New baby weaning taking a loong time

Rook

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Parrots
Xera-Green Cheek Conure Jax-Amazon
Gemma - Jenday Conure (FIP)
So my wife and I purchased a baby about three weeks ago from a pet store. We have been religiously driving to the store every evening after work since then spending time with him while we wait for him to get off formula. He is going into his seventeenth week and is still really dependent. From all I've read (ALOT of reading lol) it seems that normal weening is between 12to 16 weeks. Do we need to worry? We try everytime we visit to bring new things for him to try and sometimes he does well...other times not so much. We're being patient but are nervous that the shop may not be doing things the way it should be. Are we over-worrying and it's just a waiting game? We're just so anxious for him to join us. Sorry for the long post.
 
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ooohh, doh, this is in the amazon section! Sorry, ignore that!
 
How many feedings is he on each day and how many cc's per feeding? 17 weeks is getting up there, but better that the store let him wean at his own pace rather than force him. If he's still taking 3-4 meals a day at 40+cc's then its time to worry. If he's only taking 1-3 small feedings a day and otherwise eating some adult food, then he might just be slow. Or perhaps he's younger than the shop realizes. Sometimes exact hatchdates don't get passed to the shop owners or the exact age gets forgotten when your dealing with the middleman rather than direct from the breeder.
 
I can't give you exact cc's because they've been talking more in 'syringe' than cc to us. There was a period of a few days where they said he was doing quite well (just a small amount in the mornings) and then we came in one evening and they said he 'relapsed' and won't do anything but beg for the formula. That night she fed him while i held him and she fed him three full syringes. He's been back to that three times a day ever since. I question the food they have out for him as it's a mix that is made up largely of sunflower seeds. Basically it's the mix that we treat our conures to rather than a main meal. We have been dropping pellets in his dish when we go and we can generally get him to eat them while we're there but only out of our fingers.

The way they explained it is that they keep feeding him one syringe after the other until he turns away. Is that generally the way it works?
 
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Welcome to the forum :)

They do normally turn away from the formula when they have had enough, but by 17 weeks he should have been introduced to soft foods and fruit by now as well as formula! Have you noticed them offering this to him as well?
My Zon was fully weaned by 12 Weeks of age!
 
No we've not seen anything save the seed mix. We've taken him in some grapes to see if he would eat on them and he didn't have any interest. He seems to really like these sweet potato biscuit treats so we were wondering if maybe taking him some sweet potatoes might be an idea. We also don't want to make any mistakes by thinking we're helping him and instead we're introducing the wrong foods.
 
Sweet Potato is fine! Any type of fruit or Veg, apart from Avacado!!

Ask them when you go in, why he hasn't been introduced to other foods yet!
 
Will do! One more question if you don't mind...is it best to just leave the foods we take in in his bowl or is it alright for us to try to gently coax him with them?
 
I would just leave the food you take, in the bowls with him! This way, he will be tempted to try it for himself :)
 
Will do! Thanks so much for the help. Have great morning!
 
I can't give you exact cc's because they've been talking more in 'syringe' than cc to us. There was a period of a few days where they said he was doing quite well (just a small amount in the mornings) and then we came in one evening and they said he 'relapsed' and won't do anything but beg for the formula. That night she fed him while i held him and she fed him three full syringes. He's been back to that three times a day ever since. I question the food they have out for him as it's a mix that is made up largely of sunflower seeds. Basically it's the mix that we treat our conures to rather than a main meal. We have been dropping pellets in his dish when we go and we can generally get him to eat them while we're there but only out of our fingers.

The way they explained it is that they keep feeding him one syringe after the other until he turns away. Is that generally the way it works?

Hi Rook, i am guessing your bub is the only bub they are rearing at this time. That could be the reason for the delay in weaning. However they should be helping him along the way to independence by offering a variety of soft foods chopped up into small cubes. Fresh fruit & veggies, some sprouts. He really should be having 1 formula feed a day & i would suggest around late afternoon or dusk. Just before they settle down for the night.
 
My baby zon is doing great the breeder is weaning her now and she's climbing around a cage I should have her by the end of this month
 
Hi Rook, i am guessing your bub is the only bub they are rearing at this time. That could be the reason for the delay in weaning. However they should be helping him along the way to independence by offering a variety of soft foods chopped up into small cubes. Fresh fruit & veggies, some sprouts. He really should be having 1 formula feed a day & i would suggest around late afternoon or dusk. Just before they settle down for the night.

Right now they are working with Jacks (our amazon) a blue and gold macaw (about the same age, that seems to be doing better than Jacks) and five newly hatched suns. We have not been seeing any change in the food offered since day one which is why we were becoming concerned. The attendent seems knowledgable and confident enough but because of our own inexperience in the process we questioned the diet choice. We live about 30 minutes away so we don't usually get to be with him until after his last feeding and are having a hard time introducing what we bring in probably because of the time. Would it be out of our place to bring in some soft foods for them to offer him the next day? Are we just being obsessive parents?
 
I don't think it's out of place. The store/breeder allowed me to bring in fruits/veggies of my choice for the Jardine's we were going to get. They didn't have any issue with it. The worst that they can say is no!
 
I dont think you are being out of place at all by taking in your choice of food for him!
 
Great....thanks everyone! We're getting ready to go see him now. Weekends are awesome...we can visit twice a day!
 
Keep in mind if you bring veggies and leave them in his cage, they might not get cleaned out of the bowl until the employees feel like it. Ask the employees if you leave sweet potato in the bowl, how long it will be before it is removed and the bowl cleaned. Otherwise, it could be in there for quite a while growing bacteria. You might even mention your concern abut bacterial growth in the soft food so they know its important not to just give the oppropriate answers which is of course we clean the bowls every day when really they may or may not depending on how good the store is. Some places only feed dry food because then you don't have to clean the bowls so often since it doesn't grow bacteria as fast.

Ask them how many cc's are in a syringe. It could just be that he relapsed because he got a little insecure about something or maybe they were late with the seed refill one day or changed brands of food. Sometimes babies relapse and hang on to the formula because they have a subclinical bacterial infection. If he doesn't drop back down to just a few cc's here and there pretty soon, a vet check might be in order. Babies do normally go back and forth at the tail end of weaning. It can sometimes take a few weeks to finish it up where they go from not wanting any formula one day, to "please feed me because I'm starving and desperate" the next. Especially if they aren't offering any warm or mashy veggies to help the baby transition from formula. And yes, normally you feed them until they stop asking for it. Although personally if I have a chick that just seems to be hanging on to a feeding for no apparent reason but is otherwise eating on its own good, I'd start to slowly reduce the amount offered and give him a bunch of warm veggies right after the formula to teach him to eat on his own to make the hungry feeling go away. Thats just what I do. Petstores don't always want to mess around with that though.
 
Congrats on your new baby! We got our YNA last week. We thought we were going to get him sooner but he was still getting 5-10 cc of formula a day and also getting a mix of fresh fruits, vegetables and pellets. We picked him up last week and he is completely weaned. He was 18 weeks. I actually posted on here recently close to the same question. Got a lot of good responses. But I was concerned too about the age thing. Good luck!
 

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