Update on Millie

[newbaby]

Firstly, Millie is happy and healthy. So that’s obviously fantastic!

But when this buribie eat food?!?

Millie is now 16 weeks and 1 day old and shows ZERO interest in eating anything that isn’t spoon fed to her. She won’t even pick food items up. If I don’t put the food in her beak, she has ZERO interest in it. If the food I place in her beak won’t just flow down her throat, she just kind of mushes it around and spits it out the sides.

I’ve tried lots of different fruit and veggies. Brown rice. Plain Cheerios even. She won’t even pick them up. Even if I sit there eating them with her, she has no interest.

Maybe this is my fault? I was feeding Millie on a schedule so she was getting three 50ml ish formula meals per day. I didn’t wait for her to “ask” for it. About five days ago, I cut the middle meal out to see if she would ask for it. She didn’t. So she’s been getting only two meals a day now for the last fives days. I increased the formal amount. So before it was 3 TBSPs of water to 1 TBSP of formula. Now it’s 3 TBSPs of water to 1 TBSP formula + another 1/2 tsp formula + 1tsp powdered pellets. So she’s eating around the same volume of food, but it’s thicker and now contains powdered pellets. She eats this twice a day and after the second meal, she still wants more, so I make a pellet mash for her, but I still have to spoon feed this to her. She won’t just eat it herself.

Her weights are holding steady. But I don’t think she’s eating anything from her food dishes as her crop feels completely empty by the time I feed her the second meal.

Will this ever get better? Lol. Or will I be hand feeding her for the rest of my life?

 

[clark_conure]

applesauce? then introduce an apple? I'm sorry all mine are gluttons so IDK. Baby food jars, then remove over time or put seeds on top of them? just spit balling here, Just an idea that maybe prompts a better idea.

 

[rheashard2]

I don't know if I missed it. But what is Millie? The species is a factor in weaning.

 

[newbaby]

I don't know if I missed it. But what is Millie? The species is a factor in weaning.

Sorry! Millie is a CAG.

 

[newbaby]

applesauce? then introduce an apple? I'm sorry all mine are gluttons so IDK. Baby food jars, then remove over time or put seeds on top of them? just spit balling here, Just an idea that maybe prompts a better idea.

I’ve tried apple sauce and apples and a bunch of other fruits. She’ll eat it if I put it in her mouth, but she makes no attempt to pick food up herself and eat it herself.

 

[rheashard2]

Well congratulations. I am currently owned by a 21 year old CAG. Had her since just under 4 months. Millie is at the age at to show interest. But babies progress at their own pace. They eat amounts at their preferences. Nameless since young never had a 'full' crop. Her weight has been stable. It took a while before I learned what her normal wtg was. If you're planning on feeding pellets, crush a few in her feeding so she'll learn the taste. Is she actively asking to be fed? Take your time. She's at the cusp for weaning. Congratulations on your baby girl and please post a picture. I'm up early because my CAG owner decided she wanted up and breakfast two hours early. Fortunately that's not common.

 

[newbaby]

Well congratulations. I am currently owned by a 21 year old CAG. Had her since just under 4 months. Millie is at the age at to show interest. But babies progress at their own pace. They eat amounts at their preferences. Nameless since young never had a 'full' crop. Her weight has been stable. It took a while before I learned what her normal wtg was. If you're planning on feeding pellets, crush a few in her feeding so she'll learn the taste. Is she actively asking to be fed? Take your time. She's at the cusp for weaning. Congratulations on your baby girl and please post a picture. I'm up early because my CAG owner decided she wanted up and breakfast two hours early. Fortunately that's not common.

She asks to be fed if I don’t give her the afternoon meal. She will ask in the morning and then again in the evening. She’s been slowly gaining weight since losing quite a bit before fledging. She’s almost back to the weight she was a month ago. Ill just keep ordering her food and pray to the raptor gods that someday she has an interest in it.

 

[rheashard2]

Got the beak her breakfast chop. For Millie try small pieces of bird safe fruit and veggies. Use a variety of colors and texture. Have the size about a pea. Even mouthing it is good. She's gonna get a taste and learn. Feed foods you're willing to eat to avoid waste. I used to hate broccoli. Now we both love it. Allow her to see you eat the new foods. Parrots are flock critters. They'll be more willing especially when young to try new foods. From observing my CAG, she crunches her pellets and veggies. Some seems to fall out. I think it's more that she's eating from outside or edge inward. Not popping in in her mouth like a person does. On appearance it looks like waste. In the wild that action scatters seeds. There may be a video on YouTube or similar that shows normal eating action to help you out. Has she seen an avian vet? That's something strongly recommended. If you don't have one check here. Again welcome.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I had to laugh when I read your last sentence about hand feeding her for the rest of her life because I had the same concern when I hand raised a budgie, Tiki, last summer. Budgies usually wean at 6 to 8 weeks but Tiki was still hand feeding at 12 weeks! I asked my avian vet about it and I was doing everything he suggested- always having a wide selection of nutritious foods available for him to sample but he still begged and got excited when he thought I was preparing his formula. Just going into the fridge got him going! He was fully fledged and playing with the adult birds between hand feedings. The vet assured me that Tiki would stop handfeeding when he was ready. And he did, at about 14 weeks. I added tiny pellets to his formula to get him used to solid food and he enjoyed the crunches. A CAG may take twice as long to wean as a budgie, so hand feeding at 4 months doesn't sound too alarming to me. Hand fed birds can wean quite a bit later than parent raised birds because parents teach their babies to eat adult foods.

I agree with eating foods in front of Millie. Tiki had other birds to learn from and Millie will have to learn from you. Hand fed baby birds do wean at their own pace and as they mature they will naturally mature out of their baby behavior, including begging posture, which may continue for a while after they wean.
You will also notice now that Millie is almost fully grown that the amount she eats during and after weaning is much less than while she was growing. Growth requires a lot of nutritious food- much more than a mature bird needs. It can be worrying if you notice Millie eating so much less but that's normal unless the bird appears sick.

Millie will wean. I promise you!