Now some of you may be confused, but if you've been following closely on Alex's progress, you might already know what this is about.
Alex is officially weaned!
It took a long time, but for the past few days, I worked on getting him to eat it from the spoon. He eventually started accepting less from the syringe and more off the spoon. Eventually, he stopped accepting the syringe altogether. Even then, he didn't eat a whole lot out of the spoon.
So yesterday, I wanted to see how long he could go without the regular scheduled feeding. If he starts making the feed me cry, I would feed him.
Well, even when the microwave went off, he didn't make any noise aside from a couple of flock calls. Other than that, I carried on the day like normal
I felt kinda bad for going that whole day without feeding, so this morning I prepared his food. I was honestly surprised about how it played out. He didn't cry at all, not even when the microwave beeped. I held the spoon in front of him, and he ate a few bites, and didn't even care if it was cold. Then he was done. Just like that. And now he's eating solid food by himself with no problem.
So I think he might officially be weaned. I'll be honest, out of all the cockatiels my mother has raised in the past, I do not remember one taking as long as Alex did, considering that I'm pretty sure he's passed the fledgling stage. Though I was ok going his pace, it seems getting him to eat it himself off the spoon was the one push he needed towards weaning.
Now I just need to make sure there isn't a relapse, or anything.
I'll get pictures soon, since his face and chest are so clean now, and his feathers are starting to settle after all that preening, from when I got the food out by hand.
