Help Needed With A New Baby

[slarja]

I have a mated pair of GCC’s that have recently produced their first baby. The baby is now a month old and has been completely raised by the parents with no interaction from me. It’s also in a nest box that I can’t even get to unless I dis-assemble the top of the (huge homemade) cage.

My questions are:
1) Can I start handling the baby so it can get used to humans?
2) If so, do I remove the parents to another room so they don’t see me?
3) If I don’t remove the parents, will they maybe stop taking care of it and expect me to feed it? I’m too scared to do that!

I’m concerned that this baby is still in a dark nest box. The box is a 9”x9”x9” with the hole in the middle of the front. What if the baby gets large enough to climb out the hole and fall to the ground?

Truthfully, I’m really surprised the baby is still alive according to what I’ve read about babies needing 93 degrees temp and humidity. My house is only 76 degrees and dry! I’m so anxious to hold it but I don’t want to make a mistake.

Any help would be appreciated at this point.

 

[itzjbean]

Hello, welcome to the forums!!

If you want the baby to be tame, which most people do, yes start handling the baby. It may seem very frightened of you, which is only natural. Birds are prey animals and if not raised around people, will be scared of them. Both parents may act VERY aggressive towards you, they are just doing what feels natural to them and protecting their baby.

Generally if you want the baby to be tame, I would highly suggest pulling the baby from the nest box and finishing the weaning process by handfeeding it. That way it learns to associate people with tasty food, yum! Since it is 4 weeks old you will have to provide the proper heat for it to survive since it can't make its own. DIY brooders can be made easily, there are lots of tutorials online about how to make them. The general rule is baby birds can't sustain their own body heat until 6 weeks old. Once they get feathers, start lowering the temperature until it is room temperature.

If the baby will be living in an aviary, you can leave it with its parents but it will probably be very frightened of people for its entire life unless separated and handfed now. Hope this information helps you!

 

[slarja]

Thank you for your input. I just don't think I have it in me to hand-feed a baby yet; too scared I'll choke it! Maybe next time they have babies I'll give it a try. I've only had the male for a year and the female since last August. I didn't even know the sex of either one until I found mama sitting on eggs. Then it was a waiting game; if the eggs hatch, I'll know the other is a male!

So, I think my plan will be to put the parents in another room, then get the baby out for awhile. Would 10 minutes be a good amount of time? I can do this every day hoping to get it used to people. But then it'll be 'right back in the box', get mom and dad, and leave the feeding up to them! I just don't want them to reject it. Does this sound OK?

:smile008: slarja














































































































































































54

 

[itzjbean]

Hi, yes I would even take the baby out more than that, maybe a couple 10-20 minute intervals every day. Always wash your hands before handling the baby to prevent spreading germs. Eventually mom and dad can be kept in one cage and the baby in another. I wouldn't house them all together after the baby is weaned, otherwise it may never really like people. I know there are breeders out there that will allow the parents to raise the babies but in my honest opinion, parent-raised babies are not as tame as hand-fed because they never learn to associate people with good things and often times end up preferring the company of other birds than people.

There may be breeders in your area who could help guide you with the handfeeding process should you want to give it a try.

 

[EllenD]

Hi, I'm very glad you asked your questions. I have bred English budgies and cockatiels for over 20 years, and I can honestly say that I'm very pleased that you don't want to hand-feed the baby because you're not experienced or confident! Most people are the opposite, and you should never, ever hand-feed a baby if you're not 109% sure of what you're doing. And hand feeding has no bearing on tameness, handling and daily interaction does.

You should start handling babies at the earliest around 2-3 weeks old, so yours is ready! Block the nest box off when the parents leave to eat or go poop. Then just get the baby out and hold it, scratch it, pet it, play with it, and talk to it for at least 20-30 minutes a day. Don't ever "Pull" a baby and hand feed it if you don't know how, that's bad advice. You can easily aspirate the baby, along with a host of other issues dealing with the formula temp, thickness, etc. That being said, you should learn how immediately before you allow your birds to mate again, often times you'll be forced to pull a baby and hand-raise them because the parents stop feeding it, push it away and won't warm it, or start being aggressive and hurt it. So please either mentor with a breeder locally, or start studying online about hand-feeding and hand-raising baby birds and start buying equipment like a brooder, feeding pippettes, syringes, formula, etc. BEFORE your bird's breed again.

Just handle and interact with your babies daily from now on, several times a day if you can. It's best if they've just been fed and have a full crop before you get them out. Your interaction with the baby will not stop the parents from taking care of it, just make sure to block the hole so they can't get back in the box while you have it out.

Don't worry about the baby falling out of the box, it will come out when it's ready to wean/fledge. The parents know what to do, so does the baby. Just watch for a full crop, the parents sitting on it, and no injuries from pecking or plucking. Other than that it will be fine. I'd actually put a millet spray in the nest box at this point, it can help with weaning.

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[EllenD]

Thank you for your input. I just don't think I have it in me to hand-feed a baby yet; too scared I'll choke it! Maybe next time they have babies I'll give it a try. I've only had the male for a year and the female since last August. I didn't even know the sex of either one until I found mama sitting on eggs. Then it was a waiting game; if the eggs hatch, I'll know the other is a male!

So, I think my plan will be to put the parents in another room, then get the baby out for awhile. Would 10 minutes be a good amount of time? I can do this every day hoping to get it used to people. But then it'll be 'right back in the box', get mom and dad, and leave the feeding up to them! I just don't want them to reject it. Does this sound OK?

