Hand-raising parrots: useful tips on hand-feeding and weaning
Hand-weaning parrot chicks means raising the chick at a truly delicate stage of its life, one that calls for special care. In our article on how to prepare your home for hand-raising, we already covered all the essential equipment so you won't be caught unprepared when the baby parrot arrives. As we wrote there, cockatiels, neophemas, African Greys, macaws, parakeets and the other types of parrot depend on their parents, natural or "adoptive", from the first 30 days up to 6 months. In this article we offer some tips to get through the challenges of this period as well as possible, and to raise a healthy, beautiful, happy parrot.
Besides preparing the space to welcome the chick, you also need to organize your own time: the chick may often ask to be hand-fed, both during the day and at night. After each feeding, it would be a good idea to spend a few moments cuddling it.
The right temperature for each stage of the chick
When we bring home a hand-fed parrot that is not yet covered in down, you will need to provide a temperature similar to what it would have had if it had stayed in the nest. For the first 10-20 days it should therefore be checked with a thermostat and kept between 30 and 34 °C. Once it is completely covered in down, you can lower it to 28-30°, and then reduce it to 24-28° when it has grown its feathers.
Once the parrot has learned to feed itself, usually after the first five weeks of life, it will no longer need to be kept in the brooder: a cozy cage with perches and toys will give it more room to move around and for its first flights.
Preparing the formula and hand-feeding
Since you will be feeding the baby parrot with a syringe, it would be helpful to ask the breeder or whoever sells it to you to get it used to this tool a few days beforehand. Every morning the chick should be weighed, both to check that its weight is gradually increasing and to work out how much formula to prepare for its daily feedings. The baby parrot or parakeet should eat the equivalent of 10% of its body weight, going up to a maximum of 15% if it asks for more food.
It's best to spread the meals throughout the day; in any case, the chick itself may be the one to ask you to be hand-fed. As we wrote in the previous article, choosing a quality formula is essential to give the chick everything it needs: that is why we offer the Hand-Feeding Formula (First 15 Days) and the Hand-Feeding Formula for Psittacines, which contain cereals, seeds, baked products, plant protein extracts, fats, oils, lysine, methionine, vitamins and minerals. Preparing it for a baby parrot is easy, but it takes a few small precautions. Mix the formula in a small bowl with hot water until you get a semi-liquid mixture with no lumps. Use a thermometer to check that the temperature is between 37.5 and 38.5 °C, the ideal temperature for hand-feeding. We recommend feeding the chick outside its brooder, to keep it clean, resting it on the table on top of some paper towel, or inside a bowl. Once you have drawn the formula into the syringe and removed the air bubbles, you can hand-feed the chick, aiming at the right side of the beak so the food doesn't end up in the windpipe. This is the most delicate stage of hand-feeding, to be done calmly and carefully, giving the little one time to swallow. You can also tell that the chick has eaten its fill by looking at its crop, which will look full. After cleaning off any residue with a paper towel or cotton, set aside a little time to cuddle it, unless it is already falling asleep.
The weaning stage
When the number of feeds per day has dropped to three, you can leave some food in the warm brooder. To check that the baby parrot has started eating this as well, gently feel its crop: if there are pieces of the food you left out, you can move to 2 feeds a day. Among the complete foods recommended by Legazin-Nord are the R3 and R4 extruded pellets, designed for parrots, and the N-5 extruded pellet for parrots, cockatiels, neophemas and parakeets. Among the mixes we would mention the Mix for Large Parrots. All Legazin products are enriched with Aminesent, a blend of natural plants with therapeutic effects and the amino acids birds need for their bodily processes. They are also sanitised against fungi and bacteria.
When you are sure the parrot is eating on its own, you can move it to a cage or aviary that lets it move around more freely and try its first flights. Keep offering the evening hand-feed anyway, until it is the one to refuse it. A slight drop in weight is normal: to check whether the parrot is healthy, you can look at its droppings and watch for unusual symptoms such as drowsiness, loss of appetite or laboured breathing. In these cases, and for any doubt, it is best to contact your trusted vet.