# Do parent tiels "force-wean"?



## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

I was just wondering, because my pair stopped feeding their babies come weaning time. The older ones (at around 6-6 1/2 weeks old), no matter how much they begged their parents, were ignored, while the younger ones were fed occasionally for a few seconds and then ignored again. The parents went as far as to hide from their babies by flying to "hidden" locations . This was my pairs and my first clutch, so I don't know if what they did was bad or not.

All the babies grew up healthy and active, but is the way the parents wean, similar to what is called "force weaning"?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The parents should still be feeding the babies. Since they've stopped doing it, it would be best if you try to introduce the babies to handfeeding formula on a spoon (they're too old to be interested in syringe feeding). It's easy to chug down and it's warm just like Mom and Dad's home cooking. It could be a challenge getting the babies to accept it, but if they are hungry and can figure out that it's food, they'll go for it. Keep a close eye on their weight to make sure they aren't getting too thin.


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

The babies are all grown up now and most are in new homes already. So I'm guessing that what my pair did was wrong?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The babies obviously survived so I can't say it was completely wrong. But parents don't usually cut off the babies at a young age like this; they usually keep feeding the babies as long as the babies beg for it, and it's more common to have a parent bird who's frustrated because it wants to feed the chick but the chick isn't interested.

If you decide to have another clutch, you might want to start introducing the babies to handfeeding formula while they're still in the nest. Then if the parents decide to stop feeding the chicks before the chicks are ready, you'll be able to step in and fill the need.


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

Thank you! That's good to know. I had no idea they were doing the whole weaning thing wrong.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

My hens would start ignoring the babies but the males didn't so yes that's definitely strange. It was their first clutch right?


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

Yes it was their first clutch.

My female would only feed the whiteface lutino babies, as they were the youngest (about 6 weeks in comparison to their brothers 6 1/2 weeks). She tried to feed the cinnamon babies but they wouldn't accept from her a lot of the time, instead they would beg from my normal grey male and he would ignore them. They stopped begging about a week after all the ignoring started though. 

Lol maybe my pair is just weird.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Well its the dad's responsibility to take more care of the babies once they leave the nest, the mom isn't as maternal as the dad's are. So it could just be that it was their first time and they were unsure what to do.

A thought just occurred to me...were the parents handfed or parent fed? If handfed, they may have been weaned early, and thus have been trained to think that 6 weeks is when a baby weans. Birds learn from their parents what to do correctly so that may be the case here.


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

Both parents were hand fed. I think that may be the case here! Thank you for your help. Next time, if there is one, I'll make sure to introduce hand feeding formula when the babies still in the box.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> If handfed, they may have been weaned early, and thus have been trained to think that 6 weeks is when a baby weans.


Or they might think that the babies are supposed to disappear before they're weaned. I've heard of parent birds that always had their babies pulled at 2 or 3 weeks not knowing what to do when the babies were left in the nest longer than that.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

tielfan said:


> Or they might think that the babies are supposed to disappear before they're weaned. I've heard of parent birds that always had their babies pulled at 2 or 3 weeks not knowing what to do when the babies were left in the nest longer than that.


This thread has me really interested, especially your post. If a first clutch of babies are pulled at 2-3 weeks old, and the parents have another clutch, but this time they are to raise the babies, are they going to have any clue once this second clutch reaches 2-3 weeks old since the first lot were pulled at this age? I guess this is probably an obvious reason why you should check babies are being fed, so maybe that was a silly question.


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

This pair raised their first clutch by themselves, so I don't think they thought the babies were supposed to be gone at 6 weeks. I would place my bet on them having been weaned at 6 weeks, at least my male. My female kept feeding a little into the 7th week, which was when the babies stopped begging.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> This thread has me really interested, especially your post. If a first clutch of babies are pulled at 2-3 weeks old, and the parents have another clutch, but this time they are to raise the babies, are they going to have any clue once this second clutch reaches 2-3 weeks old since the first lot were pulled at this age?


I've mostly heard of it being a problem when a pair has had several clutches and the breeder always pulled the babies at a certain time. I'm not sure that pulling the babies just once would train the pair to think they're supposed to disappear at that age. Wild birds can lose their babies to predators at any time, and having it happen just once wouldn't necessarily send the message that this is the normal pattern. But a lot of breeding behavior is learned, so it's possible that pulling the babies once would teach them to expect it in the future. The bird doesn't really view the owner as a predator after all.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> This thread has me really interested, especially your post. If a first clutch of babies are pulled at 2-3 weeks old, and the parents have another clutch, but this time they are to raise the babies, are they going to have any clue once this second clutch reaches 2-3 weeks old since the first lot were pulled at this age? I guess this is probably an obvious reason why you should check babies are being fed, so maybe that was a silly question.


Not a silly question at all!! That can happen, since the parents didn't have to feed the first round of babies further than 2-3 weeks they may expect the babies to disappear around that time and may stop feeding them because in their minds the babies aren't supposed to be there.


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