Need help 9week old kakariki advice

[Deemarrie13]

I've been given a 9 week old kakariki parakeet her mum had kicked her out the nest and has laid more eggs, this little one isn't eating on her own yet and is calling out for her mum (I presume) I've introduced her to perches today by putting a couple a few cm off the cage floor and I'm feeding her egg food is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[Mike17]

Dee, your bird will need some form of "neocare" food mix via syringe if it's not feeding itself. Failing that, powdered parrot pellets made into a paste with water (it may be able to eat this without a syringe). Soon though an insectivore mix (which I assume you'd find in UK) would be useful. They will also quite happily eat seed (a cockatiel mix would be good). At 9 weeks it should be well and truly feathered and fending for itself, or close to. They will also eat fruit and a wide range of vegetables, greens etc. The insectivore mix is important as they are forest birds in their natural habitat, not 100% seedeaters like grassland birds.

 

[Deemarrie13]

The egg food I have has got seeds and insects in I've mixed it up and given her some in a dish and she's had some she's now trying with seed and the fruits and veg I've given my other kak (I've gone for the soft ones for her) is it ok that she's not drank anything? I've put some water in her cage

my other kak I think is a male but I'm not sure but he's regurgitated food for her and then once she's eaten he's kinda grabbing her with his foot is that normal?

 

[Mike17]

my other kak I think is a male but I'm not sure but he's regurgitated food for her and then once she's eaten he's kinda grabbing her with his foot is that normal?

I wouldn't like to say what's "normal" for a kakariki, we swapped our pair for a lorikeet, they were weird birds. Yours seems to be eating properly, and looks like the male is starting out with mating behaviour. Our male was extremely possessive, to the extent he'd fly at my face if I came near, so then we didn't want to let them out of their cage, then we felt sorry for them so they went into a big aviary. Don't worry about the water drinking, as long as it's clean and available they'll drink what they need.

I never did ask the fellow we swapped birds with, but a friend in my last town where this was happening was of the opinion that kakarikis wouldn't breed because of the heat, sub-species of this bird used to live on sub-Antarctic islands. I doubt that heat would be a problem in UK!