Brand new parotlet parents need help

[Phimmy]

I'm finding out the hard way that the baby female parotlet my daughter bought from an unknown breeder was sold to her too soon. We got her at 4 weeks old, given some powdered food to mix with water and told to feed her with a syringe. We didn't even know if we should give her water or not! She is five weeks old now and her behaviour has changed dramatically!! While she is still friendly and cuddly, she no longer wants to feed from the syringe. She squaks loudly and turns her head away, but will take it reluctantly. We put millet and store bought small bird feed in her cage and while she shows some mild interest, she either isn't able to or doesn't want to eat it. She started biting and I'm sure it's because she's frustrated and hungry.
So the question is:
How do we transition her from bird mush to adult food? Cooked rice and pasta maybe? I read that somewhere.
Thank you!
Phimmy(our parotlet's name)

[chapala]

You might want to check in on Talk Parrotlets forum - there are a few P'let breeders there that will be able to help you out.

I'm not a breeder but as I understand it, they wean at about 5 weeks, so your baby is on schedule. She does need to have food offered, a variety. Finely chopped fresh vegetables (especially the green leafy and orange vegetables), cooked or sprouted whole grains, cooked or sprouted legumes (only mung, lentil, adzuki, whole dried pea, garbanzo), fruit especially those higher in nutrients like mango, papaya, cantaloupe, berries, apricots, peaches, etc. Give her small amounts of varied food in a bowl at the bottom of the cage, and let her play with the food - that's how she'll begin to learn. At first, you'll be tossing most of the food (keep the food in the cage fresh), but she will begin to eat.

Cooked, mashed sweet potato is another good food to offer.

Brown rice is not the most nutritious of the grains, and I don't recommend feeding it on its own. I would suggest a mix of 3 or 4 grains such as quinoa, hulless (not pearl) barley, oats, wheat, spelt, kamut, buckwheat, brown rice. Pasta is not as good as the whole grains themselves, but fine occasionally. If you feed any at all, make sure it is whole grain, not refined white flour.

A variety of foods will get her off to a good start. Also once she learns how good millet spray is, you can use it as a training reward. Treat and praise for every step in the right direction, and try to avoid the bites so she doesn't learn to communicate by biting.

Good luck, and let us know how you and the little bird are doing!

[Phimmy]

Thank you SO much! :) That's tons of info for us to work with. Of course it only makes sense to introduce the foods much like a baby. We'll try some soft fruits and cooked veggies. She is definitely looking for something else to eat and the store bought seeds and hard dried fruit just weren't cutting it.
She is adorable though! Full of personality and affection. She loved cuddling in my soft housecoat so much that I just cut it up and put it in the makeshift 'incubator' we made for her. However, now that she's learned to fly, she's enjoying her big cage. She plays with her toys, is interested in her reflection and is hilarious when she wants out of her cage. She tries to squeeze through the bars! It's quite funny, but only her head will fit.
She LOVES her neck scratched, her beak rubbed and her head rubbed and cuddles up in the crook of my neck (for as long as I can stand her snuggling anyway). It's scratchy and tickly. She "steps up" with no problem but when she decided she wasn't interested in the mush anymore, she started biting...and squaking.
She is almost six weeks now and we just adore her but we are, unfortunately, quite inexperienced and absolutely should have done more research! It was an impulse buy, but we are animal lovers (of every sort) so we thought love would be enough. It helps, but it's certainly not enough. We currently have two cats and two corn snakes as well and are looking for a small dog.
Based on some of the posts I've been reading here, it sounds like we got lucky and got a nice tempered baby bird though.
Thank you again!

[chapala]

Parrotlets are very cute, active, affectionate, sometimes bossy birds!

It sounds to me like you need a new cage to avoid a disaster. P'lets should have bar spacing of no more than 1/2". If she is fitting her head through, the bar spacing is too big. Parrotlets need a large-ish cage, and many of us have the HQ flight cage ($144 delivered through mybirdcage.com) that is wonderful for them.

Do offer finely chopped raw vegetables, not just cooked. A little steamed broccoli and carrot is fine too.

[Phimmy]

Thanks Chapala. I may have exaggerated a bit. She's able to get her full beak out between the bars but not her whole head. She's in a cage that, I think, was for a larger parrot. The front door opens down and props open. It has two perches, two ladders and plenty of room for a little fly around.

She's not interested in bananas and strawberries. When I put a little banana on the tip of the syringe, I thought she was going to fling it across the room. It was funny. I don't think she knows what she wants to eat but we'll keep giving her the mush and leaving a variety of other things for her to try at her own pace.

Another question -- someone mentioned to me that parrots shouldn't be allowed to be higher than you lest they think they are superior. Is it okay to let her perch on my head?

[chapala]

The prominent parrot behaviorists discount the notion of height and dominance in parrots, so I wouldn't worry. My P'let is often perched higher than my head. When he came here as a re-home, he always aimed for the head as a landing site. Since poop in the hair isn't my favorite thing, I trained him to land and sit on my shoulder.

[Phimmy]

LOL! Yes, they are poopie little things aren't they.