Do Not Purchase Unweaned Babies
Written by Denise, with edits by Shandi (skthurley)
Mojo and Jujube with their young
If you are not a breeder, or are not totally experienced, then you should NOT purchase an unweaned baby bird – of any kind. There are many possibilities of injuries, accidents and death… that would be horrible if it happened to you, especially if you are not experienced.
Why should you NOT buy unweaned babies?
How good a pet does a dead bird make? Don’t fall for the lies about hand-feeding. An experienced hand-feeder can raise a loving, sweet bird who will quickly bond to you and become part of your family flock. You do not need to take on the risky, sometimes extremely difficult task of hand-feeding.
Inexperienced hand-feeders have been known to…
-Burn a baby’s crop, causing a slow and horrible death.
-Accidentally get food in the bird’s lungs (aspiration), causing pneumonia and death.
-Not properly sterilize equipment, leading to bacterial infections and death.
-Underfeed a fussy, difficult baby, thereby causing slow starvation that can cause permanent developmental problems or, more likely, death.
-Force wean a baby due to poor guidance from the breeder, leading to food & behavioral issues for the rest of the bird’s life.
-Feed too cold formula or re-used formula from the fridge causing problems with digestion and illness, food refusals, and worse.
-Not realize the bird wasn’t getting enough food until the keel bone is sharp and protruding, damaging organs through malnutrition because they had no idea how to weigh a bird and monitor its progress, especially during weaning.
-Be too firm while offering food, and cause the soft developing beak to malform and thus lead to beak abnormalities
Teeka with babies
Do you want to join the sad club of people who have killed their precious baby birds because they believed they would have a better pet if they hand-fed the bird themselves? Many people who have done this will tell you they feel guilty to this day about it! How good a pet does a dead bird make?
In my opinion, a good breeder does not sell an unweaned baby to an inexperienced person. In fact, one might even say that the breeder who does sell unweaned babies doesn’t care about his or her birds, reputation or the new bird owner.
Hand-feeding does not create the bond, socialization does. Hand-feeding merely starts the interaction process between human and bird, and set the stage for the bird’s view on humans. In fact, it is believed that hand-feeding can actually get in the way of the bonding process, for as birds wean, they become independent and seek to step away from their parent/hand-feeder. This is not always the case, but it does provide evidence that hand-feeding is not as important as hand-raising and socializing.
If you really want to be a good birdie ‘parront’, please leave the hand-feeding and weaning up to a professional. There are too many risks involved to try and do it yourself. The money you might save, isn’t worth the potential heartbreak.
Please wait until I'm fully feathered and fully weaned before bringing me home. My life and well-being depend on these early stages.
Original article found here
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