should I rather just clean anyway? it is droplets of food that obviously hardened, so it is not hands full.

[judygram]

 

I do not want to use a wet cloth to try and clean his

body outside of his house as he might get a cold, would it be ok for now to just

let the food come of by itself as the feathers grow, or should I rather just

clean anyway? it is droplets of food that obviously hardened, so it is not hands

full.

 

I would do your best to get that food off while it is still soft as if it stays on and hardens then it is very difficult to remove and it could cause harm to the bird, you are doing the best thing to wipe it off with a damp cloth after every feeding.

[Gerhard]

 

I would do your best to get that food off while it is still soft as if it stays on and hardens then it is very difficult to remove and it could cause harm to the bird, you are doing the best thing to wipe it off with a damp cloth after every feeding.

 

Yes, I do clean him each time after feeding, I am refering to old dried food that the petshop owners never cleaned which hardened already, it is really not alot, but it bothers me.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Gerhard

[judygram]

Yes, I do clean him each time after feeding, I am refering to old dried food that the petshop owners never cleaned which hardened already, it is really not alot, but it bothers me.

You may just have to wait until he molts, this is why they should be cleaned off immediately after feeding so it doesn't harden for then it is like glue.