When do I start weaning my african grey parrot?

Question

My grey is about 16-20 weeks old. She is eating hand rearing food 3x a day and I want to start her on solids but she does not seem to want to eat any solids. I give her fruit (apples) and seeds, sunflower etc. She also suddenly started screaming and moaning the whole time the moment she sees me and does not stop for an hour or more? She also sometimes bites me until I calm her down then she only nibbles me.

Answer 1

your parrot is still very young. Your parrot will let you know when she is ready to be completely weaned. with an African Grey it is not unusual to hand feed into their 6th month. don't be in a hurry; it is good for your relationship to hand feed as long as possible. I worked at a major pet store chain and we hand fed the parrots (A.Greys and Cockatoos) as long as they wanted it. We were told that the bird would let us know when they were weaned; it was a good excuse to spend extra time with them and we loved it !

For example; most of the books say to hand feed Cockatiels until they are 6 weeks old; I hand feed to at least 8 weeks. They taper off themselves because the pellets, seeds, fruit and veggies taste better than the formula.

It is very normal for them to start throwing a fit when they see you. They associate you as the one with the food. As she gets older she will stop this. she bites and nibbles because you are the 'food' and she is trying to tell you that she is ready to eat. This is a learned response from you hand feeding her. She has a biological clock and each bird is an individual. I have had some that stop earlier than others and you should consider hand feeding until she lets you know she is ready to be on her own. This is a stressful time for you and her; please be patient with her and do this as long as she wants. Try to find pleasure in the process and bond with her as much as possible. As she spends more flight time and playing with toys she will become less dependent on you and grow up.

Enjoy !