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Hello everyone, I'm having my second clutch of blue front amazons! The first clutch was parent raised (didn't want to risk it) I have lots of experience hand feeding the smaller birds budgies and tiels. My question is do I need to do anything different to the formula or give addition nutrients to parrot babies? I plan to pull at 2 weeks Thanks!!!!!

We handfeed our baby amazons kaytee macaw formula and have large healthy babies. Chaco's, napes,lilac, dyh..... FEED FROM DAY ONE STARTING AT 1/2 CC EVERY 2 HOURS...50CC MAX AT WEANING USUALLY

Are you saying I should pull the babies from day one or that is your preference????? I use the kaytee exact on the tiels. I'm going to contact the manufacture to find the distributor in my area for the maccaw formula because I haven't seen it. Thanks

I would not pull the birds at day one on your first try. Very young chicks require special care, warmer brooder temps, more liquid formula, and more frequent feedings, meaning that you may not get much sleep. If the parents are caring for them, pull them after their eyes open and they are getting a little down on them. Tigerlily

I would not use Macaw formula for Amazons. Amazons do not need the higher protien and fat content that a macaw does. Amazons are prone to being overweight, so why start them off that way? You may want to check with allbirdproducts.com Connie has a formula one supplement that I use with all the babies. Makes their feathers absolutely shine. You just add a little to your formula.

It sounds like you have a wonderful pair if they will wean babies for you! And, if you have a pair that will feed their babies, please never pull the babies at day one. This will disrupt their feeding, and may affect their willingness to feed babies in the future. . Babies can be pulled between 10 to 15 days (even later, though they tend to be harder to feed the first few days after pulling beyond 15 days).

I cant tell you how many pairs I have bought that I was told "wont sit and feed" hmm. They do here. Perhaps because I did not snatch their eggs or babies as soon as they hatch. (Fake eggs work for an egg eating male! Its almost funny watching them in the box mad as all get out because they cannot eat it. They eventually give up.)

Also, the larger babies need their formula at a constant temperature. Pick a temp and stay with it. 105 to 108 works for my Amazons and Greys.

If you feed tiels, your Amazons should be no problem! If you need help please feel free to call me any time. Even if its 4 am.

Don't handfeed at all. It's unneccesary, and does waaay more harm then it does good. One might even say it's cruel.

Tace care
/Steph

Please keep your nasty comments to yourself. If you hate us breeders, stay off the breeder boards.

Nasty?
I'm trying to be helpful, and i don't hate breeders. I just think breeders should work for keeping our parrots as healthy as possible, and ensuring they will be around for the future, thats all.

Did not mean anything "nasty" at all by my reply. Can't understand why you're so offended.

Look I commend the efforts that captive breeding projects are accomplishing. HOWEVER, releasing parent raised birds into the wild is not the answer to extinction. I can guarantee that poaching, land demolishing (oops I mean development) will continue to deplete the regions that these birds are native to.

So, 100 years from now, all that may be left is the captive population in OUR HOMES. Now, you or I may be able to tame a parent raised "wild" bird, but not everyone can. Please look at this from both sides. I have. I would never tell the conservationists that they should hand feed, please dont tell people they should not.

Thinking thing through thouroughly is important. Look at the state of the planet these days, perhaps there will be no native trees in 100 years, where will our roosting parrots nest then? What about global warming, can they adjust to the drastic temperature changes.

Now flip the coin. Say 1 millon people own a pet bird that they love, and cherish. The birds are therefore still ALIVE and flourishing. Handfed or not it matters not.

The real danger is that if we dont protect the birds, who will?

Well said Mccaw672!

I have no idea how handfeeding can be seen as cruel....What is more cruel is having to stress out a bird that was not properly socialized. If the babies are handfed and are used to human interaction, they are much more calm around new things and they are more calm when they need to be vet checked or taken care of hands on.

As long as the handfeeder is experienced, or has been instructed under an experienced handfeeder, then it should be no problem. Yes, problems do come up when a bird is handfed but there are occasions for problems with everything.

Feeding from day one is quite a chore, trust me, I had 6 new pairs or tiels. If the parents feed, let them feed. If you want to handfeed early on, I would pull at 10-14 days. I could go on, but it is not really related to the original question. WhatI really wanted to say is that I switched over to Zupreem Embrace Plus hand feeding formula. I will never use Kaytee again. Zupreem is a bit hard to find, I have to get it 20lbs at a time.

You guys obviously havn't had parentraised birds. Half of all the people i know have parentfed birds, including me. They are just as tame, and in most cases tamer then the handfed ones.

If you can't understand why handfeeding is looked upon as cruelty to animals and is banned in some countries, i'll just ask you to do your homework. To me it's obvious.

Parentfed birds DO NOT become less tame then handfed ones, *at all*, that is a myth.

Please read the article on the "bird chatter" forum for more info.

I won't write anymore in this thred. Best regards

/Steph.

Steph wrote:You guys obviously havn't had parentraised birds. Half of all the people i know have parentfed birds, including me. They are just as tame, and in most cases tamer then the handfed ones.

If you can't understand why handfeeding is looked upon as cruelty to animals and is banned in some countries, i'll just ask you to do your homework. To me it's obvious.

Parentfed birds DO NOT become less tame then handfed ones, *at all*, that is a myth.

Please read the article on the "bird chatter" forum for more info.

I won't write anymore in this thred. Best regards

/Steph.

Yes, they are as tame, but they have to be handled as they are growing and it can be hard for some people to do that if the parents are aggressive or are sensitive to people being in the next box.

They don't have to be handled at all, even if that's a big plus of course.
It works well with tiels, keets and such, but not often with larger birds.

A friend of mine, for example, has two parentfed bluefronts. Not clipped, live in a large cage 2m*1m*2m, as pets. Tame as any other handfed bluefronts. They were not handled at all during the time they were fed and about a month after the time they were weaned. The first week they both stepped up on his hand, and now adays they are as tame and wonderful as any other handfed birds. Older birds can be somewhat harder to tame, but not significantly.

Then that is a wonderful rare event! Normally, parentraised birds are not tame. It also can depend on the parent birds. If the parent birds are calm and at least semi-tame, the babies are more likely to gain these traits while they are still in the nest. If the parents are highstrung and/or phobic, the babies can also gain these traits.