1st Egg Just Hatched. It's My First Clutch Of Budgies.

[Davegf28 0]

Well guys they have finally started hatching tonight. I looked in the box earlier and there were still five eggs. Now I looked again and I just saw the first baby he looks very good and pink I can hear him very loudly. I will be hand feeding the babies and I need to know when to pull the babies? I know with larger parrots ten days is good. I really just want to pull them right before they open their eyes I think. Does anyone know when that is? I beleive smaller birds develop quiker so maybe they need to be pulled sooner? If anyone knows when to pull them for sure I would go by that.

[Feathers 0]

Hi, congratulations on your first hatchling. Why do you want to pull the babies out at all? The best nutrition comes from their parents and if you start to handle them daily from 2 weeks of age they are very tame. Is there some other reason that you want to hand feed them?

 

 

Feathers.

Edited June 17, 2007 by feathers

[Sailorwolf 0]

I let my budgie raise their own babies, but I handled them regularly. They have turned out really tame now. Infact they prefer to play on me than eat millet sometimes. Sometimes I can't even stop little Bacardi encopuraging the others from jumping on my head, (Laughing out loud)

[Elly 0]

as said most people don't handrear budgies they get their best nutrition from being parent raised and learn to be a budgie. Handling them at a young age they will become very tame. Bea let Blinks be parent raised and handled him in the nest. He is a very very tame budgie

[splat 0]

Yes I agree with everyone so far, I believe the more you handler them the quieter they are, but they are much better off with their parents who can give them the best sfart in life.

[**KAZ** 0]

Unless you are very experienced, handfeeding babies can be hazardous to the chicks and very time consuming. I handle ALL my babies from the day they are born. I can walk around the aviaries and birdroom with baby budgies on my shoulders just because they want to be there...and they are all parent raised but WELL HANDLED and OFTEN HANDLED. Frankly, I just dont see the need to pull chicks from nests to bond with them...you can form that bond anyway and still allow parents to raise them.

[Davegf28 0]

The only reason I have for hand feeding the babies is to make them tame pets. I have hand fed larger parrots many times. I am very confident I have all the skills needed to produce healthy babies. I have hand fed all of my own parrots and my friends. I hand fed my African Grey my Sun Conure and my Senegal. When I was a kid I raised many abandoned chicks (not parrots) when storms destroyed their nests. My first hand feeding experince with parrot type birds was when I got a baby Nanday Conure for my fifteenth birthday. I lost him in my divorce from my ex wife he was 11. I did not know a lot at that time but I read about it and an old lady who sold me the bird showed me how she did it. I am currently hand feeding my new baby blue fronted amazon. He was pulled at three weeks and seems to be doing good. I use the very best hand feeding formula available. I have used Kaytee Exact in the past but now we are using Harrison's Organic formula. I also think by leaving them with the parents for a couple weeks they get they bacteria and other natural antibodies for the crop milk. I do understand what all of you are saying. I have never raised budgies before. An Amazon or African Grey would never let you handle it's babies daily for tameing. You would loose a finger. In the us I think we hand feed a little too much. There are hand fed babies available all the time. Except budgies. Budgies in the US are mass produced for the pet industry and are never ever tame at all. So really I just want to produce some babies I can actually handle like my other birds. I will try both things. I will hand feed two and let the parents do the other three while we hold them daily. We will see if I can do as good a job as mother nature?

[Elly 0]

your right budgies are a mass production and by the time they get to the stores are not tamed. I would spend more for a parent-raised tamed bird for sure. I believe the imprint of the parents is important and that they are very tamed when simply handled in the nest.

 

As I said Bea raised Blinks from the nest with the parents feeding him. He is amazing...I hope she comes on to see this post.

 

Good luck.

[Marlony 0]

congrats.