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Diet for a weaning African Grey parrot

I am from Bucharest/Romania and we don’t have well prepared avian vet. i have a baby african grey. he is 17-18 weeks. i bought him about one month and he is not weaned.now i am trying to wean him. i was to the vet with him for a test bcz his drops are wetly and the avian vet told me to feed him only with mango, apple, kiwi with seeds, baby wet formula, special bread, mix seeds, cow cheese. that’s all. without banana or other fruits, without vegi. how is possible? he needs a lot of vegi and fruits. please you can explain me what diet i can give to him? what food he can eat. and please, i beg you advice me what to do bcz i don’t know how the feces have to be. i read but i have no idea how is normally to be.
Best regards

Ideally, a pet parrot should be purchased fully weaned. With this, many of the health risks and behavioral problems that are encountered with the purchase of an unweaned bird can be avoided. Assuming that you are using a wet formula for handfeeding that is commercially manufactured, the same company should have a pelletized product available in your area. The diet you mentioned seems to be quite high in emphasized fruits, whereas we will generally recommend a combination of a commercially manufactured pellet with vegetables as the primary base. Cheese is generally not recommended as a daily portion of most parrot diets. In the absence of available commercially manufactured diets in your country, low-fat content seed mixtures, combined with vegetable material may be a somewhat acceptable base.

Young parrot chicks, particularly when not fully weaned, should pass more urine than their adult conterparts. During the weaning process, it is advisable to offer a variety of the food items that we are teaching the bird to eat on a large flat plate, and to forage with the birds while they are exploring their environment and social interactions with you. Afterwards, offer a small amount of handfeeding formula, if the bird desires.

About Brian Speer, DVM

Avian veterinarian Dr. Brian Speer was raised in a small town on California’s coast. He received his BS in Biology from California Polytechnic State University in 1978, and his DVM degree from the University of California at Davis in 1983.

An active member of the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV), Dr. Speer is a much sought after guest speaker and has presented at numerous conferences in the avicultural and zoological communities both within the United States and abroad. He is well published in the AAV annual proceedings, has served as guest editor for the journal Seminars in Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine, the Veterinary Clinics of North America, and authored chapters in several recent veterinary medical texts on pet bird, avicultural and ratite medical topics. In 1995 he co-authored the extensive avicultural reference, The Large Macaws, and helped to co-author Birds for Dummies in 1999.

Since 1989, Dr, Speer has run a “bird’s only” practice in the San Francisco Bay area and is the President and Director of The Medical Center for Birds. He is a consultant for The Veterinary Information Network (Avian Medical Boards) and the Maui Animal Rescue and Sanctuary. In 2003 he was the recipient of the Lafeber award for excellence in private practice of avian medicine and surgery and in 2006, was named Speaker of the Year for the North American Veterinary Conference.