Eating in cage

[tthopp05]

Hello all,

I am a new member that has a 12 week old baby congo that will not eat or drink in her cage.She will only feed from my hand pellets,fruit,ect.Any advice would be great.Thanks

[Raposa]

A 12 week old baby should probably still be getting handfeedings at least once or twice a day, shouldn't they? Experts?? Your little one may be too young to expect her to eat alone in her cage. I'm not sure on this, I hope somebody more knowledgeable will pitch in here . . .

[Dave007]

How long have you had this bird? Is it a new first cage for the bird? Do you know anything about whether this bird was weaned properly? Can you ask the people you got the bird from whether he was always doing this? Did they start him on that habit? Is he very mobile around the interior of the cage?

When in the cage, make sure bowls are close by so that he can easily get to the food. Put the same things in the cage that he eats from your hands. Birds don't starve themselves and will eventually seek out food but they can be stubborn.

[Tycos_mom]

It sounds to me like you have an un weaned baby and should still be hand feeding him formula. My baby is 13 weeks old and is still being hand fed 1 or 2 feedings a day depending on what she will take. 12 weeks is a minimum age to be weaned and usually when a baby is weaned the breeder will still continue to watch the baby for at least a week to make sure he's eating ok on his own. please phone either the breeder or an avian vet to help you with this before your baby starves to death. You could also buy some bird handfeeding formula and try giving it to him with a spoon just make sure the formula is not to hot no more than 105 degree farenheight it should feel just barely warm on the inside of your wrist<br><br>Post edited by: Tycos_mom, at: 2009/05/06 04:12

[casper]

Yes, I would contact the breeder/store to find out exactly what the baby was like before.

Was the baby sold as being fully weaned?

 

Please keep us updated and let us know what they say.

[tthopp05]

Hello folks,

Thank you for your feedback.I should have mentioned that the baby (Sammy) is being hand feed by my once a day.I feed Sammy her Exact formula in the morning.I am always taking her out of her cage and hand feed her fruits,nuts ect, until she wont take no more.The breeder told me to fill her bowl with the pellets she supplied me with,but she will not eat them unless I hand feed her.She will however eat fruits,nuts and other things I put in the bowl by herself.Thanks again

[tthopp05]

Hello again,

I took your advise and mixed in some fruit with her pellets and sure enough shes up there munchin.LOL.Thanks so much.I hope to see her drink her water from her bowl soon.Something I havent seen yet.Ill keep you posted.

[Eckobird]

Hello tthopp and welcome to the forum! Congrats on your new baby. I also have a baby grey and he is 13 weeks old. He doesn't really drink much of the water from his bowl either. The water in the formula is good enough so don't worry if she isn't drinking that much from the bowl. Pretty soon she will start to drink more. I'm glad putting the fruits in the pellets worked. Do you give her veggies too? Anyways, I look forward to hearing more about you and your baby. If you have any pictures we would love to see her.

[Azzie]

Having read these posts, I am going to send another email to Cleo's breeder and thank him for the awesome job he did on weaning her. Before I got her, he told me she wasn't quite ready to go yet, though she was fully weaned, she was not foraging for food, and he wanted to make sure that she was able to before letting her out of his care. It took another 10 days before he was satisfied she was ready to be rehomed.