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Hand Rearing

 

Feeding babies can be tricky. Each bird is DIFFERENT, so just as you think you have figured out how to feed…  it all changes.

 

Main reasons for hand-rearing baby parrots.

 

1. The parents are not reliable when rearing their young

2. Because you want to

3. Parent birds pluck the chicks

4. To have a tame bird for a pet

5. To increase the number of babies produced each breeding season

 

​Your system requirements should include the following.

 

• A reliable accurate heat source (especially in young birds from day 1 to week 4) such as a brooder or incubator
• Thermometer (to test the temp of food before feeding)
• Feeding device. (bent spoon - syringe - eye dropper - crop needle - tube feeding ) I recommend the bent spoon for the beginner
• Feeding formula (e.g. Katies Exact, Vetafarm NeoCare, Passwells)
• Paper Towels (unbleached) don't use handy towels that have been bleached. When they are wet from the droppings it causes a reaction that burns the chick's feet legs and underbelly causing blisters and sometimes death.

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THE GOLDEN RULES OF HAND-REARING

1. Keep feeding utensils and feeding area clean, and wash hands before feeding.
2. Keep the chick at the right temperature for its age
3. Use fresh food never reheat old food from the last feed
4. To make it easier on the bird when feeding go with the chick's chugging motion as he eats. Wait till they start to beg for the next spoonful, and off you go again. Feeding food too fast can sometimes choke the bub and do it in his/her time.
5.  Always use a thermometer to check the temperature of the food before feeding.
6. If food has been reheated in the microwave stir very well and check temp again before feeding as hot spots occur when heating food in the microwave.
7.  Never feed if the crop has food remaining from the previous feed.
8.  Use a reliable good quality hand rearing formula and follow the quantity instructions of water to rearing food. Hand-rearing mixes get thicker when left to stand. Let the food stand for a minute after mixing and add more water if it is too thick before feeding.
9.  Don't mix chicks of different types in the same container (within reason). This was learned by personal experience. One rainbow lorikeet at 7 weeks of age chewed the toes legs and wing tips of three 4-week-old baby king parrots. Causing a bloodbath of missing toes and injured babies.
10. Don't change your hand-rearing food stay on the one you started with if you have to change introduce the new food into the diet gradually over the next few days by mixing the 2 formulas gradually until the bird has reverted to the new mix.

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IMPORTANT NOTE

Place a small container of water in the brooder set up to create humidity in the environment, if this is not done the dry heat will dehydrate your chick very quickly. You can make your brooder if you are electrical-minded or buy one. Some people have had success by using the hot water cupboard. This is all right for older birds from 6-7 weeks onwards, as long as the temperature stays reasonably consistent. Once most baby parrots have feathers than can start to regulate their body temperature.

 

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FEEDING CHICKS FROM DAY ONE.

This is a general guide for a beginner, I don't recommend a person try their first handrearing experience on a bird so young, but as we know these things can happen. With having chicks so young you need a very reliable heat source, one that stays at a constant temperature and can hold the heat of 36.9C degrees. This should be a humid heat this is done by placing a small bowl of water in the brooder. Birds this young on a small bent salt spoon other people use eyedroppers and small paintbrushes.

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The first thing you should do when the chick hatches is clean the navel area where it has been attached to the yolk sac of the egg. You can use an Antibiotic powder (AUREOMYCIN ANTIBIOTIC POWDER) that can be applied with a cotton bud. You only have to do this once. Not cleaning this area can result in an infection. The antibiotic powder can be purchased from your vet. Never attempt to aid hatching if you don't know what you are doing.

Leave the chick for approx 8- 10 hours (depending on the species of bird) after hatching before giving the first feed. The reason for this is to enable the chick to absorb the rest of the yolk sac that the chick was feeding on while in the egg.

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The first 2 feeds should consist of probiotics and in lories and lorikeets glucose can be added. Then if you are using Katies exact the food should consist of one part rearing food and six parts water. The feeding temperature is very important here and as noted before food should be 42 degrees. Remember food should not be thick the consistency should be watery.

You can leave your chick for 5-6 hours during the night if you have passed the stage of the 2 probiotic feeds and one food feed. Feeding for a newly hatched chick is between every 1 -2 hours for the first 3 days. Increasing feed times hourly intervals, as the chick gets older. Let the crop empty before giving the next feed.

Keep a good level of hygiene in all aspects of handrearing. I use antibacterial tablets used to sterilize baby bottles to clean my feeding equipment. Boiled water poured over rearing utensils is another good way of sterilizing.

 

*Probiotics are a form of electrolytes and are used to hydrate the newly hatched chick. This can be purchased from various pet shops, it is good to have on hand as they are useful first aid items for your birds in general.

 

 

FEEDING QUANTITIES

Feeding the right amount of food for the age of the bird is most important. Each feed should consist of a volume equivalent to 10-12% of the bird's body weight.

 

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​ HOW DO I KNOW WHEN TO START THE WEANING PROCESS?

The chick will start to get funny and play with the food at feed time. A good sign that a bird is ready to start to go through the weaning is if you look at the wings of the developing chick, you will find blood in the developing feather shafts and they're still partly covered in wax. Once there is no more blood in the feather shafts and no more wax surrounding the feathers, then the chick is ready to start being weaned. Lorikeets can be weaned before this stage, they are born naturals and can feed themselves from quite a young age, but they still like to be offered fresh warm feeds at feed time. Some birds are difficult and weaning turns into a long process, depending on the bird. Lorikeets would be the easiest and cockatiels one of the difficult ones, from my own experiences.

 

WEANING PARROTS

Offer food at different parts of the cage or place where it is easy for the bird to see and get to. Millet spray, apples, oranges, soaked vogels bread, and greens are good tempter to get the bird's interest. For a while the chick may pull and nibble and not eat much at all, and then all of a sudden it happens. The chicks will still beg for you to feed, keep in mind you should be still feeding them 3 times a day at this point. Once you see they are getting the idea and food is being eaten, you can lower the feeds to 2 times daily until they have got the idea to do it on their own. Weaning parrots can take from 2 weeks to 2 months depending on size. I also soak and sprout seeds for the young I found it helps them to get the idea of how to hull the seeds, as they are a lot softer to eat.

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WEANING LORIKEETS

Make food available near a perch. Lorikeets can eat for themselves from 5-7 weeks old. You still must offer warm food and at the same feed times, but lory chicks take great delight in lapping the wet mix that comes naturally to them. Watch they don't gorge themselves and overeat. I usually start the weaning process with lorikeets at 6/7 weeks old. Honey water, apples, pears, a quickly dunked malt biscuit, dandelion, and soaked bread in honey water tempts any young lorikeet to have a nibble including a wet mix offered warm 3 times daily. Millet and soaked and sprouted seeds are also great to help wean your lorikeets. Lorikeets at 5- 6 weeks of age will take approximately a week to wean. They learn faster if they are in a group of slightly different ages as they copy each other.
 

   Hand Rearing pdf Click Image.

 

 Growth Chart pdf Click Image

 

 Parrot Hand Feeding pdf Click Image

 

 

 

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