Jayson_Black
New member
- Jan 20, 2018
- 29
- 9
- Parrots
- 2x Eclectus-bonded Pair, 1 x Eclectus Chick (Hand Rearing from Incubation) (Male). 3X Cockatiel (2 of them hand reared from 4 weeks), 1 X Australian Magpie (reared from Fledgling), 2 X Budgie (Hand re
After finishing this post I will be going up the supermarket to buy Salem's (Our 44 day (6.2 weeks) old Eclectus) First Foods. Am going to give him Cooked Sweet Potato, Corn and peas. Maybe a small amount of Strawberry &/or Kiwi Fruit. But not too much Fruit coz of sugar/fructose.
My main concern is water. Being so young and not so stable on his feet yet I am apprehensive about letting him near water un supervised. What do you guys think?
I'd love to hear any tips you have about First Foods. What to give and what not to give. By "what Not to give" I dont mean the poisonous foods list, but more things that might be choking hazard or have too much of something or not enough of something. But also your thoughts on water. I am thinking I will give him a baby chicken water feeder. the part where the water sits is very narrow making drowning very unlikely. Although now that I think of it Salem's head is huge compared to a 0 to 10 day Chicken Hatchling. So what do you guys do with water at this age?
Now for the update on Salem's Progress. Some of you may know that I Hand Reared him from Hatching/Incubation. It's been a little bumpy, a little scary but he has gained weight very well, I have charted and plotted his weight (and more recently his feeds) into a spread sheet and compared his progress to that which is charted in a book I purchased.
You Can see that Spread Sheet here if you like: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...CL-uFn5tYYXEjIYoV5JUbyF1DkwrAoMI_J2A7/pubhtml
The only problem we have had is that lump appeared to form on his neck. At first I thought it might have been a Ruptured Clavicle Air Sac which causes a subcutaneous Emphysema. But after thoroughly researching that found that it is not that. That left me thinking it had to be a Cyst or tumor. But I don't think it is that either anymore. I think it a very strange form of "wry neck" or some other kind of skeletal deformity. We can and will take him to an avian vet. We live deep in the country and the nearest Three Avian Vets are 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours away. Normally that wouldn't be an issue except for the fact we are experiencing record heat here in Australia this summer. It could be dangerous to take him away from home for so long in such high heat. Even worse if the car broke down, we wouldn't be able to provide air conditioning. There is a small chance I might be able to get the Vet to come here, but that is going Cost$$$
Anyway, Considering he has good energy levels, eating well, gaining weight, fast blink etc we have decided a vet visit is not such an emergency that we once thought it might be. So we will monitor him carefully and wait for cooler weather and/or when Salem is older to take him to the vet.
The only other issue we had along the way was as his eye sight came in he became quite difficult to feed for 3 or 4 days. Everything scared him or at least distracted him making feeding extremely difficult. The book we purchased says to cover their head with a towel when their eye sight comes in. but when I tried this he panicked. I also thought it was better to just nut it out so that we didn't have to continue feeding with a towel over his head. It only took about 3 maybe 4 days for him to settle down and get back into a good feeding rythem. I was also slightly over feeding him during this stage which didn't help him wanting to eat properly. (I was feeding him 6 times per day, we I should have been down to like 5 or even 4 feeds per day)
I have hand reared Chicks before, but never from hatching. My neighbor is an experienced parrot breeder, but even he has never attempted rearing from hatching/incubation before.
In all, I think I did a pretty good job. I did it on my own. Even the first few days where I was feeding him 14 times per day. I would sleep in between feeds. I would wash, then sterilize everything, every Feed. I literally destroyed the skin on my hands from the obsessive hand washing. For e.g. if I washed my hands, the happened to brush my hand on something or scratch my face, I would go back and wash my hands again, and sometimes again and again. Then I would also use rubber gloves for the actual feeding.
In my head I was determined not to fail this innocent baby. From the moment I set the Egg in the incubator, I made a commitment in my own head that no matter what it took, I was going to do this and do it right. I would give a piece of my Soul to ensure this baby's health and survival. I took no chances, I made no gambles. I made sure I did my homework. Although some information is very hard to find for hand rearing of Eckies from hatching. I think the only reason I was able to do this is my attitude towards commitment. I have all kinds of problems in life, but once I make a commitment, you can always count on me and that goes double for my animal family.
But anyway, here we are at day 44. It's been a beautiful experience, all be it a grueling and tiresome one. I still get nervous about different things, behaviors, sounds etc. lol. I actually have a camera in the brooder, so that if Salem is scared or needs anything I can hear him. Just the other night he started squawking in the middle of the night. Almost like he had a bad dream. I raced up to him and petted him until he went back to sleep. It was so cute. but I better be careful not to introduce any spoiled behaviors. But I can't help it. Even though I am a Man, I am extremely Broody and Clucky. lol.
