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5 months old tiel still acts like a baby

Amarena

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Good afternoon guys, I registered to this forum because I don't know what else to do to completely wean my cockatiel.

So, a little bit of backstory. My grandmother used to have a cockatiel, and when she got too old and forgetful to properly take care of it, I took her in and completely fell in love with her. It was already a big girl when she came home, and she lived 5 more years with me, until she passed away almost two years ago. I then realized I had grown to love birds, especiallyh cockatiels, so last year I began to search for breeders in my area. Now, I live in a country where cockatiel breeding is pretty basic, and there isn't a lot of knowledge about it, let alone about raising them as pets. I was directed to a man who came highly recommended, and I bought my current boy in April.

The tiel had an 8 hours bus trip to get to my city, and when I finally got to pick him up, I found out that it was an unweaned chick - not what the breeder had promised. I was given pictures, yes, but it was full feathered and it looked weaned... but it wasn't, at all.

To make matters worse, he was scared and wanted nothing to do with me. It took me 4 days to properly handfeed him - I was doing two daily 1 hours trip to an avian vet to have him feed the chick. (The bredeer was obviously MIA and even now, he hasn't contacted me back)

The little kid got sick, a lung infection that has now thankfully been completely cured, and from what I've been told he did a serious regression. He's now 5 months old, though (I suspect the breeder lied about his age, actually, so he could be anywhere between 4 to 6), and he keeps eating hand-feeding formula. I've managed to drop most of the daily feedings, and he does eat seeds, fruits and vegetables. The night formula is the only one left, but whenever I try to pull it 1cc a day, he begins to lose weight quickly.

It's more than the handfeeding per se, though. He hardly eats anything if I leave him in his cage: it's like he waits for me to come and put a plate of soft food/seeds in front of him, and even then he'll just eat for a little while and then run off to play with something. He doesn't try to whistle or anything either, and just makes baby noises the whole day.

The opinion of the avian vet I take him to is that I should just starve him until he eats, but I read online that it was dangerous for a bird to lose more than 10% of his usual weight. I began to pull back the ccs again 4 days ago, and he went down from 81 to 76 grams.

I understand I'm to blame, for having allowed him to be hand-fed until such a late age, but when he got sick I seriously thought I'd lose him and now every change in his weight or droopings has me worried sick, and I give in to his crying. However, I'm more worried that continuing like this might be harmful to him in the future, so I've come here to ask for help or ideas to help him move on from the formula.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!
 
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JosienBB

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4/5 months isn't that old, I say keep giving him formula until he no longer wants it. It's called "abundance weaning." He's been through a lot of stress, so I wouldn't add to it by cutting back the formula prematurely.
 

sunnysmom

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I would never recommend letting him starve as the vet suggests. I think some birds just take longer. This website has a lot of helpful info: Hand-Feeding and Weaning - Just Cockatiels!

And welcome to the forum!
 
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gibsongrrrl

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I'm not sure at all, but maybe @srtiels can help you
 

Heather F

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It is totally not "your fault" for "allowing him" to continue to be hand fed. From what I understand cockatiels are notorious for regressing especially after stress. If he still needs it, he still needs it.

@melissasparrots is another of our resident baby experts, she can help you tell if there is cause for concern (other than a vet who gives rubbish advice).
 

sunnysmom

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I seem to recall srtiels having a baby tiel who didn't wean until after 5 months. If I'm not mixing my people up, they even had a little graduation celebration when the baby finally weaned. LOL. It's her website that I posted previously. She is a member here but I'm not sure how often she checks in. She can also be contacted through her website.
 

melissasparrots

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This is a hard one to advise on because the bird was previously sick. If it were me with previous experience raising birds, I'd consider forcing the issue a little bit. However, I'm not sure advising someone to do that over the internet and not seeing the bird is safe.

Its good that he is eating a little bit on his own. You might try starting with just reducing the nightly feeding by 1 cc every week or two. In the meantime, concentrate on getting him to eat in his cage better.

For getting a baby to eat more on their own, there are a few things you can do. The first is to put some fresh food in front of the bird and then eat your own meals in the same room as him. Its normal for babies to be interested in anything that is new, so if you need to put new food in his cage 3 times a day, that is fine. Just don't let him get into the habit of thinking he needs to be out with you in order to eat. Also, don't look at him or give him attention while he's eating. The worst way to teach a baby to eat is to stare at it trying to catch him eating to convince yourself that he's eating okay. Feel free to walk away and go about your day.

