When to stop handfeeding?

[HeatherM74]

I thought I'd post this over here since I bug them in the lovebird area all the time.

I brought Twinkle home June 12. She was supposed to be 7 weeks or so, but looking at her, we (we as in the more experienced lovebird owners here at AA, not we as in I had a clue what I was talking about) thought she was younger. Here's a side pic of her beak the day I brought her home.

Lots of baby black.

Here's a front shot. She was a little damp. I used my finger in a glass of water to clean her up a bit from the baby formula she had all over her when I got her.

She was teeny.

Here she is on July 3 -

So, now I've had her almost 6 weeks. The black on her beak is gone. I need to take a picture this week of her. So, she's close to 12 weeks.

She went through a phase where she only wanted one handfeeding a day, she'd take 1 ml or so then fly away from me. If I took it to her, she'd dodge the syringe.

Now she's back to doing what she used to do when she was hungry. Nipping at my mouth/face. If I move her away, she'll just nip at something else. I thought, you know, maybe she wants some more formula. She's now taking 2 feedings a day again. 5 ml or so each time. She stays there the whole time, flapping her wings, eating away. She just wants the tip of the syringe in her beak as she's eating now, not like when she was little little. And when she's done, she's not nearly as nippy as she was before. She leaves my mouth alone all together after a feeding. Do I continue to do this until she starts flying away again and avoiding the syringe? Or do I encourage her to wean? Doesn't matter to me either way, I just want to do what's right for her and her health and what she needs.

She always has pellets mixed with seeds available. She's starting to eat more of the pellets now. I was worried she was going to become a seed addict on me. She also gets bird bread in the morning (I've caught her eating that a few times), veggies in the afternoon (which I haven't caught her eating yet), and fruit as a snack every few days. She also has millet available. Like I said, she'll eat the seeds, pellets, millet, and sometimes the bread. We're working on veggies, she investigated the romaine lettuce I had hanging up for the first time today.

So, wwaad? (that's what would aa do? I'm so lame. )

 

[vmorrison]

In the wild, lovebirds are basically seed eaters, along with any kind of berries they happen to find so I base what I feed my lovebirds on that. I use a good seed base and add lots of fresh food (sprouted seed, homemade cornbread/birdie bread, fresh carrots, broccoli, string beans, sugar snap peas, cooked corn, collard greens and fresh figs when they are available). I add maybe 10% pellets to this and my lovebirds do just fine.

Your baby has reverted back to wanting formula because she's hungry. She's probably not eating enough of what you are offering so she's taken a step backwards as far as weaning.

 

[HeatherM74]

I think I'll go back to giving her the parakeets' seed. I had mixed in a cockatiel mix and she was doing good on it. So, I switched her completely to cockatiel. Does it truly matter if they are on a budgie mix or cockatiel one? (I can't get my budgies to eat pellets yet either, I mix an even smaller amount in with their seed than the lovebird, because she'll at least look at the pellets, they'll starve before they touch it.) All of them get the bird bread, which I load with veggies, some fruit, whole wheat flour, oats, usually a couple of baby food dinners for protien, organic 100% juice for the liquid, the whole egg blended so the shell is crushed, honey, and anything else I can think of that is healthy in my pantry to put in it. The budgies devour it.) And I mix up a batch of different veggies every week, along with their favorites so they'll at approach it, and freeze that, and they all get that.

She's got a lot of different healthy foods to eat along side the seed, so if she wants and will eat the parakeet seed and be happy and healthy, I'll give her that instead.

I'm so glad I offered her the formula whenever she gave me the signal after what you just said.

Thank you!

 

[JLcribber]

All birds should be abundance weaned. How ever long that is will be decided by the bird.

http://www.charlieandpeggy.com/weaningandfledging.htm


http://www.companionparrot.com/Abundance Weaning.htm

http://www.cagenbird.com/weaning.htm

 

[vmorrison]

Weaning just one baby tends to be harder than weaning two or more in a group. With more than one, they learn from/teach each other. I, personally, would not use budgie seed mix for a lovebird. Lovebirds have a higher fat requirement than budgies and sunflower or safflower seed supplies that extra fat. I would go back to what you were doing when your lovebird was becoming more independent as far as eating.

