Lovebird still wants formula

[Archer96]

Hello, my 10 week old lovebird is still begging for formula, he shakes his tail feathers and gently bites at me. I have been feeding him once a day and he takes a little less then 1 cc and sometimes I swear he complains more after being fed (the temp is not the problem). But other then that he eats seed and spay millet and I have been trying to convert him to pellets. Although he seems to not eat if not given formula first in the morning. I put the bowl of seed and pellets by each other. Should I just stop giving him formula and let him beg? Or should I continue? And is it wise to try and switch him to pellets? Thanks

[Wolf]

To tell you the truth I have little actual experience with young birds as all of mine were adults when they came to me, mostly from abusive places. Still, I would continue to give him the formula until he doesn't want it any more. I would give him a mix of four or five different whole grains cooked al dente ( about half cooked) for breakfast and start trying to get him to eat some fruits and vegetable raw also for breakfast and let him have the grain and the fruits and vegetables for all day as well and then give him a good quality seed mix for dinner. I am really not a fan of pellets, but if you feel that pellets are the better way to go then just replace the seed mix with a good quality pellet.
The best way to teach your bird that fruits and veggies are food and good to eat or to get them to eat any food is to copy the way that the parent birds do it. The parent bids will take them to a branch near where the food is found and then they will bring pieces of the food back with them to that branch and eat it in front of their baby birds. They will then go and get another piece of the food and bring it back and start eating it in front of the baby birds. They do not offer to share this food they keep bringing it back and eating it until the baby bird can't stand it any more and they beg for it without getting any of it and then they start trying to steal it from the parent bird. When this happens the parent bird will allow the babies to steal the food from them and bring more of it back to the branch.
I figure that the parent birds know the best way to get their babies to eat the right foods and so I try to copy what they do.

[Pajarita]

He is still a little baby, my dear. I don't breed but twice I ended up with baby lovebirds by accident and they did not even leave the nest until they were 12 weeks old - and the parents kept on supplementing their food intake after they had left the nest and were eatin on their own! So the problem is that your baby bird is hungry! He might have started eating seeds on its own but he is still too young to eat enough of them. Think in terms of a human baby... a 2 year old toddler is already eating on his own but the mother still needs to spoonfeed him most of his food, right? Well, it's the same thing with baby birds! Now, one of the problems is that you are not offering soft foods to him and eating seeds or pellets is hard and tiring for him. You need to give him two kinds of soft food, served fresh and warm twice a day. Soft food is just what it sounds like: food that is soft and easy to eat. The cooked whole grains that Wolf suggested is one kind but you can also make him polenta (cooked coarse corn meal), couscous, pastina (the teeny tiny noodles used for babies soup), even oatmeal as long as it's the plain old fashioned kind - and what you do is add pureed veggies or fruits to it (you can use baby food but make sure it doesn't have any iron or anything added to it, that it's just, say, pureed sweet potatoes, for example). It's a great way of feeding them something easy for them to eat and, at the same time, offer good nutrition and get him used to eating fruits and veggies.

I don't feed pellets and, let me tell you that the very first lovies I got where from the widow of a man that bred and showed the type of peach faced that is called Longfeather (one of the females, a Lutino, had won every single show in the three state area!) and the one thing that I had to promise was to NEVER EVER EVER feed them pellets! Lovies are great eaters and the love gloop and fresh produce so pellets are not really the best thing for them...

[Archer96]

Well that does make sense, I'll feed him as long as he wants the formula. And try to give him other things. But what if he still wants it past 12 weeks?

[liz]

Ha Ha Ha. You feed him until he no longer asks for it. He may not even want the food but wants the comfort of you feeding him when he is older. I have had baby cockatiels as large as the others in the flock and already singing still beg from the adults, and not just the parents. You can also start sharing your food like the parents would.

[Wolf]

If you just give it to him as long as he wants it you will discover that he will wean himself off of it when he is ready.

[Pajarita]

Yep, Liz and Wolf are both right. He will wean himself when he is ready although he will always enjoy been fed in his beak (even old birds love to get warm food in a syringe every now and then -it gives them a feeling of comfort and of been loved).

[JessiMuse]

I concur with Liz, wolf, and Paj. You don't want to force-wean the bird, because that will cause some long-therm behaviors.

Did you buy him unweaned, or was he born in your household? Sometimes, the stress of moving to a different home can cause an unweaned bird to take longer to wean. When I got Alex, my currently unweaned cockatiel, the breeder told us to syringe feed him twice a day. Well, we ended up feeding him four times a day at first. We've gone down to 2-3 times a day now, and he's starting to accept less by himself, and started eating more solid foods. Just try and go the bird's pace, and he will eventually wean himself.

[Archer96]

I bought him unweaned 5 weeks ago. But ya I guess he will wean himself.

[liz]

Rambo and Myrtle are adults but I would feed them if they wanted it. The hand feedings they get now are from my plate. They beg for things just like baby birds.
Everything gets breakfast before I can settle down to mine. Rambo saw my oatmeal and started "huh huh" until I looked up and saw the wings. He was wanting me to share even though he had his own breakfast. Rambo is 30 so I guess they will beg from time to time even when they are old.