Would adult bird help wean a hand fed owl fledgling?

[a_gouldian]

Thanks for all the input. Their was a new development this morning in that the female owl laid another egg. She laid 3 eggs, took a day off so we thought she was done, but laid another this morning for a total of 4. Last clutch about 3 weeks ago she laid 6 but they didn't sit so we removed the eggs. This clutch we are giving them to the societies because they started laying eggs at the same time.

So, our choice is put one owl finch in with the fledgling in two - three days when they should be done laying eggs. Put a gentle male Gouldian in with the owl fledgling today.

We don't have enough cages to put the owls in a cage next to the fledgling and to put the fledgling next to the owls might stress out the fledgling because there are 16 birds in that room in three large double flight cages. We only have one pair of Owl Finches.

The reason we only have one fledging, is that this was their first clutch, only three eggs in the clutch, and two eggs did not hatch. The second day after hatching they were not going back in the nest or feeding, and the male started the mating routine again, so we pulled the chick and started hand feeding.

[a_gouldian]

We ended up putting the male Gouldian in with the owl finch fledgling and will probably switch out the male Gouldian with the adult female Owl Finch early next week when she is done laying eggs. At least this way the fledgling has company and can see another bird eat. The male Gouldian does not seemed thrilled and is just sitting on his perch. We will monitor the situation. Puff, our owl fledgling, seems to be happy with the company and sits on the perch next to the Gouldian.

[Babs _Owner]

a_gouldian

Seems like your little friend craves a mentor. Hopefully the next few days he will hop around and follow his adult feathered friend for instructions.

LOL Makes me giggle when I think about how frumpy the male goulian is right now. The lesson to feed hopefully will be fast and your gouldian get back to being a gouldian. Kids sheeesh.

Let us know how they are doing as a team.

[a_gouldian]

a_gouldian

Seems like your little friend craves a mentor. Hopefully the next few days he will hop around and follow his adult feathered friend for instructions.

LOL Makes me giggle when I think about how frumpy the male goulian is right now. The lesson to feed hopefully will be fast and your gouldian get back to being a gouldian. Kids sheeesh.

Let us know how they are doing as a team.

Well, that didn't work out that well so we put the Gouldian back in his cage on the third floor. The male Gouldian was crying for the female, the female was crying for the male, and the male didn't seem to like the owl fledgling hanging around him.

Tomorrow, we will most likely move the owl fledgling in his cage up to the bird room and put his cage next to the cage with the adult Owl Finches so he can see them. We might put the female in with him after a day or two but we will play that by ear. This weaning part seems to be very difficult when dealing with just one bird that was hand fed. We don't want him to starve and he acts like he is going to die