Need a little guidance.. Please

Hello, my wife and I are relatively new bird parents. We adopted a Severe Macaw about a year ago and he has been doing very well.
We have just added a new baby to our flock, an Congo African Grey we call Chilee. We acquired him from a local breeder who has loads of excellent reviews, fives stars everywhere we looked. We were told he was weaned and eating pellets. But, when we got him home he didn't seem to be eating anything. We have news paper the bottom of the cage and theres no sign of him eating anything in the morning. After the first 24 hours of this I went out and bought Exacts baby bird formula. once he saw that food he dove at it and devoured it. I called the breeder and told him about our situation. He told me "I was going to spoil him... not to do that." But, I continued anyway 2x a day morning and night for about 10 days now. We offer Chilee fresh cut veggies, cooked beans and sw potato, and a couple grapes everyday.
His cage has 4 cups (1 water, 1 seed, 1pellet, 1 fresh veggies) and still the same thing he won't eat anything and is just waiting for the formula. He may just take a bite and throw the rest by shaking his head.

I forgot to mention that on the paperwork it states that his hatch date is July 18,2018 so he's 13 weeks old.

I think 13 weeks is young to expect a CAG to be fully weened.

I AM NOT AN EXPERT ABOUT YOUNG CAG.

The larger the parrot the longer the parents will be feeding it (generally speaking).

I think you are doing the right thing. When he/she is ready he/she will refuse formula.

Yikes. Your breeder absolutely force weaned that baby THANK GOD you followed your gut with the formula! Keep offering it until the baby refuses it. You will NOT spoil him!


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Thank you! I’m glad to hear I didn’t make a mistake. I know the baby could only go a couple days before starving.
I tried moistened and warmed pellets today but he’s just not interested. He did go through his whole bowl of veggies today but only to destroy them and drop them. Any suggestions?

Just keep normal bird food in his cage available at all times.
Maybe pretend to eat some of it to give him the idea it's food.
And continue with the baby bird formula.
I would keep track of his weight every day at the same time (best done in the morning before first feeding.

Weaning by abundance, you can Google, they ate more willing to experiment when. They still get ha d feeding. I hope he can watch and monkey see monkey do from you other parrot. Textsize was right in keep tract if those weights! Give that breeder a bad review and explain why. Glad you found the forum and welcome!

Because of the trauma of being force weaned he may take longer to wean but don’t worry about it. Offer lots of veggies and pellets and just let him move in his own time. Force weaning is cruel and traumatic and it will take a minute for him to recover.


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I am SO glad you reached out! I'm just plain glad you're here!

Welcome!

you done the right thing.

Thank you all! I did just read the article about weaning by abundance. I will keep on feeding and offering all types of food. We did get him to eat and enjoy some pomegranate today.

Great job!

I am not surprised, even if your baby was fully weaned already it would regress a little bit, finding itself in a new home with a new family.

I think you are doing great!
Go with your gut on this one (and give that breeder a kick in the pants from me )
Yes, some greys will wean themselves as early as 11 weeks but there are some that will not even go there till 13-14 weeks, and I think they all could do with a little bit of coddling after a lifechanging event like this.


Even my adult birds enjoyed the being fed pellets by hand (sometimes still do) after the move (or having been at the vets ec.)-- they are more than capable of feeding themselves, and I am gratefull they are too small to handle the door of the fridge!

But sometimes it's not about the food, it about someone safe&caring enough to hand you the food.