Hand Feeding Question

[Zerocool]

I have restarted hand feeding my 4 month old Macaw "Mango Habanero or Mango for short" a couple weeks ago. He has been doing well. My question is he eats about 2 oz of formula every morning and night. How much should he be getting? Also since he was forced weened once, how would I proceed with weening in the future?

His behavior has gotten better and the biting has stopped for me. He does bite others in the family and is pretty skiddish most of the time. I took him outside on a harness the other day. He did ok,but of course he was scared. He is a very scared little macaw. Maybe someone has some insight on that?

 

[SilleIN]

If he has associated people with something bad, he has to relearn that they are ok. When I got Sugar he HATED people. Today he will go up on any persons arm (when not hormonal as he is now).

If he trusts you, you have to show him it's safe. Here's what I did;

Mango needs to know the command "Step up" (let me know if you need help with that). I would then have him on my right arm. With my left arm I would hold the left wrist of the other person. I would then place him in front of left arm and give him the "step up".

To start with I would keep holding the wrist of the other person and I would only let him stay there for a short while. I would then offer my right arm to him and he would jump up to safety.

Do that a lot of times to the point, where Mango steps up without hesitation. Once he's comfortable with a short time, you can move to let him stay longer. When he is comfortable with staying there a minute or longer, you can begin to let go of the wrist. Again start with a very short time and offer him to come back to you.

When he's ok with that, you can try to move just a step away and get him used to you moving away.

After he's ok with that the other person can try to move with Mango on his/her arm.

Be sure to do each stage with as many people as possible. I would take Sugar shopping with me and would offer him to just about any stranger I met

Good luck and please let us know your progess

 

[SilleIN]

Oh silly me, I forgot the formula question.

At 4 months he should be eating a lot solid food. When weening my babies, I let them deside when they are ready to stop a meal. I let them eat as much as they want. You can't really quantify it, just let them eat. Eventually they don't seem that interested and you can then go down to one feed a day. Eventually you will feel it's a waste to make the formula, as most of it ends on the floor or you. It's then time to stop

 

[wrench13]

Exactly right, its called abundance weaning. You let him decide when he is done with formula.

 

[Zerocool]

Thank you for your responses!!

As for the step up command……we work on it daily. It's more like he steps up when he wants to. when I am holding him I try the ladder technique. I always seem to have to press on him to get him to follow the command. Which after 5 to 10 mins he lets me know he has had enough. He will step up when asked but only when he wants to.

Any suggestions or help with that. I really do appreciate it!!