TheTameParrot.com - Say “BYE” To Your Parrot Problems

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

In our many years of breeding birds, we get a lot of people asking to purchase very young baby birds. The younger the better…..even a couple weeks old.

Sounds like a reasonable request. After all, we have constantly stated that getting a young bird is much easier to train than an older one…why not a baby?

Baby birds are also a lot cheaper to purchase! Just recently our daughter told us that a vendor at a flee market in Florida had just-weaned Blue/Gold Macaw babies for $400. Up here in the north these birds would cost at least $900 as babies, and $2500 once weaned and about 6 months old! So naturally the new pet-owner would love to save some huge cash!

The reason they are cheaper is because the bird breeder has not invested their time into raising it. Look at the work required…..you have to feed the birds every 2-3 hours all day long. And all night long! If you have a lot of babies you can’t possibly do it yourself, so you have to hire someone to help feed. Now we have employee costs. This is their business! Investing their time is how they earn their money.

Food can be expensive! With our aviary, the birds are fed a prepared hand feeding formula that looks like brown flour. It’s actually a formulated mixture of grain, vitamins and minerals that are scientifically designed to fit the needs of a baby bird. Unless you purchase it wholesale the price is expensive. After a few weeks we begin to introduce other foods. We gradually work them through the stages of Gerber baby foods and other types of human foods. Those are not cheap either! Ask any mother who just had a baby! The cost of feeding a parrot from birth to weaning at 3-4 months is easily $200-300. The time invested in those feeding is factored in, and you end up with a very expensive pet!

But buying them as babies eliminates all of the cost involved in weaning them, making them a bargain. We have lost our share of baby birds. Sometimes it was from bad food. Other times it was from our experimenting with something new. It was an expensive lesson. But we learn from our mistakes, and pass on these lessons to others.

But the average pet owner does not really have a clue how to properly feed babies. When I first started getting involved with birds, I would have given anything to find a breeder to help me out, teach me the proper technique, and mentor me. Such things as why you need a brooder, what is the correct temperature of the food. I lost a lot of babies, and every one of them devastated me! I didn’t have the vast knowledge of the Internet. All I had was a library with old books that didn’t tell me much.

In most cases, we refuse the sell unweaned baby birds. And in ALL cases we will not sell them unless the purchaser can demonstrate that they know how to hand feed them, and can show they understand the dangers and responsibilities of hand raising birds. A very good sign of a bad bird breeder is someone who would sell a baby so someone with no hand feeding experience. You are usually condemning your bird to death!

I remember attending a bird show. My husband was watching the booth while I got to “shop” and socialize with the other vendors. I was shocked to see a vendor trying to teach a prospective buyer how to hand feed a baby macaw using a turkey baster… one of those plastic tubes with a bulb on it! And the food was as thick as peanut butter!

Hand feeding birds is not easy. The younger the baby, the more often you have to feed it. Are you prepared to feed the bird every 2-3 hours….all day long? And all night long?

Therefore, if you are contemplating purchasing an unweaned bird, you must educate yourself on the procedures. Start by visiting a bird breeder and see if they will teach you. You will need to learn how to properly mix the food, test the temperature, and learn how to feed the bird. If you can find one, see if your local avian vet can assist you in training.

Larger birds are obviously much easier to feed. In most cases you can simply use a baby spoon and spoon feed the baby. But this does take more time. With experience and training you could learn how to use a syringe. But note that if not done properly, you will force the food down the esophagus and choke the baby.

Small birds should never be hand-fed by beginners. Even the most experienced breeders will not feed finches or parakeets, as those tiny bodies are next to impossible to work with. I did manage to feed parakeets, but only because the parents had abandoned the birds and I was left with no choice. It’s not something I look forward to.

WHERE TO GET MORE INFO

If you are dead set on trying to hand feed babies, start by gathering some education information. Most of the companies that produce hand feeding formula offer literature and videos on hand feeding. They include Kaytee, Lafeber, Zupreem, and Prettybird. You can go to their home page on the Internet and order this information.

Don’t get me wrong…hand feeding is a very rewarding experience. Watching your baby grow up to be a very tame and playful pet is worth all the effort. Just do it right!