Hand feeding

[rbtlyn]

Hello everyone, I am looking for opinions. I have a pair of black capped Conures that I am considering to let mate. I am up on everything that needs to be done and have begun collecting everything as far as equipment, materials and supplies. I know how to hand feed, I have done it both with a spoon and syringe but never with Conures, so here is my only question, would you recommend feeding the Conures with the spoon or syringe? Thank you for any assistance you can give me.
Rob

 

[GaleriaGila]

Yipes. I'm such a scaredy-cat... I'd be afraid to conduct any mating/feeding without hands-on mentorship or guidance. I hear so many awful tales of things-gone-wrong. Still, good for you for reaching out.
While you're hoping for personal assistance, I'd suggest using the SEARCH tab above to look for previous/ongoing threads on your subjects.

 

[LordTriggs]

from what I have read up they're okay with either type of feeding. Personally I would go for the syringe as I can imagine it being a little easier especially at the start and less messy.

Though a possible idea for you to look into if you do go through with breeding is looking into co-parenting the babies. The short version is you let the parents do most of the feedings but you interact with the babies and play with them and I believe offer one feeding a day. You'll have to look into it a bit more as I've never bred parrots but from what I can tell co-parenting seems to be the best method for raising

 

[itzjbean]

from what I have read up they're okay with either type of feeding. Personally I would go for the syringe as I can imagine it being a little easier especially at the start and less messy.

Though a possible idea for you to look into if you do go through with breeding is looking into co-parenting the babies. The short version is you let the parents do most of the feedings but you interact with the babies and play with them and I believe offer one feeding a day. You'll have to look into it a bit more as I've never bred parrots but from what I can tell co-parenting seems to be the best method for raising

I kind of did this with my cockatiel babies... except the parents fed them too well so their crops were always full and I never had to feed them. So I just made sure (after their eyes opened) to take them out and play with them daily to get them used to hands and people. It turned out fine and they all weaned and were tame when they went off to their new families. Except for one which was the runt but I hand fed him with a syringe and he took to that just fine. I feel like using syringes will be less of a mess, of course you'll want to sanitize them after use.

 

[syakti]

What is wrong with letting their parents feed them? Isn't it how it is in nature?

 

[LordTriggs]

Syakti, nothing wrong with letting parents feed them and raise them. Just when it comes to the babies going to a new home a hand-fed one will be easier to tame as they're used to hands already. Parent reared babies will more likely to be scared of humans initially which IMO can easily result in more birds being abandoned and neglected as an uneducated human (99% of them) will assume the bird has a "bad attitude" because defending yourself from a threat is having an attitude now.

Ultimately hand rearing and parent rearing have both upsides and downsides. Oh also if the parents refuse to feed the baby which happens a lot then someone will need to step in and feed

 

[itzjbean]

What is wrong with letting their parents feed them? Isn't it how it is in nature?

Nothing wrong with it, though if you leave the parents with the babies and don't handle them, they will NOT be tame and will be frightened of people. The younger you start handling them, the better. It also helps if the parents are tame pets, too, as they will trust you with the babies...

 

[MonicaMc]

The majority of parrots sold in the pet trade are hand raised birds... with budgies and perhaps lovebirds and/or some cockatiels being the exception. It's generally just not worth the effort in the smaller birds but the medium-small (or small if you consider some petite) to larger species are almost always hand fed by humans.

Depending on species, the chicks may be raised by the parents for the first 2-4 weeks (up to 6 in macaws?) before being removed and handfeeding is finished off by the humans.



Not very many people are willing to take the time to work with and tame a parent raised bird... they want instant gratification like how many puppies and kitten would act after being raised in a human family setting but raised by their biological parents.