Weaning Advice

Hi everyone,

I’ve been going through a journey with my conures that bred and we have three beautiful little babies hatched. I’ve been learning as I go with this experience and they are being parent raised. I have not interfered at all and only interact with the babies by taking them out to handle them for some time every day.

They are doing really well but today I noticed a few things and would like some advice on what to do next. The eldest baby who is almost 3 weeks old is starting to peek over the hole of his nest to look around on the outside. He’s getting really curious of the outside world. First concern with this is whether or not we should be placing a perch closer to the nest entry so when he does come out he has somewhere to stand.

My second question is about when I should start offering them veggies and other solid food when they are outside. I noticed the eldest baby is starting to nibble on things and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s just curious and exploring things with his mouth or if it’s because he’s going to start being weaned soon by his parents.

Here’s a picture of him from today just in case seeing how old and big he looks helps with that question. If he can start weaning soon that would be amazing it would give a bit of a break to the parents who are working really hard.

Thank you

I have no advice but he’s so stinking cute I want to eat him up!


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Inger said:

I have no advice but he’s so stinking cute I want to eat him up!


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I second that!!! Cute cute cute!

I'm no expert on this subject. Here's the most relevant reference I can offer, from our expert SilverSage... thanks, dearest Dani!

http://www.parrotforums.com/breeding-raising-parrots/74363-so-you-bought-unweaned-baby.html

Hi!
So a lot will be different from the usual advice since your babies are parent raised.

1) placing a perch near the box is fine, but don’t be surprised if the babies end up on the floor of the cage anyway.

2) the parents should be having access to veggies, etc daily, right? The babies will follow along when they are ready. DO NOT place food inside the box.


3) NO he is not even CLOSE to weaning! He will wean around 8 weeks, maybe later. It will be LOOOONG after he looks like an adult bird, can fly, and eats most of his food on his own. DO NOT remove them from the parents until the parents stop feeding them! Even if they are eating everything in sight they NEED the emotional security of being fed by their parents and taking that too early, similarly to clipping their wings before they are about 6 months old, can basically hardware insecurity into them. Basically causing them to bite first and ask questions later, scream, self mutilate, etc. I hope you are seeing how important it is to let them abundance wean and fully fledge.

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Yes! The parents do have access to that daily along with other different foods and their water bowls of course. I was just wondering if I should have a dish outside when we are handling them with some stuff in it in case they start nibbling from there.

I guess my other question then would be that my conures set up is like... I mean they have a huge cage so I have a lot of their perches really high and I think the nest box opening is at least 8 inches away from the ground... I'm worried they will get hurt with a fall like that when they come out.. we can move it lower to the ground floor, should I do this?

8-12 inches is fine

You can always allow them to try playing with veggies, etc but don’t worry if they are interested.


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I didn't notice your reply had been edited! Thanks for that info since I know absolutely nothing and going as we... Well go it's good to know the time frames of when they should be moving on to the next phase. I won't be putting any food in their box no worries

Having some time frames helps me a lot because I'm tracking their growth and weight and how old they are on a planner. We won't be removing them from the parents until they are fully fledge as well. As hands off as I can be with them is better for me and my conures are being excellent parents so I'm happy. I just wanna be prepared in case anything happens.

SilverSage to the rescue!

Sage at it with the Sage advice!

I'm gonna throw this out there cause it made me laugh to myself. For some unknown reason I thought during your initial post about these guys you had budgies having babies! I was so thrown off to see Conure babies, thinking to myself "what happened to the budgies though?"