Please tell me about co-parenting of baby chicks

I am not a breeder but the subject of co parenting has been brought up before in classes I have attended. Are the young birds more adjusted? How about eating human food? Basically how is it done and what is the outcome for the bird. Thanks

Could you be a little more specific? I think I know what you're asking but the term "co-parenting" threw me a little

Oh OK. It is when chicks hatch they stay with the parents and not pulled so fast for hand feeding. I think but not sure the babies may be fed by both parents and breeder. That is why I am asking. Someone else on the fourm referred to it as co-parenting.

I have read a few articles on Co parenting but I don't even fully understand it I think leaving the chicks with the parents gives them that wild side to act like birds unlike full hand tame birds and i think the breeder handles the chicks to get them use to being handled but as I said I'm not 100% on it sorry

I was wondering more about the adjustment factor. The speaker from a rescue org. said she believed the birds raised this way were more calm and adjusted to a new I think our member Echo does this. Perhaps this person can add to our knowledge.

I would like to learn more on this method as well actually

I might have been the one to mention Coparenting. I've done before and use it with some birds but not all. I'm not i understand your question.

As far as I know, my breeder pulls her young from the nest box around 2 weeks after hatching. I do know some particular breeds she will pull sooner for fear of being accidentally harmed/killed by one of the parents(not malicious, accidentally) and no I don't remember which breeds those are. Obviously they are all started on handfeed but are also slowly introduced to organic baby foods mixed in with the formula. During this process they are handled by at least 2 people, more if the future owner lives close enough to visit. She's been breeding/rescuing for well over 20 years now. Pretty much all I've learned I've learned from her and I highly respect her knowledge and experience.

Sorry for being unclear.

How do you co-parent with baby birds?
How does the feeding go?
Do the parents feed and then the breeder or is it a combo?
Do you see a difference in the birds that are co-parented and strictly had fed?
Are these birds really better adjusted to life than the hand fed ones?


This speaker I refer to was an avian vet from California speaking for Phoenix Landing class. She said in her 30 years experience she believes the co-parented birds are better able to handle what life has to offer a bird. There are things only the bird parents can teach the babies.

Basically you leave the chicks to be feed by the parents. You handle the chicks to socialize them but they stay with the parents. There are several variations on the theme such as supplementing the parents feeding with syringe feeding formula ,especially with large broods or underdeveloped chicks. Hydration is super inportant with chicks in the first 5 days and younger parents don't always do a good job until all the chicks have hatched or ignore small chicks that hatch later. Many parent raised breeders are much better at taking care of their babies than parents that were hand feed for the pet trade, these birds often benefit the most from coparenting and are more appt to allow coparenting .The parents raised breeder birds often will not allow human intrusion in the nest box and must be "pulled" to be hand fed for pets. Human food? Not the best because we often don't know the nutritional valve of human food. Handfeeding formula has been researched and is usually accepted to be the best. Equally important is the diet feed parent birds when they are doing the feeding. Does that help?

I think your touching on the subject of incubator birds that are hand feed from day 1 . IMO chicks should be left with parents 3 wks or coparented.

Yes, thank for your explanation. I guess there would need to be some more research to see if these birds are more adjusted to the life of a bird than ones that is hand raised. Most likely another debate. Me stay out of a debate on this subject as I only know what others have said.

the debate is more about incubator hatched versus parent/coparent raised birds. I don't think these much difference in birds coparented and those pulled at 3 wks (survival rate is better if pulled at 3 wks) Incubator birds are only imprint on humans ,if that causes problems,i'm not sure. I only incubate if given no other choice. Parent raised wild birds can make great pets so i see no issues with coparenting if the parents will allow it.

Spiritbird said:

I was wondering more about the adjustment factor. The speaker from a rescue org. said she believed the birds raised this way were more calm and adjusted to a new I think our member Echo does this. Perhaps this person can add to our knowledge.

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Yes I strickly Co-parent. That means that the babies are left with the parents until weaning. From 3 weeks on (for GCC), you handle the babies every day increasing the amount of time of each session. At around 6 weeks old, you start to introduce solid food at each session (they usually toy with it at first). Some breeders who co-parent will offer formula during the session. I have in the past, but I do not any longer. It is difficult to know when the babies will accept it as you can't keep track of the parents feeding schedule. Offering the solid food by hand such as millet has the same result. The parents raise their babies and teach them to be birds. They teach them to fly (which is amazing to see).

I find the babies to be well adjusted companion that have CHOSEN to trust humans. They do get bonded to us once away from the parents. However, they are still independent and seem to understand that humans are different from them. There seem to be less ambiguity come maturity about breeding issues that some hand fed birds may have towards the human they have chosen as "mate". They also seem to be more open to the idea of another bird in the household and can be more accepting having less competing tendency for the human.

I am lucky that I have a friendly relationship with my pairs where they will hang out on me and show the babies that I am trustworthy. They are not afraid of me and that is a great help for me with the babies as they feed off their parents behavior. I don't think it would be quite a success if my pairs were untamed and afraid of humans. I find that it is also much more doable if you don't have many babies to care for as the time you have to have to dedicate to
each baby in order for him to trust you and be (and stay) tame is a full time job (and I already have a full time job beside the breeding). But the rewards are immense! You have this bird acting like a bird knowing bird "talk" and behavior and still choses to be your friend!

Thank you Echo for such a good explanation. It sounds like the birds raised this way get the best of both worlds. If I was in the market for another parrot I would want one of yours for sure. What species do you raise?

Spiritbird said:

Thank you Echo for such a good explanation. It sounds like the birds raised this way get the best of both worlds. If I was in the market for another parrot I would want one of yours for sure. What species do you raise?

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Thank you . I raise Green Cheek Conures (Pineapple and Yellow-sided color mutations) and Crimson-Bellied Conures in the near future.

I think that co parenting is a great way to raise animals. All animals benefit from the care and interaction of the same species. We tend to expect that our parrots are little feathered humans, but in reality they are birds that need to be allowed to be birds. Being taught bird behavior allows birds to find a way to cope naturally with the environment that we put them in. The use of coparenting is done in most animal breeding, ie: dogs, cats, horses often called desensitizing or socialization with domestic animals this allows for positive interaction without taking away the animal's need for interaction with their own species. It is well known that a single pup will end up having serious behavioral problems because they don not have other puppies to teach them boundaries and proper social behavior, puppies raised on a bottle also often have problems such as anxiety disorders and fear that normal parent raised puppies don't have. I am sure that birds have similar needs and would benefit from being parent raised.

Echo, that is fascinating! Do you know other breeders who co-parent? Specifically one who raises TAGs?

I just recently got a GCC from Echo. She is a great bird, very calm and friendly. She lets me pick her up and hasn't bitten once. I wasn't sure how tame she would be, seeing as she was 'co-parented', and I was unfamiliar with it. When I picked her up from the airport I peeked in the carrier, and there was this pretty little GCC, sitting there eating an apple. She comes to me by herself for cuddles and scratches, she seems very well adjusted to me.

Annageckos said:

I just recently got a GCC from Echo. She is a great bird, very calm and friendly. She lets me pick her up and hasn't bitten once. I wasn't sure how tame she would be, seeing as she was 'co-parented', and I was unfamiliar with it. When I picked her up from the airport I peeked in the carrier, and there was this pretty little GCC, sitting there eating an apple. She comes to me by herself for cuddles and scratches, she seems very well adjusted to me.

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That's right. Thanks for posting Anna ! Ziva is a sweet little girl who has found a great home with Anna.