Almost-weaned baby for sale?

[Angiie]

Hello!

I'm kinda confused right now. A breeder near me is selling a 13 week old Umbrella Cockatoo, which is on about 1 feeding a day, and she told me by the end of the week, she'll be feeding off a spoon since she's starting not to accept the syringe.

Okay, so, by the end of this week, I'm going to be taking a visit. Do I wait until the bird is fully weaned, or do I buy her and take care of the spoon-feeding? There's no difference in price, and I'm pretty sure a strong bond can form if I get her a little late. I'm not worried about that. The breeder said she would help me with the spoon feeding, and give me some tips.

Is 13-14 weeks too early for an Umbrella Cockatoo to be so close to ending weaning? Or is this normal? Is the baby a good age to be taken in without worry of death?

I'm not trying to attack the breeder, she's actually very nice and she takes great care of her birds. I'm just a bit new to the idea of hand-feeding, although I've handfed newborn kittens and bunnies.

 

[SilverSage]

That's even early for a small bird like a Ringneck to be almost weaned. Huge red flag.

Also never ever buy unweaned; the bond is not any stronger (I promise this) and the risks are much higher, but you also don't want to buy force weaned.


As long as this breeder is telling the truth that the feedings have been cut down due to the bird REFUSING formula, then it isn't a huge deal. I would ask how long they expect the bird to be on one feeding per day.


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[Angiie]

Thank you for the post! She told me she'd stop the handfeeding the baby once a day, once the baby would no longer take it

 

[SilverSage]

That's what you want to hear!


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[MrsBigE]

I didn't get to bring my U2 home until he was 7 months old and even then I still gave him a comfort feeding from the syringe daily for an add'l month.
To begin the bond with him I started visitation with him at about 2.5 months. He still lived with the breeders family but she'd bring him to the store so I could visit.
With him living amongst her family he learned a lot. He came home independent and able to occupy himself in or out of the cage, he's living and trusting and for the most part very well behaved.
There are a lot of experienced Too folks here and my only experience is with Bambam but I feel if I would've brought him home any earlier he would've missed a wealth of growth opportunities and that my breeder really did a great job getting him to a point where we could bring him home and really just pick up where her family left off.
I'd do a lot of reading before bringing her home do soon.