At what age should my baby bird start eating seeds?
Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at
10:33 am
My baby bird is almost completely feathered and i’m running out of baby food. should i buy more? or should i start putting seeds in the seed container?
Sorry. My I have a lovebird and he is perching.
Filed under: Baby Clothes
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This depends on which species of bird you have. However, if it is a smaller parrot you can most likely start in with the adult food. I do not recommend feeding seed as this will cause many problems in their health later in life. It is proven that it causes heart disease, liver disease, obesity, poor feather quality, and a shorter life span. I recommend feeding a zupreem pellet diet. The natural is the best. If you get the colored pellet it makes them have colorful poopies that stain the carpet, plus they color pick. The natural tastes a little more bland, but all have the same vitamins and nutrients.
When you put the food in the cage be sure the baby does not gorge himself. You may need to take the food out for a couple of hours here and there to be sure he is emptying. You will also still need to supplement the formula for a bit longer to make sure the baby is staying hydrated. Just because you put the food in there does not mean they will know what to do with it. You may have to show them. Many times monkey see monkey do comes into effect. When putting water in there make sure the baby is unable to drown.
That depends on what breed it is.
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"Once the chicks hatch , make sure to provide a lot of good foods for the parents. They will be feeding the chicks, and should have corn, egg, greens, fruit and other foods available at all times. Fresh water is very important also, so be sure to replace their water often. Be sure to check that all the babies are being fed. Occasionally, you may have to handfeed a baby immediately. If the parents are feeding the babies properly, should continue to check them periodically anyway. If you plan on hand-feeding the babies, the bes t time to pull them is from 10 – 14 days old. If you don’t pull them, the parents will kick the babies out of the nest at 5 to 6 weeks, and they should be eating on their own by then. The male Lovebird helps teach his chicks to eat regular foods.
Baby Lovebirds that are being hand-fed should be placed in a "hospital box". A small aquarium works well. Cover the bottom with soft towels, and place a heating pad under half the aquarium. Be sure to keep the birds warm. Hand-feeding can be done with a syrin ge or a spoon, although a syringe is the most popular choice. Hand-feeding formulas must be kept at the proper temperature, or the babies will either not eat, or develop crop problems. I won’t go into too much detail here about hand-feeding, because it r equires a great deal of care and knowledge. Please ask your Avian Vet or local breeder to teach you how to do this. There are also a lot of books on this subject. Look at the Book Recommendation section of this FAQ.
Lovebirds usually wean around 8 weeks old. Provide your babies with a lot of different foods, including soft food, small pieces of fruit and vegetables, seed, pellets and millet."
http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/lbfaq.htm
Lovies should be weaned gradually. He doesn’t just go from all formula to all seed and other foods. Place food in his cage and let him nibble at it. Continue to feed him formula. As he starts eating more and more other foods, he will eat less and less formula.
Please do not just feed him seed once he is weaned. Here are some good resources on avian nutrition:
What to feed your bird: http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww14eiv.htm
Good grains: http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww3eiii.htm
How to get your bird to eat veggies (works for other foods, too): http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww70eiii.htm
Do NOT feed (poisonous) and common toxins to protect your bird from: http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/poisons.htm
You didn’t say what kind of bird you have. Most continue to eat formula after they get their feathers– some for as long as 3 or 4 mos. and you can’t just suddenly switch their diet.
A young bird can starve to death– it should be a gradual weaning by reducing the number of feedings each day until they have weaned.
Did you consider feeding pellets rather than seed? they can be softened and hand- fed w. spoon or whatever you are feeding with—and then put some dry ones in a little container in the bottom of the cage .
Is your bird perching yet.?
Hope you will send more information about your bird.
You didn’t say what type of bird and its age. You should put a sprey millet in your birds cage and continue hand feeding him/her. Your bird should start picking and eating the little seeds on the sprey millet. Soon after introducing the millet to your bird, he/she will no longer be interested in the hand feeding formula/baby food. This when you should start feeding other type of foods such as seeds, egg yolk, leafy vegetables, cereal, and so on.
Now that you mention you have a baby lovebird, do the above procedure to wean your lovebird. Your baby lovebird will definately pick at the sprey millet once you place it in the cage. Do continue feeding the baby bird with hand feeding formula. Eventually he/she will lose interest and start feeding on seeds.
I bred fischer and blue/green mask lovebirds in the past. Now currently breeding rare crockatiel mutations. Lovebirds and cockatiels are done the same when comes to weaning.
Good luck!
Lovebirds wean at approx 8 to 10 weeks. You cannot just stop the formula & give seed. You need to wean the bird gradually & if it’s not done correctly your lovebird may end up with some behaviours like screaming.
I suggest you google as much as you possibly can asap about weaning lovebirds properly & for the time being buy some more formula & keep feeding the bird.
A question. If you don’t know about the feeding & weaning of a lovebird, why did you do it? It can be very devastating for them if it’s not done properly.