Weaning and Training questions

Hello Everyone,

I have an 8 1/2 month old Blue and Gold macaw named Luna. She seems to be doing great since taking her home, I have had her about a month now and she already knew me before I took her home, as I would visit her at the store a few times a week ever since she was 4 months old. Trouble is she is still not fully weaned, she will eat a little cooked pasta and banana and will pick at her premium blend parrot mix-mainly eating the safflower seeds only and she does not eat any nuts, she will crack them and then drop the nuts. I have tried crushing them into smaller pieces and mixing them with banana but still no luck.

I am therefore wondering what else I can do to try and tempt her to eat more nuts and fresh vegetables, I put veggies on skewers but she just pulls it off and throws it everywhere. Currently I am offering her a variety of fresh veggies and fruits each day, along with pellets, seed blend, dried vegetables, nuts both in the seed and shelled, along with various other mixes from my local parrot store.

She is also taking 60cc of formula at morning and night, the store I got her from told me to reduce her feeding from 3x day to twice and said that she should be fully weaned by now.

My last question is regarding training, she knows step up and step down and will let me place her on her back for tickles on her chest, but I have not yet started clicker training with a stick because as of yet there is no treat I have found that she really likes, everything I give her she will nibble at then drop on the floor, with the exception of banana but I don't want to use that as a training treat because its not very convenient, so should I wait until she starts eating more readily and then clicker train or should I try and use praise and head scratches as a reward?

sorry about the long post, I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can to benefit her, thanks in advance for any advice you can give me

What about making a warm mash of fruits and vegetables? You can cook up some sweet potatoes and mash it, then mix in steamed carrots, bananas, maybe some almond butter, etc. Try feeding it warm and see how she takes to it. (over time, as she matures, you'll be wanting to feed cold food)



As far as training, well, you could always use her regular food???? Or and feeding formula?


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKkBZtear1s"]Training a Baby Macaw with Formula - YouTube[/ame]

I love Monica's idea with the warm mash!!

Try feeding her less than 60cc in the AM and PM, and see how she does with that.

Do you keep record of her weight? If so, decreasing her formula slowly, you can keep track to see if she's maintaining her weight. Sometimes they just need a little taste of formula to get their appetite going. I've found that a super hungry baby is less likely to eat on her own, than one that has had just a bit of food via syringe/cup (like maybe 20-30cc for Luna).

You can definitely start training now. Not everyone uses treats. Your voice (an exaggerated GOOD GIRL) may be enough reward for Luna.

I don't know much about weaning birds so no advice with that. I will say some individuals are EXTREMELY messy eaters (like above and beyond the mess level of an average bird) and she may very well be eating some of those fruit skewers (but you could never tell since most ends up on the bottom). Just keep offering until she finds some she likes and watch her carefully to see if she's actually ingesting any or just ripping it up.

As for training, you do not *have* to use a clicker. Some birds do respond much better to the consistent noise the clicker makes, but not all birds. My bird is somewhat frightened of the clicker and I personally find the noise highly irritating so we don't use one. He is well behaved and more than capable of learning without one. I also don't know that I 100% buy into the theory of marking the exact millisecond the bird does the behavior with a click is the only way they can learn the behavior or action. Parrots are highly intelligent and developmentally very similar to young children, so I prefer using methods more in line with how you would teach a toddler new concepts rather than how you'd train a (for lack of a better term) dumb animal. I have been working on trick training with my bird recently just for fun (who is not an ideal candidate for learning, as he is older/stubborn). I've found he responds *best* to being SHOWN what is expected then given the opportunity to do the action and get the reward rather than trial and error to get the reward. Basically, I "cue" myself for the intended action using a simple word, imitate the trick, then reward myself. It hasn't been taking him long to learn the new cue words (we have done "touch", and are working on "get" for retrieving things). When we first got him he was untamed and we used the same basic methodology of simple cue word, imitate action, reward ourselves then let him try to teach him basic skills such as not chewing outside his cage, eating fresh foods and coming when we called.

I'm personally not a huge fan of using food-based rewards either, as you may not always have a treat on you when your bird does something you want to encourage. We did Kiwi's "basic training" when we first got him starting with treats and then gradually phased out treats for verbal praise and kisses instead (I can always tell him he's a good boy and give him a kiss and if he's a lucky boy that day, he'll get a treat too, but not every time). I would try to do 3 "rewards" at first (verbal praise, treat and kisses or scratches or whatever touch the bird likes), then gradually drop the treat so the bird still receives 2 types of positive feedback for positive behavior. Best of luck with Luna!

Thanks for the good advice everyone! I will definitely try your tips with feeding the veggie mash and reducing the formula. I am weighing here every few days, she was at 960 when I got her home, they said to expect 10% weight loss and now she is at 830g so obviously I don't want her to lose any more weight. I will try reducing her formula and watching her weight to see if that helps improve her appetite.

Thanks also for your advice regarding training, I never thought of showing her what I want her to do and have her imitate that, what a brilliant and simple idea. she seems pretty smart, I have been taking her to her cage every 20 minutes or so and telling her to go poop and she usually does, she hardly ever poops on the floor now which is good.

again thanks for all the support everyone, much appreciated

Experiment wih the size and presentation of the food. My mac prefers his veggies cut into small bite size bits. He also likes some of the veggies softened. My budgies like bigger chunks that they can pick at, and get bigger chunks than my Mac.