How Much to Feed Baby Cockatiel
Question:
February 8, 2022
Feeding a baby cockatiel
Feeding baby cockatiel
I read your article on the person who was feeding a three month old cocktail, I have never had to feed baby cockatiels over eight weeks old, they walk away from it. But I have one who is 10 weeks old who wants it I give her 12 ml is the morning and one at night so i see it is OK to continue feeding her. but how many ml do I give her she is eaten 12 ml. She does eat seed and chop kale every day alone with yams. And boiled eggs with shells.
Answer:
Hi Cindy,
This is a great question. There are a lot of opinions on hand feeding. I have hand fed hundreds of birds from finches to macaws, and I was taught by a breeder back in the mid-80's when handfeeding was rare, and there weren't as many opinions. LOL
A set weaning age came about due to laws preventing the sale of unweaned chicks. While these laws are in place to protect the chicks, they often result in the forced weaning of chicks. Chicks should be allowed to set the pace for weaning. Solid foods need to be introduced at a certain stage, and one should make the effort to encourage the chicks to wean, but each chick should wean at their own pace. In the wild, parrots have been observed feeding fully developed juveniles for much longer than what most breeders do in captivity.
With your chick, I think nutrition may be what drives her to want the formula. She is getting some great nutrition from the kale, yams and eggs, but she gets little nutrition from seeds. I would recommend offering pellets or a diet like our foraging diets. While it's true that cockatiels are granivores – seed & grain eaters – in the wild, the seeds in seed mixes can't compare with what the wild birds eat. They are eating fresh seeds from the plants, and these are still rich with nutrients. The seed in loose mixes is not fresh enough to retain these nutrients, and any added vitamins are lost when she removes the hulls from the seed. We do make foraging diets that contain whole seeds, but we used fresh seeds with the hulls removed, and all of the ingredients are coated with a nutritionally balanced formula. Pellets are made the same way, but everything is then ground up and made into a pellet.
Parrots eat to fulfill their nutritional needs, so if these aren't being met, they keep eating and end up being overweight and lacking the nutrition they need. I would start offering her a nutritionally balanced food instead of the seeds – either pellets, our foraging diets, or both. You can also offer some cooked brown rice with mixed chopped veggies, leafy greens and a small amount of fruit. She can even have a small piece of multi grain bread. Variety is the key to feeding pet birds, so try different veggies and change things up. They are like us – they can get tired of the same foods daily. I think if you can offer more nutritious foods for her to self feed, she will wean very soon. You can also mix some formula extra thick and offer it in a small dish. If you are not seeing progress after a week or two of her eating more nutritious foods, you might go ahead and take her to an Avian Vet. In some cases a slow weaner might have a mild crop infection that causes poor absorption of nutrients and makes her need more food. I'll give you the link to our feeding guide to give you more ideas on what foods to offer.
Bird Food Guide
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
Source: https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/questions/feeding-a-baby-cockatiel/
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