Please note: I am not the breeder, but I do all his hand feeding as he is physically incapable. He knows nothing about hand feeding so can’t assist. I’ve been hand feeding cockatiels for him since 2018 and have done a clutch? (having a brain fart as to what a family of baby birds is called ) of sun conures for him, all via syringe.
Sunday I picked up four pineapple gcc from him, they are 2-4 weeks old. I have had a heck of a time getting them to eat, but finally tonight I feel like we’re making some progress. While looking for advice on the web, I came across spoon feeding again, and decided I really want to try it. One of the videos I watched, the birds were pretty much feeding themselves, mom just held the spoon…that’s the one that made me want to try it. He can probably feed that way, so I ordered some of the spoons and they seem to prefer that over the syringe. I may just be forgetting but these guys don’t gape for food, or really seem to have much interest in it at all. They absolutely don’t scream for it (not that I’m complaining, I truly thought the sun conures were going to make me deaf ). I’ve been feeding beteeen 100°-105°F, but I just read a thread where someone said 111° and that they prefer it very warm, so I’ll up the temp and see if that helps, as well.
My question (besides any suggestions on getting them more interested in eating) is when do I put pellets (actually probably seeds for these guys) in the brooder? Right after feeding this morning, one of the youngest ones was pecking at and maybe eating poop off the brooder floor. Is it too early? What else should I introduce when I do introduce foods? The breeder feeds seed exclusively (please, I know it’s terrible, I feed Zupreem pellets to my B&G macaw and my ‘tiel. My keets have Zupreem but won’t even play in it, they are rescues and will only touch seed. I hand raised the cockatiel from 2-3 days old, and the moment he met pellets, he’s refused to touch anything else…no fresh foods, or green or yellow pellets for that matter. My macaw eats anything that won’t eat her first, EXCEPT Harrison’s . She came to me at 5 on pellets, and we didn’t have a wide variety of choices in Alaska back then, just Zupreem and Harrison’s.)
If I can get the conures on fresh foods, the breeder will definitely offer that (he may already, actually, but I know seed is his primary food), and he grows an organic garden almost year round. He won’t switch to pellets, I’ve tried. He will probably sell a few of these guys, though, so maybe I should introduce seed and pellets. Are cockatiel pellets ok? (Apologies for dumb questions, I know NOTHING about conures except that sun conures are insanely loud lol. Unfortunately it’s been a while since I had those and I cannot remember what and when I fed them.
Sunday I picked up four pineapple gcc from him, they are 2-4 weeks old. I have had a heck of a time getting them to eat, but finally tonight I feel like we’re making some progress. While looking for advice on the web, I came across spoon feeding again, and decided I really want to try it. One of the videos I watched, the birds were pretty much feeding themselves, mom just held the spoon…that’s the one that made me want to try it. He can probably feed that way, so I ordered some of the spoons and they seem to prefer that over the syringe. I may just be forgetting but these guys don’t gape for food, or really seem to have much interest in it at all. They absolutely don’t scream for it (not that I’m complaining, I truly thought the sun conures were going to make me deaf ). I’ve been feeding beteeen 100°-105°F, but I just read a thread where someone said 111° and that they prefer it very warm, so I’ll up the temp and see if that helps, as well.
My question (besides any suggestions on getting them more interested in eating) is when do I put pellets (actually probably seeds for these guys) in the brooder? Right after feeding this morning, one of the youngest ones was pecking at and maybe eating poop off the brooder floor. Is it too early? What else should I introduce when I do introduce foods? The breeder feeds seed exclusively (please, I know it’s terrible, I feed Zupreem pellets to my B&G macaw and my ‘tiel. My keets have Zupreem but won’t even play in it, they are rescues and will only touch seed. I hand raised the cockatiel from 2-3 days old, and the moment he met pellets, he’s refused to touch anything else…no fresh foods, or green or yellow pellets for that matter. My macaw eats anything that won’t eat her first, EXCEPT Harrison’s . She came to me at 5 on pellets, and we didn’t have a wide variety of choices in Alaska back then, just Zupreem and Harrison’s.)
If I can get the conures on fresh foods, the breeder will definitely offer that (he may already, actually, but I know seed is his primary food), and he grows an organic garden almost year round. He won’t switch to pellets, I’ve tried. He will probably sell a few of these guys, though, so maybe I should introduce seed and pellets. Are cockatiel pellets ok? (Apologies for dumb questions, I know NOTHING about conures except that sun conures are insanely loud lol. Unfortunately it’s been a while since I had those and I cannot remember what and when I fed them.
