# Weaning and Fledging - newbie!



## Babyworms (Apr 1, 2013)

Hiya! 

I hope this is the right place to be posting this!

Three days ago I brought home my 5 week old handreared baby, Benji. The lady I got him from said he was down to one feed a day and was grazing on seed throughout the day. 
(Please, I know *now* that there are a lot of people who object to birds being sent to new homes unweaned - rookie mistake I made in accepting him, but he's here now, and it's a mistake I won't make again! Now I'm just dealing with the situation that I have, this isn't about badmouthing my breeder!  )

So I've been giving my little guy his formula in the mornings because he's squawking for it, and then by the afternoon he's asking for it again! I'm a bit nervous - I don't want to undo any weaning that's been done by going back to giving him too many feeds! But from what I've read he'll "KNOW" when he is ready to wean and stop being so interested in the food. 

I've been looking all over online to work out what's going on. Things I've read about weaning vary between weaning at 6 and 12 weeks. I would be less concerned if the breeder hadn't seemed quite sure that this baby would be weaned in another week.

Also I weighed him this morning. A weight chart I found said that from 4-5 weeks the baby should weigh 80-120g and then from 5-6 weeks 80-90g. Is it ok that he only weighs 80g? Even being at the low end of the scale he's WITHIN the right range, right?

He's doing a bit of flying - mostly from the bench to my shoulder, but occasionally takes off down the passageway. Unfortunately the breeder clipped his wings, so I'm a bit worried that will interfere with his fledging.

ARGH!! As you can see, I'm an absolute nervous wreck about all this! I'm DESPERATE to do it right, and do right by my little guy, but I'm terrified that I'm doing it wrong/not doing it right! I'm sure this is a normal thing for first timers, but I could REALLY use some help!!

Thanks!!


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

5 weeks is very young. If you check the schedule at http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/handfeeding.html you'll see that he should be getting two to three feedings a day at this age. But feed him 10% of body weight at each feeding, not the 11-15 cc that they recommend. 

Cockatiels have a lot of individual variation in size so you can't really tell anything by the number on the scale. Some birds are the perfect weight for their size at 75g, and others are perfect at 130g. A much better indicator is to feel the keel bone, which is hard for inexperienced people to judge accurately.

By all means feed him 3 times a day if he begs for it, and give him access to plenty of food between handfeedings so he can learn to feed himself. Babies learn best with foraging opportunities and eating from a cup comes later, so hang up millet sprays and leafy greens in the cage and spread food out for him on a flat surface like a table top. Even if he was past the average weaning age (which is definitely not the case), it's not good to try to force-wean babies before they're ready for it. Besides the health hazard of possibly not getting enough to eat, it makes them feel psychologically needy and insecure.

It would have been better if he wasn't clipped, but at least the clip is light enough to let him do some flying and that will be very beneficial for him. He might need to fine-tune some of his skills later on when he's fully flighted, but right now he's at the age where he needs to build up his chest muscles and learn some of the decision-making skills that go with flying. Having at least some flight skills will help him do that. He might actually build his muscles up more than average, since a clipped bird has to work harder to fly than an unclipped bird.


----------



## Babyworms (Apr 1, 2013)

Thank you so much! That makes me feel a lot better. A friend who has tiels and has handdraised three says he looks fat from the pics she's seen, and my mum keeps saying he looks scrawny from the pics (but she doesn't know anything about birds!).

He's showing a lot more interest in the food I'm putting down for him today than yesterday, so that's making me happier too. I find it hilarious that he won't eat it from the flat dish I've put it in, but if I sprinkle it on the desk (after cleaning the desk of course!) he's quite happy to forage through it. He's had a peck at some bread and some rice as well as some seed this morning so I'm feeling a bit better about the whole thing. 

The other issues I'm having is water... I've been giving him some by syringe but he doesn't like it and I'm having to hold him and strongly encourage it. I've been watering down his formula a little so that he is getting some extra fluids, but I'm still concerned about his water intake. I've tried it off the bent spoon, since he loves his food from that, but that doesn't spark his interest at all.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

If he's eating handfeeding formula he probably doesn't need any additional sources of liquids. Cockatiels are desert birds so they don't require a huge amount of water. Have a bowl of water available so he can play with it and figure out what it is, but don't expect to see him drinking it for a while. Drinking water is pretty much the last thing babies learn to do when they wean.


----------



## Babyworms (Apr 1, 2013)

Thanks again! Phew, I'm feeling better now!


----------

