Hello, a breeder recently sold me a 5 almost 6 week now old quaker baby, yes it is unweaned and yes i do realize this was a dumb dumb part on the breeder, but no worries i have experience.
My question is...
I am trying to slowly start weaning my baby after feeding it formula for a while. They are starting to show some interest in bananas (sweet and nummy) and kind of a crisp apple. But i would like to (hopefully) just switch to pellets and not go through the seed to pellet transformation and was wondering, would it be bad to essentially blend up the mini pellet chips into powder and then make it into a formula the same way you would with regular formula? I feel like that would give the baby a taste for pellets and eventually lead to being able to eat the hard ones on their own. The only thing i am worried about it overdosing on all the nutrients and protein that are in pellets and mainly for adult birds and i dont want to intoxicate the bird with too many vitamins, it may sound dumb but i think it is a pretty good idea to slowly "trick" them into eating pellets, I realize quakers are individuals so it might not work and will possibly just want to be fed from the syringe constantly. But the other question i have is will it be too much for the crop and digestive system to handle? I have done it once and kept an eye for unhealthy poops or abnormal bowel movements but everything seemed to be ok, i mixed it with warm water and made it the consistency that of formula, waited for it to thicken and all that to make sure it wouldnt be too thick. and they did not refuse (obviously because they saw the syringe.)
Please leave me your feedback, i would love to see if other people have tried this and or if it is even a good idea, it sounds a little taboo i know, but quakers are very honery so i want to trick this little bugger before they become dependent on the syringe.
Thanks for reading and replying!
My question is...
I am trying to slowly start weaning my baby after feeding it formula for a while. They are starting to show some interest in bananas (sweet and nummy) and kind of a crisp apple. But i would like to (hopefully) just switch to pellets and not go through the seed to pellet transformation and was wondering, would it be bad to essentially blend up the mini pellet chips into powder and then make it into a formula the same way you would with regular formula? I feel like that would give the baby a taste for pellets and eventually lead to being able to eat the hard ones on their own. The only thing i am worried about it overdosing on all the nutrients and protein that are in pellets and mainly for adult birds and i dont want to intoxicate the bird with too many vitamins, it may sound dumb but i think it is a pretty good idea to slowly "trick" them into eating pellets, I realize quakers are individuals so it might not work and will possibly just want to be fed from the syringe constantly. But the other question i have is will it be too much for the crop and digestive system to handle? I have done it once and kept an eye for unhealthy poops or abnormal bowel movements but everything seemed to be ok, i mixed it with warm water and made it the consistency that of formula, waited for it to thicken and all that to make sure it wouldnt be too thick. and they did not refuse (obviously because they saw the syringe.)
Please leave me your feedback, i would love to see if other people have tried this and or if it is even a good idea, it sounds a little taboo i know, but quakers are very honery so i want to trick this little bugger before they become dependent on the syringe.
Thanks for reading and replying!
