3 week old parrotlet

[Barbrawr]

Tomorrow I am bringing home a 3 week old Pacific male parrotlet. I have a 2 year old female and was wanting some ideas on what would supplement the formula best. I have heard egg supplements and millet. But I also heard not to give millet until they're weaned. At what age are cuttle bones ok to give. Help me out guys!!

 

[ShellyBorg]

Have you ever hand fed before? This is a lot of work and you have to be 100% clean in your equipment and spot on with your temps. For you question. You can start offering solid foods as soon as you like. It will be more of a toy to begin with, but some will end up in the bird.

 

[Kinny]

I agree with ShellyBorg. Hand-feeding a baby bird is a lot of work.
You have to sterilize all your equipment (spoon/syringe etc) and also keep yourself 100% clean.

The temperature of the hand-rearing formula MUST be perfect.

You will most likely have to get up in the middle of the night to feed the bird.

You have to keep it in a warm room/exceptional incubator, and the temperatures MUST be right.

If you are not an experienced hand-feeder, it can be all too easy to actually kill your bird by hand-feeding improperly. Some of the food can go down the wrong way, it can suffocate, so many issues can arise from hand-feeding. Even with experienced hand-raisers problems can arise.

I would not recommend hand-feeding a bird yourself unless you have good experience.

I never add anything to the hand-rearing formulas i use/used (Kaytee Exact or Vetafarm Neocare). Unless a particular bird is in dire need of an addition.

Also, with formula, the water/formula mix needs to be perfect. Not enough water can cause the formula to become like cement in the birds crop (which causes many many life-threatening issues), if you have too much water, the bird won't get the nutrients it needs, and may develop diarrhoea.

I cannot stress to you enough just how much can go wrong. Not trying to scare you or be mean at all. I just feel very strongly about hand-raising birds if you don't know what you're doing. ^^

Also, cuttlebones/millet sprays can be given at any age really. I give my parrots millet sprays etc. around 4-5 weeks old so they can nibble and play with it. They eventually learn, "Oh hey! I can EAT this!! :O"

~Kinny