Budgie Weaning!

[dumpling]

Hi everyone! I'm Dumpling, I'm a first time budgie owner and i'm new to this forum as well. My budgie, Mr. Darcy is currently almost about 11 weeks old. When I got him he was 8 weeks and the store keeper told me to continue hand feeding him the formula for another 2 weeks or so. For the past couple of days, I've introduced him to pellets. I'm using Zupreem pellets for budgies, he seems to have a hard time nibbling on them, so I tried breaking them into smaller pieces. So far he is skeptical when it comes to the pellets but yesterday he was trying them out. Now Mr Darcy is usually active and very interactive, he gets especially happy when he sees his feeding syringe. But today morning he was really lethargic and had his feathers all puffed up. Since i'm trying to wean him, I figured I'd feed him a little formula and then let him eat the pellets. So in the morning he was tired and didn't seem hungry, so i left him back in his cage to sleep cause he seemed tired. But in the afternoon when I went to check on him, he was sleeping and not responsive, he usually chirps and gets excited. So i got worried, I went to pick him up but he was weak and frail. I made some formula and tried to feed him but he was so weak and didn't eat any at first. After awhile I managed to slowly tap his beak and get him to open up, after awhile he was more responsive and was eating better. I spoke to my cousin who has birds and to the storekeeper whom i got Mr Darcy from and they both told me that perhaps he isn't ready to be weaned and to keep him in a dark place and feed him 5 hours or so later. Currently, he is in shoe box with holes (suggested by the storekeeper so that the bird can keep warm) and he is a little more responsive. Does anyone know what might have triggered the lethargy? I appreciate any and all tips or information! thank you

[Hezz]

An 11 week old budgie does not need to be fed formula, or pellets for that matter. This is all way off. A budgie at four weeks should be starting to forage for themselves, cracking seed on its own and starting to perch like an adult bird.

11 weeks, that's nearly three months! This budgie should be getting ready to head into its first moult, not be still being kept in a shoe box and fed formula! At eight weeks it should not have been being fed formula.

In my opinion, get rid of the pellets, provide a good budgie mix of seed - that is, more than five different seed types, different types of millet (french and japanese, red and white), canary seed, panicum and then a small amount of oil seeds/oats.

Most importantly, a budgie that is lethargic and unresponsive needs a vet asap.

[dumpling]

Thanks for your reply, the store keeper actually instructed me to hand feed him formula, so I followed that. As for the shoe box, that was just for an hour or so to keep him warm, he has his own cage. I opted for pellets because from what I read online, seeds are fattening for budgies and pellets + occasional seeds are a better option. Anyways, he seems better now, I gave him some millet seeds + some seed mix. The only seeds he has been able to eat so are actually the millet seeds. I'm just worried he won't eat properly and that would result in him being weak, I've left the seeds for him to eat. By the way, he is an Australian budgie and not an English budgie.