BLUEYS EATING BEHAVOUR! HELP

[Elivia]

Bluey is about 7 weeks old. He has all of a sudden gone off his formula. He is flying now. Has been for about a week. Would learning to be able to fly be a a major distraction to eating? He is always hungry. We are force feeding him his formala at the moment. He will always be keen on about 5 mouthfulls if we are lucky then he doesnt want it! Then about half hour later we feed him again. Takes four or five mouthfulls then does not want it. We have been slowly introducing different foods for him to try. He has a few nibbles of pellets, seeds, beans and corn. Is this normal eating behavour for his age? We are very worried as he gets his water and nutrients from his formula and do not want him missing out on such important needs. We are also worried that if we have to continue to force feed him this may cause bad behaviour in the future as he hates it (and i hate holding him down, gently of course) to get food into his crop. His crop never fills up sufficiently as he has gone off his food! Please any suggestions about this sort of behaviour would be greatly appreaciated!

[julie]

dont force feed him. do a search on the board about weaning.

[Lags]

sounds like he's weaning. make sure he has plenty o solids and water available during this period. when mour bird weaned, he would cry like he wanted feeding, but just like you said, he would take a few mouthfuls then turn his nose up at it.its a good idea to weigh him everyday during this period to make sure he is still gaining weight, atleast maintaining weight.

[Elivia]

Thanks! I will take this on and get myself a set of scales for him