Questions about weaning and our new baby Meyer's

[nightowlcb]

We just got our hand raised baby Meyer's Parrot 4 days ago. He's about 10 weeks old, supposed to be weaned, and he does seem to eat on his own, but he's got a couple of weird things going on that I'm wondering whether they are related to the 'regressing' I've heard newly weaned parrots can experience when moved to a new home, whether they're normal behaviors in young hand fed parrots, or whether they are something we should worry about. Also want to make sure we're dealing with these behaviors in the best way possible.

So here goes, he's been active and brave basically since the moment we brought him home. If he had his way he would never go in his cage, even right away from day one he was scrambling to get out and be with us ALL the TIME. He's already learned flight recall and is perfecting his 'go home' to the cage flight command, is fairly good with 'step up' (though he is stubborn sometimes), and even seems to be starting to potty train himself at least to not poop on humans. But I've noticed that a lot of the time when he's with us, particularly on a shoulder, but also in other positions, he makes what seems to me to be that baby 'begging' noise (I grew up with a Goffin's cockatoo that was not completely weaned in the beginning so I remember a weird noise like this although I was just a kid myself). Sometimes he throws his head back while doing it, sometimes he reaches towards our faces/mouths with his beak. He also is constantly chewing on our hands. I've heard of the 'beaking' stage, which this seems to be a part of, but he also seems to be trying to feed out of our hands constantly, especially sticking his beak in between our fingers like he's looking for food.

I do feed him carrots and bell peppers and occasionally other things from my hand, and sunflower seeds as a reward when trying to train him, but I'm wondering if I should not be encouraging this behavior, or if I should be 'supporting' it more (i.e. if he's doing this does it mean he's hungry, or is it just an automatic behavior at this stage?) He does seem to eat on his own, mostly the fresh food (so far only carrots and bell peppers, he hasn't warmed to the kale...), walnuts from a shell, and millet from a spray. But although I've seen him eating out of his seed dish, there never seems to be much gone. I don't want to starve the poor guy if the baby noise/trying to eat from my mouth and fingers means he's hungry, but I also thought he was supposed to be, and seems to be, eating on his own.

Another thing that had me kind of concerned, a couple times when he has been nibbling on/between our fingers and/or while making that 'begging' noise, his mouth has been wet. Most times it has been just a little damp, but tonight at one point it was actually enough to see. Do baby birds produce saliva in their mouths or something in relation to feeding? Or is this something we should be concerned about? It only seems to happen at the times mentioned, when he is playing or exploring (like when we give him a sunflower seed reward for flying home) his mouth is dry/normal. I don't want to freak out if this is a normal baby-related thing, but I also want to figure it out if there's something wrong with him...

[liz]

My Amazon Myrtle sloppers when I am eating something and did not yet give her some.

He is young - feed him some oatmeal or something warm.

My male cockatiel, Lemone', feeds Tommy's & Tammy's baby Bindi, at least once a day. It is a loving thing. Sometimes the adult tiels feed each other.

Myrtle tries to feed me.

[GlassOnion]

Definitely regressing!!! Feed him formula or warm mushed pellets with fruit baby food or something. Oatmeal works too, but feed him! That begging sound should not be ignored as babies are never force weaned in the wild.

[nightowlcb]

Okay, good to know that 'bird slobber' isn't all that unheard of, I was a little freaked out because I've never known the birds I grew up with (cockatoo and cockatiels) to ever have any wetness in their mouths. I've tried hand feeding him some more things from my hands, warm and cold, he usually takes it, sometimes he eats it sometimes not. I'm thinking maybe he's not so much actually hungry as more like a baby who wants to suck on a pacifier or something...