He is getting to be that age where assuming he doesn't still have an infection going on, he really should get weaned. The older they get in these cases, the harder it gets. Unfortunately, I suspect you are now at the point where it will be difficult to wean him the easy way where his own drive to become self sufficient causes him to wean himself.
Once you see him eating a little more independently in the cage, you can start reducing the nightly hand-feeding. I'd still go very slowly. Do realize that its very common to loose a little bit of weight when you take away the last hand-feeding. Even in babies that willingly give up the last feeding on their own, sometimes they still have a little weight drop. Since he's been sick, I'd proceed with caution. If dropping 1 cc from the nightly feed causes him to loose a couple grams, just keep feeding that amount until he stops loosing weight and is stable for a week or two, then drop another cc.

I'd also if possible have the vet run a culture and sensitivity of his crop. Many times babies that have a low grade infection will fail to wean on their own. Your bird's previous history of illness makes me wonder that he might still be a little bit sick.

Another thing you can try is to break the evening hand-feeding apart into two smaller meals. Sometimes babies need a small meal in the morning to kick start their urge to feed on their own. So if you've been giving him say 10cc at night, try giving him 4cc in the morning and immediately after hand-feeding, give him a bowl of fresh food in his cage and then eat your breakfast in the same room while you are otherwise ignoring him and looking at something else. Later that night you can give him an evening feed with the remaining 6cc and then immediately give him a bowl of adult food and have a bedtime snack for yourself with the same routine you had at breakfast. That way you aren't giving him more formula causing him to be more dependent on you, but you are possibly making him feel a little more secure to eat on his own.

Also, make sure he has as much seed available as he wants. At this point its important that he wean. Even if he's eating a diet that is maybe not as good as you'd like it to be. If he's lukewarm on veggies but eats seed great, then give him as much seed as he wants. Once he's been weaned for several months, you can start pushing the veggies more.

Definitely pursue getting a culture done of his crop if your vet can do that. If that isn't possible, then a gram's stain.
 

Amarena

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Thank you for all your recommendations!

I've spied him nibbling on seeds and soft foods when I'm not in the room, but from looking at the level of mess in his cage later, I'd say he eats for a little bit and then just goes straight to sleep until I return. He's got toys he mostly just ignores (and a big one that he actually uses for sleeping, not playing). The vet mentioned the other day that maybe I should just take the his perches away so that he can only focus on the food. What do you guys think?

It'll be hard to get him to eat in the cage with me in the room: as soon as he sees me, he's desperate to leave the cage. Also, the times I've had lunch or dinner next to him he wanted to eat from my plate - do you think I'll manage to get him to eat from his food instead of mine? Would you recommend I put some of his food in my plate, or would that be counterproductive?

I believe he actually likes soft foods better than seeds, which was completely unexpected. He's got all the millet he could possibly want, too, but his favorite seeds are hulless oats.

I'm considering leaving a bit of formula along with the soft food, but I can't possibly leave it there for long, right?

In any case, I'll ask the vet to run those exams when he's back from his holidays (there are only two avian specialists in this city and I had a bad experience with the second one)
 

melissasparrots

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For removing perches, it might be a good idea or it might not. It depends on what he does if you remove the perches. If he hangs out on the bottom of the cage next to the food bowl then it might help. If removing perches makes him so focused on climbing the bars to the very top and not moving from that spot, then it won't help. I'd be more likely to have lots of food bowls scattered around his cage. One at the bottom and one next to all his favorite perches.

Regarding eating off your plate... I wonder if he might be a little bit spoiled. Every bird is different and considering his history of illness, its not surprising he's having difficulty. It it were me, I'd leave him in his cage and have him eat like a grown up. If you want to baby step him in that direction, you could put some of his food on your plate for a couple days and then transition him to eating that food in his own cage. I just wouldn't let him get away with that for too long because he will start thinking he needs you to be there in order for him to eat.

Leaving a little bit of formula in his cage is an okay idea so long as you don't leave it in for very long. Maybe 30 minutes or so and then remove it. You can do a partial hand-feeding and then put him in the cage with the bowl of formula right next to a big bowl of adult food too and see what he does. Sometimes it helps in those cases to leave the syringe or spoon that you normally feed him from in the bowl that way he targets it as a food source and will explore how to get food from it on his own.
 
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