Help please New ! hand feeding ???

[Blackfang320]

hi guys i posted a thing like this in new mwmbwrs but ifigured it should be in questions too. well i theres this baby 3week GCC and i wanted to get him around 4 or 5 weeks because the guy is sellin it now and i wanted to have some advice or a link about caring baby birds and feeding them...thanks i really need some help!

 

[Cecilia]

If you have NEVER hand feed a baby bird I do NOT recommend it. MANY things can go wrong. You don't want to risk the death of the baby. You can over feed, underfeed, feed wrong, have to weigh them on a regular to know how much to feed.... It's a lot. Not even a book can really walk you through appropriately. You would have to do it a few times and watch someone who has done it for years do it to really know what your doing and the risk for someone "New" hand rearing. Sometimes you have to force feed... But you need to know when you must take it that far... I do not recommend you get one at that age.

 

[Pedro]

Hi Blackfang, welcome to the forum. GCC are one of the easier baby parrots to handrear.
First though you will need a teaspoon with the sides turned up or a syringe, hand rearing formula, a warm box with a heat light or mat to keep him warm until he grows feathers & time to be able to give the little guy 4 feeds a day.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlMXYJwmf14&feature=related]YouTube - Feeding time for Green Cheek babies.AVI[/ame]

This link will give you an idea of how to feed.

 

[Spiritbird]

Pedro Why is it that breeders do not leave the babies with the mom and dad for a while? They teach them so many things we cannot teach them as humans. I have heard bird trainers say that hand fed babies are not really the best to purchase.
Hand feeding really does not teach them as much as the parents do.

 

[Irissama]

I agree the baby needs to stay with the mom as long as possible. The best thing a breeder can do is handle the babies and interact with them daily to get them used to humans. It's what I did with my budgie clutch and they all turned out friendly towards humans. their mama took care of the feeding, and you take care of human socializing.

 

[MikeyTN]

If you have a mean pair that hisses at you everytime and tries to attack. Who does the babies learn from? Another is sometimes when you have so many at a time, when they're handfed, its easier to socialize when your the handler. Even if you don't have them out constantly. I do all the training after weaning.

 

[Pedro]

Most of my chicks are taken at 4 to 5 weeks for the purpose of hand raising. Other reasons for breeders to hand rear a chick is if as Mikey has already stated a parent bird dies or won't feed the chick we step in to help. Most of the rearing I do is for other breeders when their bird may have laid on the ground or has laid & abandoned their nest then i have to incubator the eggs & raise the chicks from hatch. Or the chicks hatch in the nestbox & mum turfs them out or worse still kill the chick when it hatches. So not is all out of want but necessity. But i must admit for me it is the most rewarding feeling watching that little hapless chick grow into something beautiful.

Now for the breeders that sell out of the nest IMO it's all about the money. They can't be bothered & as you know most parrots will double clutch if the first clutch is taken away at 2 to 3 weeks. So these people are getting double the money without any outlay for handrearing equipment. As well as that they may have a pair that have started to breed & don't have a clue so just sell the chicks for others to do without any real thought of the wellfare of the chicks. I can go on all day about the reasons.


I never sell from the nest & my chicks are never sold to just anyone. My customers have to learn how to handle the chick before it goes home. I practice control breeding where by my nestboxes are closed off so they don't lay. Gives them time to have a big break between nests & gives me a break also.

 

[Ratzy]

I recommend waiting until it's weaned before you jump into the deep end.
You are new to parrots, so you probably don't really know how hard it is.
The food temp and brooder temp has to be just right, you have to feed just the right amount and let it completely empty at least once or twice per day to avoid sour crop.
And it's best to hand rear with more than one bird, so they recognize their species.
You have to be there at all times during the day, so if you have long work commitments....
I'm a breeder, but I'm not going to attempt hand rearing just yet. Maybe in a year or two if one of my nests is overloaded with chicks. And I've only just started breeding.
best way is to leave them with the parents and handle daily from day three inside the nest, and day fourteen outside the nest ( budgies ).

So do all the research you can, before you make that decision.

 

[MikeyTN]

I recommend waiting until it's weaned before you jump into the deep end.
You are new to parrots, so you probably don't really know how hard it is.
The food temp and brooder temp has to be just right, you have to feed just the right amount and let it completely empty at least once or twice per day to avoid sour crop.
And it's best to hand rear with more than one bird, so they recognize their species.
You have to be there at all times during the day, so if you have long work commitments....
I'm a breeder, but I'm not going to attempt hand rearing just yet. Maybe in a year or two if one of my nests is overloaded with chicks. And I've only just started breeding.
best way is to leave them with the parents and handle daily from day three inside the nest, and day fourteen outside the nest ( budgies ).

So do all the research you can, before you make that decision.

There's a difference in hobby breeding and a breeder! You would be more considered as a hobby breeder.

And no you don't have to rear multiple chicks together for them to recognize their own specie.

In the past I have rear one single Cockatiel and one single Lovebird together, they recognize their own specie just fine cause later on they produced babies on their own with a mate of their specie. But the single Cockatiel was the ONLY Cockatiel friend of the Lovebird...lol.... That Lovebird picked on everyone else except his friend.

I have also reared a single Budgie Chick alone from a pair that give me only one baby....He did just fine with the rest of the flock mates.

Control breeding is important as egg laying is harsh on the females so they need rest in between like what Pedro mentioned in the previous post.

I do have to agree with Pedro that it is very rewarding watching the little naked baby grow up to a be a beautiful bird. Think of all the love the baby will receive in the new home when it is trained properly from day one.

 

[Ratzy]

That species thing is just what I have read, should have said that!
I don't exactly have much experience with hand rearing, I just read up a bit just in case.