How do you ween a hand fed cockatiel?

Question

i have two cockatiel babies, they are now a month old, i read that they need to start weening at this age, but they wont take the solid food i offer them. the parents had abandoned them when they hatched so there is no putting them back with thier parents now. do they need help learning how to fly or will they just do it on thier own?

Answer 1

Still way too early...They are not ready yet.

Feed the appropriate hand formula, keep a dish of seed or pellets, whatever you intend to continue with in the enclosure, along with fresh water...

They will start eatin and flying on their own when they are ready.

The feeding and handling is creating the strong human bond as well, which is what will make them great pets. Keep it up, it will be well worth the effort in quality, adjusted, friendly birds.

Answer 2

I presume you are still feeding them appropriate hand feeding formula?  Please continue to do so as long as they want it.  You want to "abundance wean" your birds, not "force wean" them.  While offering the regular hand feedings, also place millet, seed and fresh foods in the bottom of the weaning cage so they can begin to experiment.  You'll find they start playing with the food and sooner or later they'll start to nibble at it and then eat it.  Continue to offer fresh foods, millet and seed and continue hand feeding them.  They will slowly start to refuse the formula and eat the foods you've offered.  Let them wean themselves.

No, you don't have to teach them to fly.  One day they'll just take off and scare the heck out of you :-)  Allow them to fully develop their flight skills before clipping their wings.

For more help you might want to join a Yahoo Group that's dedicated to cockatiels.  

Hope this helps,

Colette

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Parro...

Answer 3

when they have their feathers  then you offer them water and put the ground feed in a little bowl and see it they eat it but make sure at first you have it   wet like you did when you fed them and you will have to slowly take less a less water in  the grain  i hope this helps but ask a vet