:smile008: slarja














































































































































































54

Don't remove mom or dad from the cage! Just block them out and remove the baby! Sorry, I didn't see your comment..
Try to at least handle the baby for 20-30 minutes a day, possibly twice a day if you can. But do not remove mom or dad!

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[EllenD]

And please don't make a DIY brooder, they are not consistent in temperature at all. Buy a used brooder on either eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist, they are cheap. And babies need to be in the brooder until they have all of their down feathers at least. There's no set age as they're all different. There's an enormous amount of breeding information online and some very good books, but talking to actual breeders and mentoring with one is the best way to learn, especially hand-feeding and all of the problems that can arise while doing it.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be critical of you itzjbean, but your advice of telling a novice to pull a month old chick and hand feed it for it to be tame, along with making a DIY brooder is not responsible advice. Baby birds die every day because people just think they'll hand feed them with no experience and they put them in a plastic tub with a heating pad. It's awful. They either freeze to death, don't digest food because they are too cold, aspirate food and die instantly, or develop either crop stasis or infection, or get crop burn because the formula is not kept at the correct temperature and they die. This person actually respects the fact that she is inexperienced and doesn't have the correct equipment to "Pull" the month old baby as you advised. So I'm very pleased that they are responsible enough to know not to take the job lightly.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[itzjbean]

And please don't make a DIY brooder, they are not consistent in temperature at all. Buy a used brooder on either eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist, they are cheap. And babies need to be in the brooder until they have all of their down feathers at least. There's no set age as they're all different. There's an enormous amount of breeding information online and some very good books, but talking to actual breeders and mentoring with one is the best way to learn, especially hand-feeding and all of the problems that can arise while doing it.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be critical of you itzjbean, but your advice of telling a novice to pull a month old chick and hand feed it for it to be tame, along with making a DIY brooder is not responsible advice. Baby birds die every day because people just think they'll hand feed them with no experience and they put them in a plastic tub with a heating pad. It's awful. They either freeze to death, don't digest food because they are too cold, aspirate food and die instantly, or develop either crop stasis or infection, or get crop burn because the formula is not kept at the correct temperature and they die. This person actually respects the fact that she is inexperienced and doesn't have the correct equipment to "Pull" the month old baby as you advised. So I'm very pleased that they are responsible enough to know not to take the job lightly.

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None taken, EllenD. I still have a lot to learn, and I think I assumed too much with the original poster. Generally people who choose to let their birds breed have an understanding of the hand-feeding process so they are ready to intervene if the babies are rejected, mutilated, etc, but I forget not everyone who breeds chooses to learn this. I will second your advice to the OP, NEVER attempt to hand-feed a baby if you don't know what you are doing. You could VERY easily kill the baby this way.

That being said, I also suggest the OP to learn how the hand-feeding process is done BEFORE they choose to let their birds raise babies again. It is a great skill to have, and it can be a very rewarding experience hand-feeding babies. All birds are different when it comes to tameness. My last cockatiel clutch was all parent-raised except for one, though I think my hand-fed baby may have been more tame because I handled him more, so you may be right with the daily interaction and handling being the main factors in a birds' tameness.

As far as the brooder goes, I think it is also something that takes experience on the breeder's part. I have seen some really cool DIY brooders that work very well and managed to keep consistent temps (like using a fish-tank heater submerged in water with a grate separating the babies) but these are made by people who have tested and tried them for years with success, so maybe not intended for a novice to attempt.

 

[slarja]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I will start taking the baby out for 20-30 minutes every day but not feed it. I'll start this afternoon and keep everyone posted on how it goes. I never expected to have babies since I didn't know their sex until it was too late. I feel like that TV show 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant!'

 

[itzjbean]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I will start taking the baby out for 20-30 minutes every day but not feed it. I'll start this afternoon and keep everyone posted on how it goes. I never expected to have babies since I didn't know their sex until it was too late. I feel like that TV show 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant!'

Yes, let us know how it goes. And, you had a nestbox set up, right? Take it out and you won't have any more babies. Remember, you can always take the eggs and toss them after they're laid. They won't hatch unless they've been incubated for around 3 weeks (I can't remember how many days it is for conures, but its around that for cockatiels) so you could've just tossed the eggs. You don't HAVE to let them incubate it and let them hatch it.

 

[slarja]

Well, the nest box was actually supposed to be a little birdhouse made by my grandson. I couldn't hurt his feelings and not use it. He was so proud knowing he made it all by himself and that the birds liked it so much they decided to have babies. He couldn't wait for the eggs to hatch, but only 1 out of 4 eggs did. He keeps asking when they're going to lay some more!

 

[itzjbean]

Well, the nest box was actually supposed to be a little birdhouse made by my grandson. I couldn't hurt his feelings and not use it. He was so proud knowing he made it all by himself and that the birds liked it so much they decided to have babies. He couldn't wait for the eggs to hatch, but only 1 out of 4 eggs did. He keeps asking when they're going to lay some more!

I see, that's understandable. However I do recommend taking EllenD's advice to learn how to handfeed from a breeder in your area or your Avian vet should you choose to breed them again. That way, if the babies end up being rejected, you can help them stay alive.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, and... you can change your header to read "THREE GCCs!"

Congratulations!

 

[slarja]

OMG! You're right!