Help! I need help weaning my Indian ringneck!

[KatieAndBo]

Hi all. I'm new to the forum, I brought home my new Indian ringneck this past Thursday. He is a beautiful cinnamon turquoise blue male indian ringneck with the most beautiful blend of colors that you could imagine. He is so sweet and already knows how to step up and is very tame. His name is Bo and he is almost 8 weeks old and I already love him dearly. On a different note, his breeder told me he was eating seeds, fruit, and cornbread daily and should be weaned in a week. So he gave me formula and I was supposed to feed him once a day before bed. But he has not eaten anything since he has been home. Not one seed. He is not really drinking water either. He maybe has eaten a few bites of cornbread and a tiny bit of millet. I have had to go to two feedings a day and possibly three. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Please tell me how to get him to eat seeds and other foods. I want to wean him off formula but I really have no clue what I'm doing. Please help! Any advice would be very appreciated!

[autumn]

I am no expert but I will tell you that I have a little 7 week old IRN and he is not taking to food very quickly. I would just not worry about what the breeder said he was eating and just act as if he has never eaten anything but formula. I have scaned the internet for ideas and what I have found (on the internet and what is working for me) is to make sure his food is warm and very mushy. FOr example my guy loved the idea of sweet potato but refused after one or maximum 2 bites because the consistency was too thick for him. Once I watered it down and dropped blobs of it into this mouth he thought it was great! I will just slowly reduce the amount of water.

I read one experienced breeder say that she watched how her birds handled the food as an indicator of what they were ready for. She stated that she exposed them to lots of foods early on but knew when she say them able to manipulate pieces in their beaks that they were ready to really start learning to eat. If your baby is accepting food maybe watch to see how well he can move it around with his beak even if it is not going down. After I read that I did notice that my baby was not playing with things in his beak much. I tried interesting him in a variety of things and after several days I noticed he was moving the pieces around more (but still not eating able to actual eat it) and he also had been more open to eating different textures.

Like I said, I am NO expert and I am also looking for guidence but I thought I would let you know what I have found so far. My baby loves loves loves apples and will eat that from a slice but that is the only thing-everything else has to be very mushy and warm and in some cases mixed with a little formula. Very messy and requires loads of tissue! He is eating nothing without my assistence-even the apple he will not eat if left on a dish-only if I hold it. I assume it will just take a little more time for him to become independent.

Good luck to you. I hope we both get our guys weaned.

[KatieAndBo]

Thank you so much. You had a lot of good advice. I'm just so stressed out about it that I'm not thinking clearly. Good luck with your baby. What's his name? I'd love to see a picture

[autumn]

Well my good advice is no longer working for me! My baby, Charley, was doing so well and eating away (unskillfully but trying) for several days. I was giving him formula in morning and evening and he was playing with his food dish throughout the day. All seemed to be going well except for 2 days he seems to be totally not interested in any of food other then the formula I give him. He also seems to be sleeping most of the time in his cage but really begs for me. I was wondering if anybody had thoughts. I also wanted to know how KatieandBo was getting along with the weaning.

I would love to post a picture of Charley but I seem to be too unskilled to do it! Hopefully I will figure that out soon. Thanks for asking.