Hi everyone,
I rescued a mannikin finch (either black and white or bronze winged) 5 weeks ago when I think it was about 2-3 weeks old) after a storm. I have been hand rearing it ever since. It's doing pretty well but I was just wondering whether there is a known age where the fledgling will stop being needed to be hand fed? In the last 5 days or so it has seemed to have successfully (unlike before where it was trying and knew what to do but couldn't quite do it) eat grass seed. Other seeds are too hard for it I think at the moment.
It still begs for food every hour or so during the day. Does anyone know whether it would simply continue to beg and be fed by me, in theory, forever? Or would it instinctively stop at some point? (I currently feed it with a syringe holder).
Any advice on timelines or anything related to a weaning process would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks,
Hannah