Hello, all. I recently (last tuesday) acquired a young tiel that was reared by its parents in an aviary. Though the breeder claimed it was weaned, I have been offering it several types of solid food and it refuses to eat.
So to help it wean properly, I've bought some formula and am trying to handfeed it, but am running into some trouble. Put plainly, the first time I tried it refused to eat the formula. However, I noticed that when near my other cockatiel (who is a male about 2.5 years old and I've slowly been introducing the youngling to) it would start begging for food, even jerking at the older bird's beak in an attempt to get fed. Whenever this happened I noticed it would be prepared to eat a tiny little bit of formula from the syringe, but would soon stop eating, only prepared to wash it down with a few mills of warm water.
Now, I can barely get it to eat and drink a total of 3-5 ml of formula and water per feeding, which I've tried twice daily.
It doesn't seem to not want to eat out of fear, because it's very relaxed around me and will happily preen while sitting nearby on my desk or on the playstand. I've scattered some food around its cage, but alone inside the cage seems to be where it is most insecure.
At least I'm happy that my bird is not dehydrating and willing to eat something, but I could use some tips to try and get it to more readily eat its formula.
So to help it wean properly, I've bought some formula and am trying to handfeed it, but am running into some trouble. Put plainly, the first time I tried it refused to eat the formula. However, I noticed that when near my other cockatiel (who is a male about 2.5 years old and I've slowly been introducing the youngling to) it would start begging for food, even jerking at the older bird's beak in an attempt to get fed. Whenever this happened I noticed it would be prepared to eat a tiny little bit of formula from the syringe, but would soon stop eating, only prepared to wash it down with a few mills of warm water.
Now, I can barely get it to eat and drink a total of 3-5 ml of formula and water per feeding, which I've tried twice daily.
It doesn't seem to not want to eat out of fear, because it's very relaxed around me and will happily preen while sitting nearby on my desk or on the playstand. I've scattered some food around its cage, but alone inside the cage seems to be where it is most insecure.
At least I'm happy that my bird is not dehydrating and willing to eat something, but I could use some tips to try and get it to more readily eat its formula.
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