Instructions
Keep track of the baby umbrella cockatoo's feedings. You might find it helpful to weigh the baby in the morning (when its crop is empty) and record its weight, as well as the amount of each feeding throughout the day. Records can help you determine when it's time to wean your baby umbrella cockatoo, and you can also compare records to determine if a particular baby umbrella cockatoo is underweight compared to its siblings.
Hand-feed your baby umbrella cockatoo less often as it begins to refuse formula, until you're feeding it twice a day. Chicks often peak in weight around the time they're eating formula twice a day, lose a bit of their weight as they fledge (grow feathers and learn to fly) and gain some of this weight back after fledging. Chicks generally lose about 10 to 25 percent of their weight when fledging.
Offer your baby umbrella cockatoo solid foods when it's eating formula twice a day. This will also be around the time it begins to fledge. Continue to offer the food it ignores, but increase the amount of the food it prefers. This will encourage it to try other foods and will also ensure it consumes enough food on its own to start sustaining itself. Feed your baby umbrella cockatoo fruits and vegetables (offering human baby food is a great way to start) and sprouted seeds. As your baby umbrella cockatoo becomes used to eating these foods, you can begin offering it seeds, nuts and pellets.
Reduce your baby umbrella cockatoo's feedings to once a day, when the baby is steadily eating adult food and refusing formula. The baby umbrella cockatoo's desire to be hand-fed at this point will be psychological, and you can gradually feed smaller amounts and stop hand-feeding altogether. Replace hand-feedings with plenty of interaction with your baby umbrella cockatoo, and offer it some adult food you know it enjoys to make the transition easier. Weaned chicks and adults still enjoy being hand-fed as a special treat once in a while, which makes administering medicine easy should they ever get sick.
How to Wean a Baby Umbrella Cockatoo
Larger cockatoos, such as umbrella cockatoos, can usually be weaned at between 15 and 18 weeks of age, but each baby umbrella cockatoo will develop differently and should be treated as an individual, and weaned when it appears ready. In general, cockatoos can be quite difficult to wean and require plenty of socialization with their caretakers or owners following weaning to maintain the bond created with hand-feeding.