Young cockatiel food

[chirpy]

Hi. We've got a 13 week old cockatiel and are still feeding her egg food. I'm just wondering when she should be going on to seeds and fruit/veg. I've tried all sorts with her and all she will eat is the egg food. I'm just not sure if she's too young yet to eat seeds etc or I should be pushing it more?
Any help or advice appreciated.

[tielfan]

Tiels usually wean at about 8-10 weeks so she should be eating other things by this time. Sometimes baby birds regress when they go to a new home and need handfeeding again, so you might have a situation like that on your hands. If you can, talk to the breeder that you got her from and ask for advice, or talk to an avian vet.

If it was me and I didn't get any advice to the contrary, I wouldn't make egg food available all the time so she has more reason to try other things. But I would still put it in the cage for part of the day to make sure she gets enough to eat. I would also weigh her every day to make sure that she doesn't lose weight.

If she was hand fed, try holding some of the new food in your hand and let her explore it. Hand fed babies associate human hands with food, so maybe she'll get the idea. Also try spreading some of the new food out on a table top for her to explore - tiels are ground feeders in the wild and this type of eating often comes more naturally to them than eating from a cup.

Hopefully other people here will have suggestions too!

[chirpy]

Thanks, will try those things and see if we have any joy. She just cries when I try anything new at the moment which makes me feel guilty! Fingers crossed it'll work and I can get her onto at least seeds and then will try fruit and veg again!

[chirpy]

Well I've got her exploring broccoli tonight after a hard night of crying last night. She's looked at the seeds a few times but no eating ...yet! Fingers crossed she'll eat either the veg or the seeds over the next couple of days.

[tielfan]

Good luck with the new foods! At her age she's old enough to make it through the night without being fed, but she might want the 'security blanket' feeling of eating baby food. Maybe hold a small amount of egg food in your hand for her to eat (in the evening, not in the middle of the night), and have some seed (or something) with it. A little bit of baby food will help meet her comfort needs, and not having enough to fill up on will encourage her to try other things. But please make sure to keep an eye on her weight - we don't want her to actually go hungry, with 'going hungry' defined as not meeting her calorie needs for the day. A little bit of hunger can motivate her to try new foods, but it's vital to keep up the calorie intake every day even if you have to give her baby food to accomplish it.

[chirpy]

Still having a nightmare.
She does make it through the night without food but wants food first thing then eats on and off all evening. At the moment in the morning I'm leaving her some seed in her bowl and various other bits of fruit and veg on the floor(she never looks impressed!) but I don't really think she eats anything. She goes mad for the baby food as soon as I get home in the evening. I've now started to chop broccoli very finely into the baby food so at least she's getting something else, going to try grated cucumber tomorrow. If I put seed in the baby food she knows and picks it out!
Her weight is fine, she's still putting on, I've just looked at the photos of her first night here 2 weeks ago and she's so much bigger!
Can she eat basil?
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated as I'm really worried her diets not varied enough, she's my first bird and I want her to be well looked after.
Thanks

[tielfan]

If you have a natural foods grocery nearby, go there and check out the whole grains in the bulk bins. These places usually have hulled millet, and you can look for other things that don't have a hull and can be cooked to make it soft. Then cook what you bought and mix small amounts in with the baby food. For convenience, you can cook more than you need right away and freeze the excess in an ice cube tray, then thaw out a cube whenever you need more.

She might be more willing to eat millet this way, and once she gets used to its appearance she might be more interested in raw millet seed. As she progresses you can start cooking larger grains with hulls, like wheat and kamut. If she learns to eat it cooked, you can progress to serving it soaked and uncooked, and then you've really got a nutrition party going. The larger grains resemble some types of raw birdseed, which is helpful for getting her to branch out into dry foods.

Good luck!

P.S. As far as I know basil is OK to for birds to eat. I'd take it easy on the quantity though. For what it's worth, my tiels enjoy chewing on cilantro.

[chirpy]

Thanks for all the advice tielfan. She's now eating a mixture I cooked up of rice, lentils, oats and millet which I then mix with her baby food and a bit of broccoli. She eats most of it, not so keen on the larger green lentils. I'm leaving off with trying the seed for a bit and may try again ina week or so, give her a break from it. She's much happier and crying less so I'm much happier, and less guilt ridden, too!
Thanks again

[tielfan]

That's wonderful! The weaning period is the best opportunity to get a bird on a varied healthy diet but it sounds like the breeder missed the boat on that. After the weaning period it's harder to convince them to eat new foods but with time and patience it can be done. It took me two years to get my cockatiels to eat fresh carrot! Fortunately most foods don't take that long (unless it's one they're NEVER going to eat), but it's not unusual for it to take several weeks or months.

[tielfan]

P.S. Try hanging a piece of millet spray in the cage for her to explore. She might chew on it just for fun and discover that it's edible. For some reason cockatiels think spray millet is MUCH better than loose millet in a cup.