12 weeks old and still on formula

[yanek]

Hi to all been looking at this site for some time and find it very help full and thanks any way this is my first grey and he is `12 weeks old but has little interest in solid food i have tried all kinds.. he has his formula in the morning and then has some porage spoon feed.. he picks his food in the day. vegges. fruit. nuts .seeds .pelets. etc .thy are all at hand for him but he does not eat much at all and seems to have little interest in it he then has his formula in the late afternoon ;;p.s. he calls for his formula and is very restless untill he has it once he is feed he is very happy ..please exscuse my spelling thanks and also does not drink a lot of water very very little any help would be great thanks

[judygram]

He is just being a little slower to wean but well within the range. Continue to give him his feedings and offering the veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and pellets, he will eventually eat more and more of them. Offer them first thing in the mornings as that is when they are the most likely to want them when they are hungry. I'll just bet in the next couple of weeks he does go to eating more of the solid type foods.

 

Why don't you introduce yourself in the welcome room and tell us a little more about yourself and your grey.

[yanek]

Hi and thanks for the reply in his cage there are four feed containers one for water the rest i keep full of food all the time is this ok or should i empty in night thanks

[judygram]

If it is fresh food like veggies and fruits I would remove them at night and refill with fresh in the mornings.

[lovemyGreys]

Continue the handfeeding formula 12 weeks is still young & grey babies are all different some wean earlier than others so dont worry.Depends what food is in the dishes,if its fresh fruit or veggies then remove after a few hours,if its seed or pellets then its fine to leave them.

 

here is a link for you to have a read through.

 

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/bird-food/36364-hand-feeding-a-baby-grey.html

[yanek]

Thanks one and all

[BMustee]

So, he gets handfed in the morning and again in the afternoon...is he being fed at night too, or really the question is how many times a day are you hand feeding him? At 12 weeks he should be on one or two feeding a day. Ether morning and night or only at night. Normally problems with weaning are really owner issues...not to say this is th case. If baby birds are not given the chance to eat on their own they never will, and before you know it you got a 25 year old being hand fed. If you are only feeding him morning and late afternoon I would push the afternoon feeding back a few hours to being in the evening. Now, if he is REALLY crying for food then by all means give it to him, but if it's just a halfass wine for it then don't. At that point he will probably check out the "big bird" food. You might want to try the weaning pellets and soft food like apple sauce...that what my grey was really into when he was weaning. Mine weaned at 15 weeks, and I believe he was at 11 weeks when he went down to 2 feedings so your not too far off the mark.

 

Keep us posted on your babies progress.

[Tari]

Some birds just wean faster then others. I found that if I offer the food on the bottom of the cage they come more to eating it.

With my babies I use a paper plate and they get down and "play" with the food before they start eating it. This is normal and should be encouraged.

Good luck

[danmcq]

Hi Yanek!!

 

As others have said. Twelve weeks is still young and you could start reducing his hand feedings to just 2x a day. Have seed, nut and pellet mixes and of course water available at all times for him to just play and eat a little of as he gets bored or hungry in between hand feedings.

 

When you take him out, offer various veggies and fruits for him to explore the texture, taste feel and all the wonderful ones available. he will make a mess of them, but it helps get them on the way also. :-)

[Dave007]

I totally disagree with some of the information being given concerning weaning. It should never be the person who decides to lessen formula feedings per day. That's a choice that only the bird should make. Many birds take all different amounts of time to cut back on formula feeding which includes baby parrots in the same clutch. Eventually, the bird simply refuses to accept a feeding or spits it up after being given that feeding. That's the time that the person should stop that feeding. A bird who continues to accept formula is only doing what it's internal system is dictating. If it takes 4 mts for the bird to refuse a feeding it's because nature is making that decision, not the bird. All young parrots will eventually stop accepting formula. That too is nature's way of saying that the internal system is now ready to go on to a type of food that's more in line with the more developed system. That more developed system will be realizing that formula feeding isn't what's needed. There's nothing wrong with having other types of food laying around but curiousity is what makes the bird try it out. Those other types of food should never be put there to entice a bird in order to substitute a formula feeding. Cutting down on formula feeding just because a person thinks it should be cut down makes for a nervous, sometimes neurotic bird in the future. Commercial breeders are quite well known to commit the sin of premature lessening of feedings simply to fulfil a promise to have a chick/chicks ready for sale at a prescribed time. A bird who is still taking in 3 feedings a day should never be sold or given to a person until the weaning process is complete no matter how long it takes. Also, there is no such thing as a 25 yr old parrot who is still being handfed unless the bird is being fed a treat or nut or special type of food that it can't possibly grip on it's own.

[BMustee]

The 25 year old hand fed bird is an obvious exaggeration, and in no way do I condone force weaning. I have heard of many cases of weaning becoming more difficult because they are never given the chance to become a little hungry in the afternoon and want to really try eating on their own and then ending up having the “weaning window“ shut(and by a little hungry I don't mean starving and thinking they are going to die hungry). I did put in my post to maybe push his late afternoon feeding back a little bit, but if he was crying for it to give it too him. I didn’t say to just cut him off. It was not clear if he was getting fed at night or not because I have never heard of having the night feeding being dropped first, so I treated it as 3 feedings.

 

I got my CAG at 6 weeks and he weaned at 15 weeks…by his choice, not mine. After I noticed he was picking at more food I dropped the afternoon feeding and he never looked back. He couldn’t wait to get into his apple sauce and blueberries when I would offer it to him a little before he would get his afternoon feeding. Not long after I took him off the afternoon feeding he would want to stuff himself when I would offer him his fresh food in the morning and then one day he just didn’t want his night feeding. As of right now, I am hand feeding 2 macaws, 4 greys, 2 umbrella cockatoos, and 1 Eclectus. One of the greys (a TAG) is pushing 5 months and he is still being hand feed because he still wants it. If the methods I use are force weaning I would imagine he would be weaned by now.

 

Also, my grey is one of the most well adjusted greys I have ever seen. He can be picked up by 99% of people…including strangers…he doesn’t fight to the death when he gets his nails gone or when the vet is examining him and taking blood samples. He tolerates change like a champ and has never bit anyone without reason (he bit me once because a finch got out and he didn’t like that one bit) so the way I weaned him did not produce a nervous, neurotic parrot.

[Tari]

Heck my 9 year old well still take formal if I offer it. Which well be a good thing if I ever have to medicate her for anything.

Mostly she only gets some when I have other birds in the house Im handfeding and she well beg for it if she sees it. lol

Not sure when she weaned as I didn't get her till she was 6 months old. But my quaker babies all weaned at different times some wanted baby food for a month longer then the other wanted it. Each bird varies and so far the ones raised alone want it longer for the most part.

[BMustee]

Tari - I still hand feed my grey from time to time for the same reason. I hand feed some of the adult birds at the pet store sometimes too. I found that a lot of birds really like the Gerber baby food (the kinds in the little jars) hand fed to them too.