I am hand-rearing a baby cockatiel. He was taken out of the nest early because his parents were biting off his claws. His one foot barely has any toes left. I would say he is between 4-5 weeks old. I have read so many articles and each one is different. When exactly should I start the weaning process? I do give him millet and soaked seeds between meals to introduce him to it.
Hi,
You can go ahead and start offering soft food and pellets. Avoid seeds & millet – these are junk foods that won’t offer much in the way of nutrition. Loose seeds are not fresh enough to retain their natural nutrients, and if any supplements are added, they are lost when the bird removes the hulls. If you want to offer some whole seeds, try our foraging diets. These diets are formulated the same as a pellet, but they are not ground up. They contain fresh, human grade seeds with the hulls removed, combined with other ingredients and a nutritionally balanced binder so that you bird gets complete nutrition in every bite. You can start offering a variety of foods each morning – soaked pellets, soft food such as cooked brown rice and mixed veggies, some of our foraging diets, crumbled, leafy greens, fresh water. Put these foods in easy reach and then leave the room for an hour where he can’t see or hear you. This gives him time to explore new foods while he is hungry. Go back after an hour and hand feed him. Repeat this before each feeding and he will gradually eat more on his own and accept less formula. Soon you will cut out middle of the say feedings and get down to handfeeding twice a day, then once a day, then he will be weaned. Let him do all of this at his pace so that he feels secure and doesn’t develop food issues. There is no set age to wean – he will stop accepting handfeeding when he is ready.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
