# Minimum age for buying a new tiel



## babybreau (May 19, 2008)

A lady contacted me about her pearl tiel. She has 3 babies she's selling, the oldest being 7 weeks. 
At what age is a baby tiel fully weaned? I had thought 3 months... I read the section on what to look for, but nothing mentions the age at which tiels are weaned. 

Also what is the difference between hand-fed and spoon-fed? Why would you hand-feed a tiel? Can they not eat for themselves? Are these birds that the parents could not raise? 

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm doing my research before getting a tiel. I still have my heart set on a lutino male...


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## Bea (Jul 26, 2007)

8-10 weeks is the usual weaning age. Some clingy babies might take up to 12 weeks though.  I got Bailee at 7 weeks old and even though he could eat on his own he wasn't confident so he regressed in the new home and i had to hand rear him for another week.

Breeders often hand rear cockatiel babies to socialise them better with humans and prepare them to be cuddlier nicer pets. They can also charge more for a hand reared baby than a parent reared one...but with all the effort they put into the bubs i don't think that's a real consideration. 

Hand fed would apply to any baby raised by a human regardless of the feeding method. A baby can be fed with a crop needle which means a blunt needle is put down the chicks throat into their crop and the food is put straight in. This is the fastest way and what many large scale commercial breeders do. Babies raised this way are often not tame as they don't get much human attention other than to have food put down their throat. You can also use a syringe (with no needle) and squirt food into the mouth, or you can use a bent spoon. The spoon is the messiest way to do it, but also the more natural for the baby.


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## huskymom (Jan 17, 2008)

well... I´m no expert but 7 weeks seem to young for a tiel to be sold.... 

hand-fed vs. spoon-fed I think is of a more "tactic" to do it... or perhaps the hand one makes them more used to hands and handling.....

sometimes tiels are ignored by parents, some are just out of big clutches and in order to preserve the littlest they are removed, and sometimes is just a thing so they get used to human contact more easily I guess.......

Bea just had a baby, well not her.... obviously ... he´s just eating on his own but I don´t think fully weaned....and she can als provide more info as well as other member with more experience in babies and all that...

it´s good to research first... good luck for whenever you get your lutino


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## allen (Aug 25, 2007)

ok my breeder will not sell any babies till they are fully weaned and even then she tells you if the birds stops eating to call her back and she will pick the bird up and hand feed it for another week stretch took 9 weeks sparkles 8 weeks depends all on the bird


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

When I got my tiels they were fully weined, both were 9 weeks old. The breeder won't sell them if they are any younger than that.


But like it's been said already, depends on the bird in the end.


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

I hand fed my lovebird, got her at 2 weeks old started using a syringe but as she got older and moved around more it was getting difficult to get the food in her belly so i started using a disposiable plastic spoon, she loved it and ate more that way then w/ the syringe I started at 2 1/2 weeks on spoon feeding and fed her that way until she started eating on her own which was about a month old


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Spike was 10 weeks old when I got him, if you want a lutino you should still try to find one, since you have your heart set on one, good luck.


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