How to Wean a Baby Cockatiel

Offer peas as an ideal weaning food for baby cockatiels.

Cockatiels are small parrots with a big personality. These friendly, social birds love human companionship as well as the companionship of other cockatiels. Often, cockatiels kept together breed to produce more cockatiels. When this occurs, the baby birds may be hand fed by a human caregiver. The chicks must be weaned as they grow older to enable them to feed themselves and thrive on their own. Weaning is a stressful period in their lives, but when executed properly it produces self-sufficient young cockatiels.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Cockatiel formula
• Syringe
• Millet spray
• Soaked millet seed
• Steamed mixed vegetables
• Dishes
• Weaning foods
• Weighing scale
• Dry cockatiel seed mix
• Water

1. Attach a sprig of millet spray to the top of the chicks' brooder when they are 2 to 3 weeks old. Continue hand feeding the chicks a diet of formula at regular intervals throughout the day. The chicks will not eat the millet at this point, but this allows them to begin exploring foods outside of formula and learning to peck and forage for food.

2. Offer the chicks soaked millet seed along with steamed mixed vegetables such as corn, peas and carrots at 4 weeks of age. Simply sprinkle the foods along the bottom of the brooder for the chicks to pick at and eat. Ensure that any steamed vegetable has cooled before allowing your chicks to try it. Do not be concerned if the chicks seem to play with the food more than eat it -- they are still young and learning at this point. Continue feeding the chicks a diet of formula at regular intervals daily.

3. Offer the chicks a supply of fresh foods each day from which to forage and nibble at 5 weeks old. Foods to try include soaked millet; cooled, steamed vegetables; cooked brown rice; cooked small pasta; fresh whole wheat toast; cooked oatmeal; sprouts and fresh leafy greens or fruit such as apple or orange bits. Place these foods around the floor of the brooder, or in dishes on the floor of the brooder, and allow chicks to feed at will. Continue feeding the chicks a diet of formula three times daily.

4. Continue offering the weaning foods when the chicks are 6 weeks old, allowing them to feed on the weaning foods at will. Cut out the midday formula feeding; only hand feed the chicks once in the morning and once before bedtime. Take the chicks' weight twice daily, making sure they are not losing weight. If the chicks lose more than 2 g of weight, give them a 6-cc midday feeding the following day, then cut the feedings to twice daily in another 2 days.

5. Continue offering weaning foods and weighing the chicks twice daily into week 7. Begin offering dishes of dry cockatiel seed mix. Be aware that the chicks will lose some weight during this period, as their bodies must lean up in order to be able to fly. If the chicks have maintained most of their body weight for one continuous week of skipping the middle meal, begin skipping the first meal of the day, hand feeding only once at bedtime. Follow the same guidelines as you did when you began skipping the middle meal.

6. Begin skipping the bedtime meal once the chicks have maintained most of their body weight for one continuous week while skipping the morning and afternoon meals. Ensure that you offer a steady supply of weaning foods, offering dry cockatiel seed mix and a shallow dish of water as well. Weigh the chicks twice daily. If they lose more than 2 g of weight during the day, give them a bedtime feeding of half the amount of formula you had been feeding them for two days then begin skipping the last meal again. Once the chicks maintain their body weight for one week after skipping all three meals, they are fully weaned.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a dish of formula out for the chicks during the weaning period. Let them see you squirt the formula in with the syringe you feed them from so they know it is for eating. Change the formula in the dish every 30 minutes to prevent bacterial growth.

• Be patient with your chicks and allow them to wean at their own pace. Just like human babies, baby cockatiels are different and develop at different rates.

• Only use a water dish shallow enough that the chicks cannot drown in it.

• Clean weaning foods from the brooder periodically throughout the day to prevent bacterial growth, replacing them with fresh weaning foods. Change dry seed mix and water once or twice daily.

References

• birdsnways; Weaning Baby Cockatiels; Amy Patria; October 2000
• Cockatiel Cottage; Breeding Cockatiels Part 2; Eleanor McCaffrey