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Anyone know the going rate per day for handfeeding babies. Per day, per baby etc. Or is there a rate to wean out each baby....thanks

I'm no breeder but as far as I know, generally speaking the breeders wean out their own birds and sell for around "market price", or they sell to petstores for "wholesale price", petstores then raise those chicks and wean them and then sell for "market price plus inflation".... Handfeeders would also sell for around "market price".

However, if you are looking to buy an unweaned bird, and have someone else handraise it... say you find a bird you want from a breeder in New York, but you have someone who lives near you to handraise the chick, you could have the chick shipped to your friends house near you, to raise the bird... it would then be up to you and your friend/handfeeder as to the price per day/week to handraise the chick for you.

I'm sorry if I'm not of much help, but if handraising a bird for someone else then you should take into consideration the price of the handfeeding formula and foods, as well as the price of syringes (which are cheap) and then how much you'd want to charge a day/week without making the prices ridiculous (i.e. chick costed $200, would sell weaned for $600, so you probably would not want to charge a total of $600 or more for your time to raise the chick till weaned - but then I guess that it may vary depending on the situation as well as the age of the chick? thus time it takes for the chick to wean....)

Thanks for the reply but i do wean out all my babies. Friend has asked me to handfeed his babies and i have no idea what to charge him per baby. They are macaws which you know take much more time and attention then a smaller bird. He is new to bird breeding and has no idea about handfeeding. I wanted to give him a reasonable price.

No expert but Most pick out a chick to feed the others or divide days by your weaned price and you have the daily rate x the chicks

Does anyone charge a % of the sale price? Or is it best to charge per day, never know what they will sell the babies for when weaned.I was thinking that $100 a month for my time from day one of hatch is fair. I might be incubating them also because this person doesn't know to much about birds but came into 12 pairs of macaws. I just pulled some eggs from his nest boxes and one is fertile. I will incubate and see how it goes. What i do not like about this is that i had to transport the eggs to my home ( carefully, i might add)Without knowing his history of the pairs we do not want to have broken eggs or pairs that will not feed chicks.

Amen to that.... sounds like your plate is full plus your own birds wish you lots of luck. I am close to you and have a clean private small aviary and experienced handfeeder....While I'm here I need a U2 female and a DYH female have any?
1-850-596-7548 Thanks

I have an extra male umbrella, tame BUT a proven breeder, Talks up a storm and could be pet or breeder. I still handle him and he is gorgeous. Bought him from my avian vet a few years ago and he has produced babies with my female but i have to pull the eggs. Lately he is more interested in socializing with the flock....and teaching them all to talk. I'm looking for a male dyh amazon...My hen is egg producing 8 eggs this season and last but the male is not doing his job. They are proven for previous but not for me yet.Maybe its time to change males.Thanks for the input on the pricing for handfeeding

I have a proven Magna DYH male bought as single with others ... in perfect vibrant feather with lots of crimson red pouring off his shoulders he does have a cataract in one eye and a few toes missing but his acrobatics do not faulter I was told he is show quality by a visiting aviary.......I need a U2 female/Blue Front female call me 850-596-7548
Anyway, back to the subject.....did you figure out what to do about all those macaws yet?

Well i guess i will charge him by each baby and if i incubate and feed i figured $6.00 a day till he sells. WEANED OR NOT WEANED I WILL MAKE AT LEAST 180.00 FOR A 4 WK OLD CHICK. I will throw in the formula in that price and the power being used for the incubator and brooders.I sold all my large macaws this past year because i didn't want to feed macaws anymore. See it came back to me......lol I still have a scarlet pair for sale if your looking to get into larger birds. Sorry i can't help you with the u-2 hen but i'm not ready to sell my single hen she is tame and proven. Did sell a proven hen last season because my male is tame and he is back in the pet room. I just do not know if i will try her with another male that i have which is also tame. I always have the problem cockatoo's.and alot of them. Guess i'm pretty experienced with the cockatoo's.We have a couple of mollucan's hatching this week and one that is a month old now.Two u-2's to hatch soon also.WHAT ARE YOU ASKING FOR THE DYH MALE IF YOU SELL HIM? I have chaco blue front babies now but no breeder for sale. They are great pets, have a female from 3 years ago that i assisted to hatch and she is my favorite of the pets.talks great and very bonded to me. One of my chaco pairs did not produce this year. I lost alot of eggs this year, think the weather was doing a number on the males not knowing what to do too early with the hens laying early. Yellow collared pair usually has all fertile eggs and i got only one fertile this season. Severs didn't produce anything but had 2 clutches last season. Napes broke alot of the eggs.....I can go on and onnnnnn !!!!!!What do you produce mostly?????Had a mobile vet here last night because one of my timneh babies which is weaning got a small pinhole in his crop, could be from nipping or something i .....thank god he is almost weaned.He will be fine but we had him checked to see why it was leaking. Poor guy was upside down in the sick and having a warm bath and loving the attention.Vet comes over with her son and husband and goes swimming.....lol

I have pairs of each.....U2's producing and 1 single male, young BGs on clutch now, Blue Fronted Amazons just put together- need another hen for a spare male, Severes eggs now, yellow collars plus need 1female, Blue/Green IRNs on eggs now - want to sell IRNs for $450 or trade to concentrate on my bigger birds
I have my DYH as $400 or need female... I could trade somehow for?
Umbrella chick out of nest or?
How many BGs are you taking care of?

Right now i have one fertile egg from the b+g's pair that i pulled the eggs from. I pulled 4 eggs and i looked at them but not fertile but in my incubator.He has 11 pairs of macaws, 1 u-2 pair and a few mini macaws pairs.One greenwing pair that is young. I will help him and hope he gets an incubator so i do not have to transport the eggs.He has an old cabinet incubator that is not working proper with a humidity wheel that is not turning.I would like to see a pic of the dyh male if you can take a close up shot of him it would be great. This pair that i have is beautiful but maybe another male would do the trick.My cameroons are not doing much this year but my timneh's are on eggs again.They all started laying early this year. e-mail the pic to wings4wisdom@aol.com

I can do that...... thanks for chatting