While I hand feed when absolutely necessary, I use co-parenting with all my youngsters. Parents do a much better job of weaning than I can ever hope to do and socializing the babies is what makes them tame, not dependence on the hand feeder for food. They still have to be socialized in order to be well adjusted.

 

[Thugluvgrl187]

I say if she wants it keep giving it to her until she no longer does. They will let you know.

 

[HeatherM74]

Thanks you guys!

John that's what I was thinking, but I wanted to double check. Keep offering her the formula when she wants it and leave the other food available for her to try when she wants to.

Miriam, that's what I do with my human kids. LOL I'll keep doing it with Twinkle.

Valerie, I had read that we should get a good cockatiel mix without sunflower seeds and add those in so they aren't getting so many? I read that after I bought the cockatiel mix with an abundance of sunflower seeds, which she loves. I actually pulled most of those out. If I added a few to the budgie mix (I kept them in a baggie to use as treats and to add to the mix) while she's getting back to where she was, would that be ok?

 

[Bokkapooh]

I recommend abundance feeding the baby

Our lovebird is on BUDGIE size fruit zupreem pellets, and gets FINCH seed at night. I like feeding finch seed because it has more variety than lovebird or cockatiel mixes. My cockatiels get finch seed too And so does my parrotlet. If you feel like your bird needs more fat in its diet, you can add a couple safflower and sunflower seeds in their diet. I also feed a variety of fresh foods too, to my little guys.

 

[HeatherM74]

Those are the pellets I use too. I never thought about finch seed. I'll look at that! Thank you!

 

[atvchick95]

if she wants it give it to her I had one who was eating on her own completely but when i'd go to feed the other babies in the brooder with her She wanted fed too EVEN if she just got done eating from the food dishes!

I had lost track of time and when I counted her age up she was 3 months old! I was like why are you still wanting fed? so I tried putting her in a cage of her own, all mine have been weaned( or down to just 2 hand feedings), in cages and doing their own thing on their own by 2 months old , 2 1/2 at the latest (no matter how persistent i was to hand feed if they didn't want it they made it known!) so she confused me a bit, But I put her in a cage, she clung to the side ALL day (I let her in there for about 2 hrs) then i was like Ok I'll put dad in with ya (he always helped me feed her when I was just feeding her and even when the other babies came along that wasn't his he'd help me feed those as well - He's such a good helper ) dad tried feeding her Nope she refused to come off the cage bars he tried cuddling w/her nothing even worked for dad So he let himself back out of the cage and went back with mom (ya I'm talking about my love struck Houdini Mr. Pugsley who takes a beating yet comes back for more because he's so in love LOL) so I put her Back in the brooder, but she refused to go to a cage w/out the other babies! so when they were old enough (it was about a week or so later) i moved them all and She stopped wanting hand fed then, even though I was still hand feeding the others. But she just refused to "grow" up until she knew the other babies were ready and could do it with out her and she was not even related to them!

 

[HeatherM74]

That is really funny Kelli! So, I need a bunch of baby lovies around here to teach her when it's time to stop being handfed. Poor Mr Pugsley. Daughter doesn't want to snuggle and his woman beats up him.

Do you think when Woodstock arrives tomorrow, she'll think she's a grown up bird? She'll have another lovebird to learn from, after the quarantine period. That's totally OT from my original post. Even though Anna just had him vetted and all came back good, he still needs to be in QT doesn't he for 30 days? Then I can introduce them slowly to each other and they can "hopefully" be friends - at least from across the room.

 

[atvchick95]

ya Pugsley is not a very smart boy when it comes to being beat up on - but he doesn't have to worry about that now, his new girl is very sweet and kind to him the way they should be! lol

I still quarantine all birds I get no matter where they came from, or if they were seen by a vet - it's just how I am (a lot don't)

they may hit it off, specially if they're the only 2 lovebirds there ,but you know that's not a guarantee, but i think it helps too if they're close to the same age - it seems at least in my house with my own birds, If they're near the same age they seem to get along better than say one being 3-4 yrs older than the other. but then sometimes those ones can get along a lot better than the same age or close to the same age- it really all depends on the birds their self

 

[HeatherM74]

They may not be friends then. Woodstock is 7 years old. Here he is -

Woodstock was vetted earlier this week and had a physical exam and gram stain. I wanted bloodwork because he felt a bit thin upon examination but our vet said he was too tiny to give blood. His exam and tests were normal. Woodstock seems otherwise happy and healthy and we are hoping he'll gain a few grams with a good diet and lots of love.

