New baby won't eat

[Mandolin]

Hi everyone,

Well we have a new addition to our flock. My husband and I along with kameko have welcomed a 6 week old lovie baby who we have named Kiko yesterday. He is healthy and gorgeous. Not sure of the mutation. We know he is pied but I forgot to ask if he is just green or dutch blue, I have sent an e-mail to the breeder.
The problem is that after bringing him home last night he has not really eatten. The breeder gave us some of the seed mixture that she weaned him onto but he is showing no interest. Have any of you had this problem when bringing a new baby home? We always offer him seed be it through the dish, we have put it in our hands, we are trying everything. I am also looking for some good food recipes for the baby since he is still young and used to soft food mixtures so I might as well get some veggies and things like that into him if I can. Can they have all kinds of pasta, rice, veggies, etc.? Kameko is the fussiest lovebird I have ever met and will eat NOTHING but budgie seed... even refuses to touch sun flower seeds which in the end is probably a good thing.
So any advice you can offer to get this little guy eating will be hugely helpful. Thank you! :)

[LovelySydney]

Is it possible this baby was weaned too early and that's why he won't eat? 6 weeks seems awfully young to be weaned but again I'm not an expert. When I got my Luka she was 9 weeks and my breeder wouldn't let me take her any sooner.


I know someone will chime in who knows more on the topic....I hope your little one eats soon! Is he at least drinking?

[Flapjack]

Congrats on your new baby!

6 weeks is a bit young, and he may be scared, and wanting to revert to being fed.

Lots of folks won't let a new baby go until 8 weeks, unless the person knows how to hand feed. Is the breeder close to you?

You may want to ask if they can show you how to mix formula and handfeed once or twice a day for the next week or two.

[Mandolin]

I had to go back and check my correspondence with the breeder to varify the age and I guess I was a week off, he should actually be about 7 weeks old. I don't have the exact hatch date but that is acurate to within a couple of days. The breeder specifically stated that she would not let me bring home Kiko until he was weaned and completely on seeds for at least a week. So I am thinking that he doesn't need to be handfed but I too am no expert. I know that we got Kameko from an inexperienced breeder and she was not fully weaned so we had to hand feed her for another week and a bit. I am going to try putting a dish on the floor of the cage since he had one like that when he was still at the breeder.
The breeder said that if he isn't eating by tonight she is going to bring us some of the soaked seed mixture that she gives the babies and see if he will try that. I am completely puzzled :confused:. He is a healthy little guy but must be scared. He is very comfortable snuggling but new surroundings must be tough.

[kimsbirds]

My personal feelings on this are that the baby was not weaned properly/fully.

When I bred lovies, babies were not allowed to leave our home until they were 10 weeks+ and had held the same weight in grams for 1 week prior to them leaving. No exceptions.

I would have the breeder take the baby back for 2 or 3 more weeks, giving it a chance to become more confident in its' eating and survival skills.

7 weeks really is much too young to head out into the big wide world alone...and he's probably very scared and bewildered right now, making him revert to handfeeding.

Without acting on this now, and the baby refusing to eat in the next day or two, would likely see this baby spiral downward rapidly, and possibly succumbing to starvation.

[FuzzyAga]

Seven-weeks is rather young. My baby, Chickopea, is just now 12-weeks old, and although he was parent-raised, I had to hand-feed him at 7.5-weeks because his inexperienced dad, Petey, stopped feeding him. All Chickie did was beep. I didn't know what was going on, until Linda told me what to do. Without her advice, I know Chickie would have been in physical and psychological trouble.

At first, it was a struggle to feed Chickie because he didn't like the formula and the syringe, but I persisted because I had to. I was so nervous that when I depressed the plunger, the formula shot out of Chickie's mouth to the other side and landed on my finger. :) No, girl, the formula should go into his mouth!

[Mandolin]

Thank you all for your advice. I am happy to report that I was watching Kiko eat last night as I was making dinner. He still takes longer than our other bird Kameko on each seed but he is doing much better. We are keeping a very close eye on him and if we notice him not eating enough or not at all we will definitely either take him back to the breeder (which is quite a drive since she is in another city) or we will be in contact with our avian vet.
Another question off this topic though is how do I get Kiko to come out of his cage willingly. He is pretty much used to hands since he was hand fed and once he is out he is the sweetest sucky snuggly baby. However, getting him out is another story. Even though we are all calm and do not make any sudden snatchy movements he flaps and runs and flies and does anything he can to stay inside his cage. Within 30 seconds of being out and in our hands he is fine. What is the best way to build the trust to have him want to come out? He doesn't know how to step up yet but that is a skill we are working on and making progress. I am afraid that with him being so scared when we take him out he is going to grow reluctant to coming out.

[linda040899]

Your new baby is more than scared. He's terrified and his cage represents safety. He's away from everything familiar and he's terribly young to have to deal with this kind of separation! Like Kim, I don't let any of my babies go until they are at least 10-12 weeks old, either. (Mine usually are completely weaned until that age!)

My best suggestion is a lot of holding and snuggling once you get him out of the cage. That's going to make him feel more comfortable more quickly. Put him back in his cage so that he can eat but definitely let him spend time with you.