Weening and what to feed our CAG after formula

We have had our CAG for almost a year now... When we got her our breeder told us to keep feeding her the baby formula for the next year. Well that time is quickly approaching and so now we are looking into what foods are best for her going forward. After reading on this site for the last hour or so...It seems we are a little behind in weening Luna off the formula. So we are gonna start that process tomorrow. I am leaning towards a mixture of pellets, fruits and vegies, just a few nuts and seeds, and some sort of treats. Any input is welcome...thanks

Please clarify; has she not been eating solid foods at all over the last year?


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Sage, I see that you're on your phone and may not have access to documents and links? I'm taking the liberty of offering your thread on this subject while you're waiting for a reply to your question above. I've never heard of a juvenile bird on formula for a year,so I'll have to defer.

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

I'm glad you're reaching out, Jim.

I'm so sorry that the breeder gave you horrible information, I can't imagine why a CAG breeder would tell you to wait until the bird was a year old to start weaning him, but normally CAG's wean around 12-14 weeks old...

to be paranoia-parrot here: maybe the bird has crop/ digestive problems and cannot eat solid foods and they were not supposed to find out?



I would just offer the grey the pellets and greens etc, en let the inborn curiosity take over before doing drastic things like force-weaning.
(and of course if the bird has not been tested and thoughly checked bij a CAV -> do that first!)

When I weaned my senegal I started offering her a variety of fresh veggies, a little fruit, pellets, beans, grains and a tiny bit of seed while still continuing to give her the formula until she no longer wanted it. I started that process around 7 weeks, however, and she was fully weaned around 14 weeks. I can't imagine feeding her nothing but formula for a year, that's a big baby you have there. I imagine the process would be the same even though your bird is way over age, but I would take her to a avian vet just to make sure there are no health problems from feeding only formula for that long.

Ok...let me clarify, Luna has had some solid foods in her bowls...we give her a mix of seeds...some fruit and veggies...and some of the Zupreem fruit blend pellets. But we have been feeding her formula twice a day, sometimes we give her baby food or a mashed up fruit like homemade apple sauce in place of one of her feedings.

Oh ok, I was picturing her being fed formula three times a day with a syringe like a baby lol. It sounds like what you're feeding her is good. You can leave her pellets out all day, offer her lots of veggies cut up in all different sizes from mashed to big pieces, and a little fruit and seed. As long as she's eating good than you can probably cut down to one formula feeding at night just to comfort her and then eventually all together.

You could also make chop for her which is an assortment of veggies, fruit, grains, and beans. I think there are some recipes here. Its a good way to get them to eat a variety of healthy stuff.

Ok....I will look up some recipes and see what she likes....thanks Sandy

Greys are supposed to love their routine ... so maybe the feeding is just a ritual, not a need?

If you want to stop that, just go like any other weaning bird: start weighing.
Once you find out your bird keeps the same weight (more or less) you know the feeds are "just for fun" and she does just fine on her own.

Just keep the syringe-munchies coming once in a while!
It is oh so handy if she ever needs medication and will just accept anything from a syringe in her beak!

so a syringe with a snack every blue monday - great to keep in the routine.

With all due respect, you're missing the point...your Grey at a year-old shouldn't be eating any hand-feeding formula at all, he should have been fully-weaned 9 months ago...It's one thing to feed an adult bird hand-feeding formula when they are sick or can't eat solid food for some reason, but your bird is a year-old and is not yet weaned-off of hand-feeding formula...

Just so that everyone, mostly the OP knows, this is extremely dangerous for the Grey's health, but mostly his psychological and behavioral health. First off, his body is a year old but you're feeding him the heavy nutrition that a baby needs, so you're feeding him ten times the calories, protein, fat, etc. that he should be eating, so that's not good for his physical health...

However, parrots that do not Abundance-Wean around the correct age usually suffer from serious neurological issues, usually they become "perpetual babies", meaning that your bird will never shed his baby-like behaviors, be clingy and needy, beg for you to hand feed him, etc. for the rest of his life.

You need to find a Certified Avian Vet and make an appointment, and let them instruct you step- by-step on how to properly Abundance-Wean your Grey, because it's not going to be as easy as described above with a normal baby parrot at all. At this point he's been hand-fed for the entire first year of his life, and he's not going to give that up any time soon...And it's the action of you hand-feeding him that he won't give up, not the formula...But you need to get him fully weaned onto ONLY solid food soon, because the hand-feeding formula is made for developing babies and contains tons of calories, protein, fat, etc. that his body doesn't need, and he's now at extreme risk for obesity,
fatty liver disease, diabetes, gout and other kidney diseases, etc.

This is a very serious problem you have, please take it as such, because we're talking about your bird having been fed this for 9 months too long, and again, besides his physical health, fully weaning him EVER is going to be an extremely difficult task, and you're going to need professional help doing so...

whoops, great catch from Ellen again: of course with "munchies" I do not mean "keep feeding formula"- just some snack-like substance (diltuted fruitjuice f.e. -> be carefull it is a lot thinner than water and goes down 'the wrong pipe' even faster)

I am glad I got on this site....we have already started trying to ween her...we will look for a certified avian vet...but living in rural Montana this will mean a long drive....possibly 8 hrs or more. Out of all the vets in our area only one even sees birds....lol. I am hoping that this will not be as hard as you say....Luna has always had seeds...fruits and veggies..and pellets in her cage to munch on...but we have always taken her out for the formula at least once a day....usually at night.

As we are learning what to feed Luna now...what foods do we need to stay away from...we have been told that lettuce, cabbage and avocados are foods that we need to avoid...is there anything else we need to stay away from?
Thanks again for all the help everyone. We really do appreciate it.