That's what I was thinking with quarantine. Better to be safe than sorry. I can't wait, he's coming tomorrow.

Isn't he pretty though? I actually wanted one that looked like him, but fell for Twinkle.

 

[atvchick95]

very very pretty

looks to be Cinnamon Violet ( i wanna say Australian but haven't seen enough of them to know, or at least not good clear pics like that one)

I have a cinnamon but she's also Sea Green which changes the color of the cinnamon so i'm not even exactly sure what a normal American Cinnamon looks like LOL

it is hard to find good clear pics on the web of any mutations of love birds

 

[HeatherM74]

You're so smart Kelli! I would have had no clue. So, Twinkle, being sea green, will she get peach on her face as she gets older? she has none right now. The top of her face is a tad darker than the rest, but not peach in any way shape or form. Does that make her a white face?

 

[atvchick95]

You're so smart Kelli! I would have had no clue. So, Twinkle, being sea green, will she get peach on her face as she gets older? she has none right now. The top of her face is a tad darker than the rest, but not peach in any way shape or form. Does that make her a white face?

Twinkle should get the peach brow - being a blue series, they don't get a full peach face Like say a Lutino has, (seems only green series birds get the full peach face) When I got Roxy she was 2 weeks old so as she started growing her colors came in and for the longest time i couldn't figure out if she was Olive or Slate she looked both but it depended on how the light hit her (even at 2 if the light hit just right she looked olive) but she ended up being a Double Factor Slate , her brow started coming in about 6 months old, started out real light, then got darker as she got older.

but I have 2 white faces - a creamino and a blue and both have a peach brow I was under the impression white faces don't get peach brows.. But I keep forgetting to look that up, Maybe I'll do that now that i'm thinking of it

Edit: Perhaps the white face do get peach brows, on this site they have White Face Violets, and they have a peach brow (mid way down the page)

http://www.angelinasnest.com/Peachfaced Lovebirds.htm

 

[HeatherM74]

Those are so pretty! So, she'll probably get it with her first molt? I'm going to go post a new picture of her in the lovebird area showing off her new beak.

 

[atvchick95]

She probably will start showing it when she starts molting, I think Roxy's did it just wasn't so noticeable until she was older and she was a hyper lil' bird, If you ever wanted to exam her closely she wouldn't hold still (even if you tried doing it while she was asleep on you she knew and would decide to wake up and be on the go) and not let you look lol

 

[Bokkapooh]

I just wanted to add that Squid my p'let wasnt weaned until 4 months of age(from 12weeks on, she took a night feeding) and STILL (at 6 months of age) wants a night feeding. Which she'll always have. I handfeed all of my birds their mash at night (includes veggies, and oatmeal, crushed flax seed and TOPs).

I think Petrie and Buzz Buzz weaned around 12 weeks of age. They had eachother to learn from.

 

[atvchick95]

I just wanted to add that Squid my p'let wasnt weaned until 4 months of age(from 12weeks on, she took a night feeding) and STILL (at 6 months of age) wants a night feeding. Which she'll always have. I handfeed all of my birds their mash at night (includes veggies, and oatmeal, crushed flax seed and TOPs).

I think Petrie and Buzz Buzz weaned around 12 weeks of age. They had eachother to learn from.

I have a few non- hand fed adult birds here that if they see me making the hand feeding formula or feeding a baby they throw a fit until they get it too!

its the ONLY time Billy likes me LOL(Well that and when I give him any food I'm eating) , Gumby is the other one she loves it! and Kaycee when she ERR he (that is so hard to change) was in my room She threw a fit until I shared with her (ok i'm not going back to change all those "She's and Her's - to his and him LOL)

supposedly Kaycee was hand fed and conveniently stopped the night before I got him. However I don't believe it since he's never really been nice, the first 2 days he was but after that Nope , wasn't having NOTHING to do with us.