Still Not weaned!

[IcyWolf]

The two baby budgies, now named Nico and Sadie, are now 7 and a half weeks old and they are still on 3 hand feedings a day! If I try to cut them back they cry and stop eating their food completely. They both pick at the millet, sadie eats the millet, soaked pellets and has finally started picking at the seeds in the bowl and drinking water out of the bowl, Nico only picks at the millet though. There isn't too much info on hand feeding budgies so I haven't been able to find much in the way of weaning time. I know someone that breeds english budgies and she said that hers are weaned by 5-6 weeks! What should I do? Should I just continue to give them their formula until they refuse it? The guy that is taking them home is getting a bit antsy since I told him he could have them by now but I can't let them go until they are weaned, he understands but I think he is getting a bit concerned that they are still on formula. They've both been fluctuating between about 30 and 35 grams depending on the day.

That's Sadie on the left and Nico on the right

 

[cdog]

Have you tried cutting up fruit for them? My baby green cheeks are on three feeding but the first two feedings are only comfort food, they only want a few drops, then they fill up on the fruit salad I make them.
You just have to keep giving them formula until they refuse it.

 

[pamcor57]

Have you tried cutting up fruit for them? My baby green cheeks are on three feeding but the first two feedings are only comfort food, they only want a few drops, then they fill up on the fruit salad I make them.
You just have to keep giving them formula until they refuse it.

Yes...just feed them til they refuse. weaning is a process, somebirds take longer than others to wean...even up to a year. hang in there...be patient. Your babys will get the hang of it....lolol

 

[Pedro]

Yes they should be weaned by now. Time for some tough love IcyWolf. Give them their morning formula cut out the 2nd feed & bring the night feed forward to the late afternoon like around 6pm or just before bed time. The more you keep offering formula they will never get the idea of weaning themselves.

I let the parents rear the last clutch of budgies & once they fledged Mum & Dad were not to keen to feed them so it was down to the feed dish or starve. And i have never seen a healthy bird starve yet.

With the first clutch I took over when the babies were about 4 weeks old. They were independant at 6 weeks. All i did was offer them greens like dark green leafy veg, a bit of corn on the cob & budgie seed, they got the hang of it really quick but you have to teach them.

 

[IcyWolf]

I offer them fruits and mashed up veggies as well but they have yet to eat any of it. I even tried giving them some mashed sweet potato on their feeding spoon and they looked at it like it wasn't even food :20:

Right now they are eating at around noon, 6-7pm and then again at around midnight-1am. I know that's a late schedule but I'm not a morning person so it's easier to feed them entirely on a later schedule, there are no windows in the bird rooms so it's all entirely artificial lighting.

The problem I'm having is some people say to just keep feeding them until they refuse the formula, which is how I always weaned birds before, it just never took this long after the normal time, and then others, like Pedro say to cut them off. It honestly scares the crap out of me to cut them back to two feedings, I don't want them to starve! Just a few days ago they were on 4 a day and I cut out the one feeding.

 

[cdog]

To get mine to start eating fruit I covered it in formula and the babies loved it.

 

[MikeyTN]

Pedro give you all the answer there! But occasionally a few will take longer to wean! How funny one of them is named Nico as we name our white tiel baby Nico as well...lol....like my tiels wean anywhere from 42-65 days old. Just a few takes to 65 days old as most weaned not long after fledging time which is 45 days. But yes your keets should be weaned by now. Are they in a cage? Bottom grate? If it has a grate, remove it! Place seed dish on the bottom and sprinkle some seeds around on the bottom. Its easier to teach babies to eat off the bottom. I always offer seeds and pellet mix for the little birds.

 

[Pedro]

Budgies are seed eaters they don't usually eat fruit except a bit of apple maybe. When my chicks are weaning i sprout a seed mix for them. They go crazy over it & it's easy for them to eat. Cos letuce they love as well.

