3.5 months old Cockatiels not eating

[waltee1000]

Hi,

I bought 2 three month old cockatiels from a pet expo and relasised that they look a bit underweight. The guy selling them told me that they were just weaned from hand feeding and eat on thier own. However I have noticed that they don't eat much. I even tried spray millet they nibbled like for a 30 sec and they were done. I have noticed that they come to door of the cage whenever I walk near them. However they don't receive anything from my hand but want to come out and walk.

Till now I have tried. Spray millet, chorp, seed mix. Any idea to help them to better?

Thanks

 

[ParrotGenie]

Hi,

I bought 2 three month old cockatiels from a pet expo and relasised that they look a bit underweight. The guy selling them told me that they were just weaned from hand feeding and eat on thier own. However I have noticed that they don't eat much. I even tried spray millet they nibbled like for a 30 sec and they were done. I have noticed that they come to door of the cage whenever I walk near them. However they don't receive anything from my hand but want to come out and walk.

Till now I have tried. Spray millet, chorp, seed mix. Any idea to help them to better?

Thanks

Depend on how long you had them. It not unusual for a bird not to eat for the first couple of days, when you just bought them home. Two of my cockatiels it took them about 3 days before I started to notice them eating when I bought them home. They would drink water, but do the same and nibble at the food. After 3 days they eat everything in the bowl and made a mess. With my male U2 I had to eat the food and then he started eating it.

They have to adjust and get use to environment. I would also ask what he was feeding them. It best to feed them what they were use to for a while and then slowly switch them over to new diet.

3.5 months they sure be fully weaned already?

 

[waltee1000]

I just bought them yesterday. Yes I saw them drink water and later in the day eat a little spray millet.. he said they were just fully weaned few days before. I was planning to offer then oat meal to get their weight in order.

 

[ravvlet]

I have been told it’s not uncommon for them to regress on weaning when stressed. 3 days seems really insufficient. We had a similar issue when we brought home our tiel - we had a lot of success with offering him hand feeding formula prepared a bit more thickly than normal and offered in a dish alongside his regular food.

 

[itzjbean]

It's totally normal for parrots to take 2-3 days before eating so nothing to worry about, give them space to adjust and he should pick up eating. My birds love cornbread muffins with chopped up veggies inside (jalapenos a favorite for my cockatiels) and they love it served warm.