Is my African Grey completely weaned?

Question

I really hope you can all help, as we have surely learned our lesson.

We bought our Grey from what "seemed" like a great, clean place. We went to visit "Kobe" while he was being weaned. We knew his band number was 50, and would call periodically to check on his progress, as he was 1-1/2 hours away from us. We received a call on Sunday that he was ready to come home and was weaned. When we got there yesterday, Labor Day, they showed us his band, number 50, and kind of hurried him in his cage and did the remaining paperwork. We didn't think much of it, as it was late in the day and figured they wanted to leave soon. We got to the car and realized that "Kobe" was missing toes, but OUR KOBE wasn't. We took a closer look, and realized it wasn't our bird we had been visiting. My husband went back in, and they tried to tell him he was wrong, and when he asked if they could have two birds with the same number, they said it was impossible. They told him to go get the bird from the car.

I had taken pictures weeks prior, and noticed that OUR KOBE had a silver band and the one they gave us had a green band. By the time my husband got back in there, they came out with OUR KOBE and said they had two with the same band, but never apologized. They just did the switch, told us ours was a biter and the other was a sweetheart, and sent us on our way.

Now we don't know if ours was really finished being hand fed and ready to leave. It had baby food still on his face. Since being home last night, he is eating pellet and eating vegetables, but don't want him to have "issues" as he gets older if they pulled him too early. He does not BITE, like they said, and is very sweet. I have an appointment tomorrow, to have him vet checked, I just want to know what to look for to know if he still needs to be hand fed or not.

Thank you anyone and everyone for your help. We had the best breeder for our other 3, but she has health issues and no longer does it!!!

Answer 1

If Kobe is eating on a regular basis and appears to not be having any issue with eating then he is more than likely weaned. This doesn't mean that the breeder wasn't still feeding him baby food as a treat or as a means to hurry through the process. Glad to hear that things turned out to be okay with Kobe. Inform your vet of your experience and he/she will be able to give you a more knowledgeable answer when he can see the bird in person.

Answer 2

I agree with Lynn. If your little one is eating and drinking on her own you shouldn't be worried. I have an African Grey too. I got her at about 6 months, and I panicked when I brought her home because she wouldn't eat her pellets. I actually had to add water to her pellets to simulate weaning formula to get her to eat for the first few weeks. The vet said that sometimes young parrots revert to babies under stress when they first go home. Anyhow, I am sorry to hear about the dilemma with the new breeder. I think your new parrot will be just fine. Mine is and she just had her third B-day.