This baby won't wean!

OK, so I have a question for you guys... Remember the baby I was co-parenting? Blitzen? The kid won't wean! He hatched on December 24 - that makes him almost 10 weeks old! I gave up the co-parenting business weeks ago. He/she was wearing me out. The kid will run into the nest box whenever s/he sees me now, and daddy is still feeding the baby. I've tried putting all kinds of food in the cage - fruits, veggies, oatmeal, seeds, everything... he's just acting like a typical teen of the 21st century! It's making me nuts and I don't know what to do! Should I take away the box? Should I separate the baby from dad and force him to eat on his own? I'm about to give up on ever having that daddy to use as a mate again!

HELP!!

I have absolutely no useful advice, but I'm seriously amused by the picture you're painting!

Here's the deal, the baby's probably eating on his own. Just taking handouts from dad so long as dad's willing to do it. Watch the birds outside in a few months. You can see which ones are newly fledged and which ones are older, but trying to get handouts from their parents. The newly fledged ones are fed diligently by the parents when they beg. The older ones beg and follow the parents, but the parents don't immediately feed them. The parents peck around and the older babies eventually peck where the parents peck, but they still beg and try to get a handout.

If you keep dad and Jr. together indefinitely, dad really has nothing to do other than tend to Jr. and Jr. has really no reason to "grow up".

This is how I think you should progress:
- Take down the box.
- Wait a week.
- Put dad in a separate cage next to Jr. Make sure the cages are close enough for dad to feed Jr. through the bars.
- Wait a week.
- Put a hen in a cage next to dad's cage so dad's cage is in the middle of the hen and Jr. Make sure hen's cage is close enough for dad to check her out and feed her.
- Wait 2 weeks (or when he's showing an interest in the hot babe in the cage next door.
- Put hen in with dad. At this point Jr. should be 100% self sufficient or at least resigned to the fact that dad's not going to feed him forever and you can move Jr.'s cage or Jr. to another cage if you want. You may notice this self sufficiency weeks before this. You can gauge and manage them based on behavior.

If you watch the progression, you'll see dad start losing interest in Jr. and Jr. will noticeably eat more on his own.

Daily you should grab Jr. and play with him and also to monitor his overall condition and you can feel that his crop is filled.

SnS, once again, I'm glad I could provide fodder for your smiles! LOL!

Roz, once again, you're my hero. I'll do everything you say except play with the little shit. He's a pain in my a$$ and I don't like him anymore. S/he's going to be a mom or a dad for me in about 10 months from now and as soon as the little PITA is weaned I'm putting him/her in the cage with all of my other juve delinquents! THE STUPID BIRD WONT EVEN FLY! (I should call it a her, I think it's a hen.) She acts like she's got clipped wings when she's fully flighted! I've had both she and dad out of the cage, and the best she can do is flutter gracefully to the floor and fly across the room about six inches off the ground. It's like she's afraid of heights! She's not even a real BIRD! Aye yai yai!

VickiNumbers wrote:

THE STUPID BIRD WONT EVEN FLY! (I should call it a her, I think it's a hen.) She acts like she's got clipped wings when she's fully flighted! I've had both she and dad out of the cage, and the best she can do is flutter gracefully to the floor and fly across the room about six inches off the ground. It's like she's afraid of heights! She's not even a real BIRD! Aye yai yai!

Unless there's some medical/physical reason for this, then this sounds like just another "not growing up because she doesn't have to" behavior. If dad and Jr. are alone in a cage this sounds "normal". If they were in a larger flight with mom, dad, and Jr. probably mom and dad would be looking to get busy again and ignoring Jr. and/or beating on Jr. to "grow up" and get her own apartment. Jr. would be flying around more to either follow mom and dad or to avoid spankings.

I honestly think the only diagnosis would be LBBS - Lazy Baby Bird Syndrome. Either that or JAS Syndrome - Just A S#!t syndrome.... Either one would work in this case.

lol @ vicki


dusty

So, Vicki, tell us how you really feel about Junior. Don't hold back!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

So, Vicki, tell us how you really feel about Junior. Don't hold back!

My thoughts exactly!

LOL! When have I EVER held back? really?!