# 5 weeks - too old to handfeed?



## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

my friend is adopting a tiel from a breeder in the area and the tiel is 5weeks old...do you guys think she will still have to handfeed the tiel?and this is a parent fed tiel....i guess itl be quite a task to get the baby to have his\her first drop of formula..since the wings are all grown and im sure at that age,a tiel can pretty much fly around too


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

Your friend would be better off letting the baby stay with the parents until she (or he) is weaned. Is the person your friend is getting the baby from handling the baby while s/he is in the nest (which is called co-parenting)? Or is the baby going to be given to your friend as a parent raised baby not handled at all? The good thing will be, the baby is young, and if s/he is a bit skittish, it will be a bit easier to calm him/her down and tame him/her. 

I am not sure if a 5 week old baby is going to take to formula well, but does you friend know how to hand-feed is the most important question – it is far too risky to hand over a baby to someone who has no hand-feeding experience at all, all sorts of problems can arise, and if something goes wrong, can result in death of the baby, this is why I suggest leaving the baby in the hands of someone that has experience in hand-feeding, and letting the baby wean, then your friend can adopt him.

Overall, I would strongly suggest she leaves the baby with the parents until ready to leave, to pull a baby at that age from the parents suddenly isn’t what I would do, but that is just my opinion.


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## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

my friend knows handfeeding as she has done it before and the baby has been handled by the seller ...like they used to remove the baby out of the cage for play time and they used to handle it too


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## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

the seller is moving to another city...and wants to give the birds away...so he wont be staying for long


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## OOwl (Dec 5, 2012)

I got my cockatiel at six weeks. She had refused formula from her breeder (she was hand-fed from about three weeks on) for almost a week when I picked her up. However, within a day she was begging for food here in her new home. New parrots often revert to wanting to be hand-fed when they go through the stress of moving to a new home. If your friend knows how to do it (as do I), I would recommend having it on hand and feeding the bird if it exhibits hunger and a desire to be fed (crying, head bobbing). My girl has taken small amounts of formula each night before bed since she got here. She's going on 8 weeks now but still takes formula each night. I'll keep giving it to her until she stops asking. I can see no reason not to. You can also weigh the bird each evening to see how much it did (or didn't) eat on its own during the day. My girl was maintaining her weight eating on her own, but emotionally I guess she just needed the formula.


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## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

thats assuring...thankyou for your inputs


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Difficult, but not impossible.

I got Luna at *6 weeks old* and handfed him for about a week and a half. It was a struggle. He was parent-fed and *not handled*, but turned out to be a real sweetheart begging for scritches and all. 

He really did not take formula well and it took forever to feed him the amount he needed. He would fuss every single feeding and would thrash about just to get away. Syringe, spoon..whatever he didn't want it. For some reason he ate oatmeal pretty well though as a treat.

I will be back with pictures.


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## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

id love to see the pictures!!yeah i guess it would be a struggle to get the formula through...


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Here is one of said struggles:









See how messy it was? But I couldn't just let the baby starve. It was tough to clean him up after all that.

And normally you would just kinda cup your hand around the chicks back to keep him steady, but I actually had to hold him because he was so fussy. And I had to pick him up when he started thrashing or he'd hit his head on the ground. 

I swear I have more pictures, but the photobucket app on my phone isn't cooperating. :blush:


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## Amyy (Apr 23, 2011)

yes,they sure can get messy and stubborn when theyre that age....
wish me luck


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