Alexi
Moving in
Hello everyone!
My name is Alexi (I'm new here) and I have a 4 month old grey cockatiel male named Nimbus.
My fiance and I have had him since he was 4 weeks old and have hand reared him ourselves mostly. We got him from a breeder in Johannesburg South Africa who seemed nice enough even though all her babies were being hatched and raised without parents. Once we got him we took him straight to our vet (Who we see often and know well because of my parent in law's older cockatiel) and got his blood work done and a clean bill of health. Currently he stays in a lovely big cage in my bedroom and is spoiled rotten with toys and attention, he's very co-dependent. We fed him 10 ml of hand rearing baby formula mixed with water until he was 3 months. When I read that most cockatiel's wean by 12 weeks I expressed my concern to my vet who suggested that I go down to half portions and see how it goes. Yet Nimbus still expresses zero interest for his pellets! He'll play with them and nibble at them but I don't think he eats enough to sustain himself. I won't feed him seeds because my vet and much of the research I've read says it isn't a good diet at all and the pellets are the best for him but he doesn't seem to like them. He loves rusks, apple, rice and breakfast biscuits (especially Breakfast biscuits) and all kinds of other snacks and adores the formula. We feed him once a day with just the 5 ml with water formula but he seems to complain about wanting more. Now, I will fully admit I'm probably a bit of a hypochondriac but he seems a little more fatigued since we've been feeding him less and often I end up giving him more.
Are there any tips or tricks to weaning him? I'm so afraid there's something wrong, or I've done something wrong, or maybe I've spoiled him and I'm at a loss at what to do. It's not that I don't mind feeding him myself, I'll always do it and I enjoy it but I am also a full time student and often work in hospital so there are days when time to feed him is limited.
My vet says not to rush him and that he'll wean when hes ready but of course I still worry.
Any advice is more then welcome!!
My name is Alexi (I'm new here) and I have a 4 month old grey cockatiel male named Nimbus.
My fiance and I have had him since he was 4 weeks old and have hand reared him ourselves mostly. We got him from a breeder in Johannesburg South Africa who seemed nice enough even though all her babies were being hatched and raised without parents. Once we got him we took him straight to our vet (Who we see often and know well because of my parent in law's older cockatiel) and got his blood work done and a clean bill of health. Currently he stays in a lovely big cage in my bedroom and is spoiled rotten with toys and attention, he's very co-dependent. We fed him 10 ml of hand rearing baby formula mixed with water until he was 3 months. When I read that most cockatiel's wean by 12 weeks I expressed my concern to my vet who suggested that I go down to half portions and see how it goes. Yet Nimbus still expresses zero interest for his pellets! He'll play with them and nibble at them but I don't think he eats enough to sustain himself. I won't feed him seeds because my vet and much of the research I've read says it isn't a good diet at all and the pellets are the best for him but he doesn't seem to like them. He loves rusks, apple, rice and breakfast biscuits (especially Breakfast biscuits) and all kinds of other snacks and adores the formula. We feed him once a day with just the 5 ml with water formula but he seems to complain about wanting more. Now, I will fully admit I'm probably a bit of a hypochondriac but he seems a little more fatigued since we've been feeding him less and often I end up giving him more.
Are there any tips or tricks to weaning him? I'm so afraid there's something wrong, or I've done something wrong, or maybe I've spoiled him and I'm at a loss at what to do. It's not that I don't mind feeding him myself, I'll always do it and I enjoy it but I am also a full time student and often work in hospital so there are days when time to feed him is limited.
My vet says not to rush him and that he'll wean when hes ready but of course I still worry.
Any advice is more then welcome!!