Suggestions for weaning anyone?

[Mingus]

SITUATION: Kofi is almost 7 months old, was "weaned" on Kaytee pellets, but jumped at the chance to go back to handfeeding when I adopted him. He eats everything now, but most of his diet has been handfeeding formula (at his insistence).

CONCERN: he is an extremely inefficient eater when not handfed. He wastes easily 75% of his pellets (which go into a nasty looking sludge in his water bowl). In other words, I don't know if he is eating sufficient calories on his own.

GOAL(with your suggestions): get him to be a mostly self-reliant eater. I'll still offer a little baby food if he wants it.

He's super healthy, very smart, up to about 9 phrases (often in correct context).

Any suggestions?

[casper]

Hi Mingus,

 

Kofi sounds like a healthy happy grey! Very smart as well, my youngest grey is the same age, he makes gibberish noises but is not talking yet.

 

Is he still on formula? if he is how much and how many feeds?

 

Have you tried to offer the pellets moist? I had to do this with my three, this can be done with water or some prefer apple juice, you say he used to eat them so hopefully he will begin to accept them again.

 

Does he eat any fruit/veggies or pulses? My three are all so different, one may like their food mashed, the others warm, I used to have to spoonfeed the eldest when he was young, I would feed him so much then he started to eat the food himself. One of my greys as well prefers to eat outside of his cage. I put his breakfast in the dish on his playstand, they also like to eat with me when possible, another idea is to eat the food in front of your grey, try and make it look as much fun as you can.

 

Have you tried giving oatmeal? A lot of greys on here seem to love this and you could start to include other things mixed in the oatmeal to get him more on to solids. Baby foods are good as well if he is enjoying the babyfoods add different veggies to these.

 

Please keep us updated on his progress, they are all so different, wean at different ages, eat certain foods, I hope you find the right way to go with Kofi.

 

Caroline.

[BMustee]

He does not need the hand feeding...at 7 months and weaned once he is not going to waist away. I know your not going to like how this sounds but it's not the birds problem...it's yours. All baby birds have a drive to become independent and weaning comes very natural. People are what get in the way of this. You didn't say how many times you are feeding the little guy but what you need to do it cut it to just onvce at night and give it a little while and then only give it to hi now and then if you want to still give baby food for future medial reasons. You should also buy a gram scale and weight him every morning...that way you can see if he drops a lot of weight because the only other reasons baby birds don't wean is because of infections or other illnesses and weight loss would gie you the first heads up. Caring for 40+ birds on a daily basis I can tell you that most of the food you offer to them is going to be waisted by dropping and making soup in the water bowl...it's what they do. It's not a reason to continue hand feeding at 7 months old.

[Sallas]

I give my greys formula every so often on recommendation of my breeder. She said she does it so that if she ever needs to give them medications, it is easier. It made sense to me, so I decided to do it also.

 

Plus Saphira is so cute when she see formula coming. She loves her formula and you can see her get excited and the first few times she sticks he whole beak into the spoon. She makes such a mess, BTW formula days tend to be bath days also (just because she usually makes a mess out of it.

 

Thorn just nibbles at the formula though.

[Mingus]

No, actually I DO like the way it sounds. You are right, I am nervous about him waisting away (ridiculous I suppose, given his monumental appetite). He eats everything, but wastes a lot too, making me sometimes wonder how much he is ingesting, and how much he's just chewing & dropping on the floor (plastering on the walls, cage bars, my shoulder, my hair & face, etc.)

 

I've cut him down to one babyfood feeding per day, warm, in a dish, and he now feeds himself, no more spoon. Still, he is probably overeating since he sometimes regurgitates a little bit at night. But he is still pooping a lot, and constantly looking for more food. Plenty of energy, play, and talking, so I'm thinking he is fine.

Any more advice would be appreciated. I'm going to try to cut back even more on the baby food.