# Baby weaning problems



## Foo Fighter (Mar 31, 2016)

Hello
I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on what to do. I have a hand reared Cockateil that is now about 4 months old. We hand reared as it came out of the nest and was bloodied so didn't want to risk anything happening to it. It was about 3 weeks old when we took over rearing. It eats fantastic when we hand feed, but it just won't eat enough by itself to sustain weight. I've had it to the vet, who said no parasites or obvious problems. There are pellets, seed, millet spray, veges in the cage so plenty of selection. It can crack seed. I have tried forcing the issue and dropping the feeds but it's weight just drops. It is very affectionate and friendly, flys well. When we have it out of the cage it happily nibbles at seed. 
If anyone has any suggestions for what we can do to get it eating enough so we don't have to handfeed anymore I'd be grateful.:wf cinnamon:


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## shaenne (Apr 19, 2014)

Panda took a loooong time to wean, too. It wasn't that he COULDN'T eat on his own, he just relied on fornula too much and no matter what I did he just didn't want to wean. I ended up putting my female in his cage with him and she spends most of her day eating, and it encouraged Panda to eat, too. Within a week or two he was not only refusing formula but eating A LOT on his own. Like, a freaking ton. Having Zoe in there to show him did the trick for me, so if you have an older bird that you can put in the baby's cage, definitely try that.


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## Foo Fighter (Mar 31, 2016)

Thanks so much Shaenne, you're a legend!! I was beginning to think it was only me and I'd be still hand feeding this baby forever. I have a hen in the aviary who would be perfect. It sounds like my Foo is the same as your Panda was.
Will keep you posted how it goes.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Forcing the issue in my opinion is exactly what makes the chick not want to wean. I say offer three feeds a day and put the chick in a cage cleaned daily with seed and pellets sprinkled on the floor. You may go through a hefty amount of seed, but the chick will wean fairly quick this way. Later you can make the move to putting the food unto dishes and eventually they will understand that concept.


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## shaenne (Apr 19, 2014)

Abundance weaning is definitely best. I tried *everything* with panda, including dropping a feed and offering more fresh food but it just made things worse. I don't normally do it but I figured i'll give everything a try so I can at least say that I did lmao. 

He was back on 3 feeds when I put Zoe in with him. Everything she ate, he would eat too (i'm lucky she doesn't mind sharing food lol) and if she moved to a different food bowl, he'd follow her lol. Pretty soon he got to the point where he'd get mad at me if I tried to give him formula hahaha.


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