The idea of cutting out feeds as they get older is to encourage them to be independent. IceWolf tell me what they eat from say 7am to noon. Surely they are eating something you have left in the cage for them to eat. Even though your not a morning person surely you must get up a bit earlier than mid day. Sorry not meaning to be mean.

You know i never have a routine for my babies they get the right amount of feeds a day for their requirements except the time is not always the same. My chicks on 3 feeds a day are fed anywhere between 5 to 8am, 12 to 2pm & then 7 to 10pm. When on 2 feeds I give a small feed in the morning & offer a variety of weaning foods for the day then they a ready for a big feed just before bed.

IcyWolf you have to be the teacher here so these babies need to learn to feed themselves & as long as your offering them an easy meal they are not going to give the formula away in a hurry.



A parent bird can only hold so much in the crop to feed babies at night & once the chicks fledge the mum & dad don't feed them through the night at all.

 

[IcyWolf]

That is funny about their names, their new daddy was joking around about naming them Nick and Sara after me and my fiance, I told him that would be a little weird and suggested Nico and Siri, after a few days he said that he wanted to name them Nico and Sadie

They are in a cage and have been for about 2 weeks now. There is no grate on the bottom but there is aspen and millet down there. The food and water bowls sit very low in the bottom of this cage but the birds always sit on the very top perch. I was putting the fruit and veg on a cut paper plate on the bottom of the cage, next to their bowls but they weren't ever going down there. They would pick at the millet and their treat stick that hangs from the top of the cage but they wouldn't go down to the bottom. So I moved their bowls up to the top, next to the perch they always sit on, now they started picking out of the bowls and Sadie has started drinking out of the water dish as well, I have yet to see Niko drink out of it. Right now Sadie is sitting in the bowl(yes, IN it) and eating and Nico is picking at the hanging millet so unless they start screaming their heads off, I think I'm going to try and skip their second feeding which would usually be within the next 2 hours.

 

[IcyWolf]

I get up at 6am when my fiance leaves for work, that's when I turn the lights on for the breeders, they are in their own room and I keep them on a pretty tight schedule. Then I go back to sleep and get up at 9am and stay up, it's just easier for me to keep the babies on a bit of a later schedule when I can since I'm usually up pretty late anyway. When they are first pulled they get their first feedings at 6am.


I have tried sprouting seeds twice in the past month and have failed miserably both times. The first time I didn't keep them wet enough and they just dried back out before they sprouted, the second time I followed the instructions in my one book to a T and the seeds sprouted but they had a very strong smell to them. It wasn't really a bad smell but it was strong and it scared me, I didn't know if maybe the seeds went bad or something but I didn't want to feed something questionable to them so I just threw them out.

 

[MikeyTN]

My keets eat seeds, pellets, fruits and veggies such as broccoli, green beans, snow peas, cucumber, strawberries, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, etc etc. They love to eat those stuffs!!! I have the three boy keets. And I used to raise keets and they like to eat the stuffs as well.

 

[IcyWolf]

So I'm beginning to think these two have just been playing me for the past week and a half. They got their formula at noon but I decided to take Pedro's advice and skip their second feeding. When they started to cry for the formula I just got them out and played with them. At first they were going nuts and just nibbling at my fingers but once they realized they weren't getting food they just had fun flying around and cuddling, then when they started dozing off on me I put them back in their cage. Now, here it is 11:30 and they are both sitting in their food dish chowing down! I still haven't seen Niko drink out of the water bowl but I'm pretty sure he knows how to. So my question is, should I just skip their third feeding since they are eating pretty well?

 

[Pedro]

Just have a feel of their crops to see how much seed they have eaten. If you can't feel a good size lump then you can top them upwith formula. Otherwise leave them till morning & maybe feed them when you get your partner off to work or when you get up at 9am & then again in the afternoon. To be honest it's a little unnatural for them to feed so late at night so maybe a good idea all round to get them back on track.

I am sure if you get a little tough they will soon be eating on their own. Seems they are already on the way to be independent. YAH.