Please feel free to ask me any questions
Here is a YouTube video of Salem from Day 1 to Day 38, I will make a new Video around Day 50 or 60:
[ame="https://youtu.be/nGVq1LClWrk"]Baby Eclectus Day 1 to 38 Hand rearing - YouTube[/ame]
My main concern is water. Being so young and not so stable on his feet yet I am apprehensive about letting him near water un supervised. What do you guys think?
I'd love to hear any tips you have about First Foods. What to give and what not to give. By "what Not to give" I dont mean the poisonous foods list, but more things that might be choking hazard or have too much of something or not enough of something. But also your thoughts on water. I am thinking I will give him a baby chicken water feeder. the part where the water sits is very narrow making drowning very unlikely. Although now that I think of it Salem's head is huge compared to a 0 to 10 day Chicken Hatchling. So what do you guys do with water at this age?
Now for the update on Salem's Progress. Some of you may know that I Hand Reared him from Hatching/Incubation. It's been a little bumpy, a little scary but he has gained weight very well, I have charted and plotted his weight (and more recently his feeds) into a spread sheet and compared his progress to that which is charted in a book I purchased.
You Can see that Spread Sheet here if you like: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...CL-uFn5tYYXEjIYoV5JUbyF1DkwrAoMI_J2A7/pubhtml
The only problem we have had is that lump appeared to form on his neck. At first I thought it might have been a Ruptured Clavicle Air Sac which causes a subcutaneous Emphysema. But after thoroughly researching that found that it is not that. That left me thinking it had to be a Cyst or tumor. But I don't think it is that either anymore. I think it a very strange form of "wry neck" or some other kind of skeletal deformity. We can and will take him to an avian vet. We live deep in the country and the nearest Three Avian Vets are 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours away. Normally that wouldn't be an issue except for the fact we are experiencing record heat here in Australia this summer. It could be dangerous to take him away from home for so long in such high heat. Even worse if the car broke down, we wouldn't be able to provide air conditioning. There is a small chance I might be able to get the Vet to come here, but that is going Cost$$$
Anyway, Considering he has good energy levels, eating well, gaining weight, fast blink etc we have decided a vet visit is not such an emergency that we once thought it might be. So we will monitor him carefully and wait for cooler weather and/or when Salem is older to take him to the vet.
The only other issue we had along the way was as his eye sight came in he became quite difficult to feed for 3 or 4 days. Everything scared him or at least distracted him making feeding extremely difficult. The book we purchased says to cover their head with a towel when their eye sight comes in. but when I tried this he panicked. I also thought it was better to just nut it out so that we didn't have to continue feeding with a towel over his head. It only took about 3 maybe 4 days for him to settle down and get back into a good feeding rythem. I was also slightly over feeding him during this stage which didn't help him wanting to eat properly. (I was feeding him 6 times per day, we I should have been down to like 5 or even 4 feeds per day)
I have hand reared Chicks before, but never from hatching. My neighbor is an experienced parrot breeder, but even he has never attempted rearing from hatching/incubation before.
In all, I think I did a pretty good job. I did it on my own. Even the first few days where I was feeding him 14 times per day. I would sleep in between feeds. I would wash, then sterilize everything, every Feed. I literally destroyed the skin on my hands from the obsessive hand washing. For e.g. if I washed my hands, the happened to brush my hand on something or scratch my face, I would go back and wash my hands again, and sometimes again and again. Then I would also use rubber gloves for the actual feeding.
In my head I was determined not to fail this innocent baby. From the moment I set the Egg in the incubator, I made a commitment in my own head that no matter what it took, I was going to do this and do it right. I would give a piece of my Soul to ensure this baby's health and survival. I took no chances, I made no gambles. I made sure I did my homework. Although some information is very hard to find for hand rearing of Eckies from hatching. I think the only reason I was able to do this is my attitude towards commitment. I have all kinds of problems in life, but once I make a commitment, you can always count on me and that goes double for my animal family.
But anyway, here we are at day 44. It's been a beautiful experience, all be it a grueling and tiresome one. I still get nervous about different things, behaviors, sounds etc. lol. I actually have a camera in the brooder, so that if Salem is scared or needs anything I can hear him. Just the other night he started squawking in the middle of the night. Almost like he had a bad dream. I raced up to him and petted him until he went back to sleep. It was so cute. but I better be careful not to introduce any spoiled behaviors. But I can't help it. Even though I am a Man, I am extremely Broody and Clucky. lol.
Please feel free to ask me any questions
Here is a YouTube video of Salem from Day 1 to Day 38, I will make a new Video around Day 50 or 60:
[ame="https://youtu.be/nGVq1LClWrk"]Baby Eclectus Day 1 to 38 Hand rearing - YouTube[/ame]
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