Need Advise on Hand feeding My 11 Weeks Ekkie.

[Prawnie]

Need advise please. Our ekkie is 11 weeks old and currently on 2 feeding of Higgins Intune hand feeding formula (@ 8am and 6pm), temperature is kept between 37 degc to 42 degc as advised by breeder. She is also serve fresh chops mix with quinoa twice a day and pellet in her cage all time. The past few days has been difficult because she refuses hand feeding or drink very little when it’s her feeding time (we were told by the breeder to give 30ml for each feed). After that she will scream extremely loud whenever we enter or are in the kitchen, associating that we are making her formula but when we try to feed again she refuses. We do not intend to wean her until she is ready but her scream are very loud and worried that it might disturb our neighbours. She’s seems to be eating her chops and pellets well, we noticed the pellet became chew up into powder form. Her poop are also normal. We weight her every morning before feeding, she’s fluctuating between 381 grams to 384 grams.

Are we doing it right? When will the screaming stop?

 

[StormyPica]

@texsize @Rozalka

Maybe she's done with formula and has weaned. From what I've read, most ekkies do wean around 11 weeks. Is she eating her chop and pellets like normal or more than normal? If so, I wouldn't worry.

 

[Rozalka]

@texsize @Rozalka

Maybe she's done with formula and has weaned. From what I've read, most ekkies do wean around 11 weeks. Is she eating her chop and pellets like normal or more than normal? If so, I wouldn't worry.

I have no experience with weaning large parrots, so I don't know what's the normal weaning age... but if she eats her chop and pellets normally, I wouldn't worry neither. In my case the problem was to wean the babies... they always wanted me to feed them.

When will the screaming stop?

Honestly I don't remember how it was in my case... somehow after stopping feeding

 

[Lokasia]

I'm currently weaning my african grey who is the same age. She's still at the stage of more picking and playing with her food than eating it so is still on 3 feedings a day. She's being offered soft food and chop this week then next week fingers crossed, I can drop a feeding and offer pellets. My breeder told me not to force it if she's refusing her formula and offer a variety of food instead making sure there's plenty of soft food

 

[Prawnie]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have been sitting by her cage looking at her eating her pellets trying to figure if she’s playing or really eating it. Tried to hand feed her this morning at she refused again. Her weight is consistent so I assume she did eat some.

 

[Owlet]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have been sitting by her cage looking at her eating her pellets trying to figure if she’s playing or really eating it. Here’s a video. Tried to hand feed her this morning at she refused again. Her weight is consistent so I assume she did eat some.

Pellets tend to get crushed up into powder very easily. It's hard for them to consume it all. I have 3 birds who are all on different pellets and there is always a powder left.

 

[kme3388]

Hi there, I know your Ekkie is a baby. I did want to mention that my Ekkie who is 17 years old turns his pellets into powder, and then he sticks it in his water. I adopted him a year ago, and when I first got him I thought he wasn’t eating. I thought something was very wrong. I learned later on that some parrots just have a tendency to play with their food. I just make sure to keep track of weight. It’s a great way to monitor this.

 

[Prawnie]

Pellets tend to get crushed up into powder very easily. It's hard for them to consume it all. I have 3 birds who are all on different pellets and there is always a powder left.

Powder left doesn’t mean they didn’t eat right? Could be just left over? Right now we are giving her Roudybush. I usually put a lot of pellet in her bowl. Besides pellet she gets chops+quinoa 2 times a day.

 

[Lokasia]

Powder left doesn’t mean they didn’t eat right? Could be just left over? Right now we are giving her Roudybush. I usually put a lot of pellet in her bowl. Besides pellet she gets chops+quinoa 2 times a day.

I saw an interesting tip on YouTube. Weigh the pellets before you give them. Then weigh at the end of the day and assuming they didn't toss a bunch to the floor that should indicate how much was eaten

 

[Cottonoid]

I saw an interesting tip on YouTube. Weigh the pellets before you give them. Then weigh at the end of the day and assuming they didn't toss a bunch to the floor that should indicate how much was eaten

This is what I did when I first brought my parrot home - it worked pretty well!