A knowledgeable breeder should already know and offer a bunch of different foods and wean by Abundance. My Quaker breeder offered the babies the soft pellets, regular pellets, seed mix and different veggies and fruits , all bwhike still being hand feed formula, they weaned themselves at six weeks much to our suprise. My breeder really did a great job, when. I went to get him it was over three hour drive I had her show me he was eating and what he was eating, and then wanted to see he was refusing the syringe feeding, before I would talk him. She had been sharing videos and pictures, but I wanted to be sure as I was getting him several weeks earlier than we thought. He did great when I took him home never begged or backslide, ate everything and still does. They had seeds and pellets all day long , and soaked pellet and chop twice a day, even while still receiving three feedings a day. That weaning by Abundance. You don't want to take him home till he can eat on his own with no hand feedings. Then we can hear all about your healthy happy new family member!
The situation with the OP's baby bird and the pet shop owner who is it's "breeder" is terrible and well-documented...The OP is trying to do everything he can for this baby bird, but it's already been seriously ill with a URI and the owner simply administered Baytril to it himself, and the likelihood of this baby suffering from serious neurological issues due to bad breeding and weaning practices is extremely high. So the OP has been basically trying to do the job that the baby's "breeder", and I use that term loosely, should be doing, however he has no idea what he's doing in the first place and shouldn't be breeding any birds at all. But there's not much that can be done at this point except to keep trying to help the baby...That's why this OP has no idea when his bird is going to be fully weaned; this baby is far, far, far behind in the weaning process already, and if I remember correctly the pet shop owner told the OP that this Golden Conure baby would not be fully weaned until around 20 weeks old or older, which is ridiculous. But the OP didn't know any better, nor should he have, he's not the breeder...it's just a sad situation all the way around...
As far as weaning him, at his age he should have learned to eat seeds weeks ago, and he is very far behind. So I don't at all recommend trying to replace either his seeds or pellets with anything else, because he absolutely must learn to eat them...
To give you an idea, most baby birds, regardless of the species, will readily be able to properly eat large amounts of seed while they are still in the nest-box and well before their feather are grown-in. Most breeders will start out by putting millet sprays in the nest-box or the Brooder when the babies are only 5-6 weeks old, and the babies will be eating entire sprays of millet on their own with no trouble at that age. Then they move on to pellets...The fact that your baby cannot even eat seeds at all yet, at his age (what is he, 14-15 weeks old now? Older?) is unfortunately a pretty good indication of the amount of neurological damage he's already suffering from...I really didn't think it was quite this bad, but if his age is what I think it is, around 15 weeks give or take, he's really got some serious neurological issues...I'm sorry you're having to deal with this situation, I give you credit for sticking with him this long...but you need to really prepare yourself for what you're going to be dealing with...I'd love to live near you so I could go to this pet shop and find that owner who thinks he's a bird breeder...
For now, you need to keep encouraging him to learn to properly eat seeds...I wouldn't start taking the seeds and pellets away or replacing them with "soft foods", as seeds ARE soft foods to birds...Think about this from this perspective: a 4-5 week-old little Budgie can devour an entire millet spray by himself in a day or two...That's what you're dealing with...So you need to keep trying to get him to learn to properly eat seeds for now...
****This bird is being set-up to suffer from horrible malnutrition and under-nutrition/nutritional deficiency issues, either that or he's not coming off of the hand-feeding formula any time in the near future...He cannot survive on "soft foods" like veggies and fruits, for them to wean off of the hand-feeding formula they must be eating a dietary "Staple", either a seed-mix or pellets. The veggies and fruit are simply supplement, they contain no protein, so the bird cannot live on them...Therefore, if this baby at 15 weeks old give or take is still not able to even eat seeds, then there is no way he can come-off of the hand-feeding formula, he'll die of malnutrition/starvation...
I have seen this happen a few times with people who have made the horrible decision to buy unweaned baby parrots to save money. They get the baby bird home and they have been so horribly bred/hand-raised that they literally CANNOT EAT anything but liquid formula...I personally experienced this with a 6 month old Greenwing Macaw that was eating nothing but hand-feeding formula; a friend of mine made a stupid decision and brought him home when he was not at all weaned, but was already way past the age where he should have been fully weaned; this baby hadn't even learned to eat a seed, a nut, a pellet, nothing, and should have been fully-weaned based on his age...The exact same situation that your baby is in right now...And my friend kept trying so hard to get him to wean that he started reducing the amount of formula he was feeding him, and basically started to inadvertently "Force Wean" this baby Macaw that was long past the age where he should have long been fully abundance-weaned...My friend spent the price of a new car on Avian Vet bills, hospital stays, tube feedings, an actual feeding tube, etc. But eventually what happened was the bird no longer wanted to eat formula, but physically could not eat any staple foods like pellets or seeds...He died of starvation/malnutrition (he had no muscle mass at all) at just shy of 8 months old...My friend spent $1,700 on the Macaw, and almost $12,000 in Avian Vet and hospital bills trying to save him; they even called-in an Avian Behavioral Specialist...But that poor little guy had such severe neurological and psychological issues that it just stopped eating all together...
***You have to keep trying to encourage him to eat seeds and pellets. You can add some fresh veggies/fruit along with them, maybe him just being able to eat ANY solid food will encourage him to do better with the seeds and the pellets...try soaking the pellets in some fruit juice, and feeding him one pellet at a time, so he's not overwhelmed...
But you need to make sure that whomever is the person hand-feeding him the formula that they DO NOT REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF FORMULA HE'S GETTING! That needs to be up to the bird and the bird only, and if he's eating basically no solid food and they start reducing his formula, not only is that Force-Weaning him, but it's not going to end well, as he will start starving to death....I can't believe that you even have to have anything to do with his feeding/weaning...I'm so sorry..
***
Is he being weighed every single day??? If not, he needs to be, every single day, at the same time of day, preferably first thing in the morning BEFORE he's given his first formula feeding. And it should be written down with the date and time. Because if he starts to lose weight then you've got an emergency...Babies tend to lose a good bit of weight right around the time they Fledge, and unfortunately your baby is close to that time, and that could really be bad for him health-wise...Also, do you know how many feedings a day he is getting right now, and how much formula he is actually eating per feeding?
