I've done alot of research about hand reared vs parent reared parrots and I believe letting the parents rear them is best in terms of future behaviour etc. Besides, it's just natural that way.

 

So when I go to buy my first budgies how will I truly know if they were hand reared or not? I guess it is impossible to tell.

Hand reared ones will be sold as hand reared and the breeder will be pretty emphatic about that as they can get more money for a hand reared bird. You will have no confusion there

Handreared as opposed to handled parent raised ones are pretty rare anyway. You can pretty much safely assume that unless told otherwise they will be parent raised.

 

Incidentally I agree with your choice

Oh really, everywhere i look i see 'hand reared', then again that is when I look in the Trading Post etc. Have not looked at proper breeders yet.

I think I'll be buying from someone here at the forum! And great to see people are doing the proper thing by the birds.

i think the reality of it is most of those budgies would be parent rared, but hand tamed - just breeders trying to make an extra buck. most people know that there is no bonding benefit in hand rearing a budgie.

Most breeders when they say handraised them mean that they have been handled from a very young age like mine. I make sure that from about the 10 day mark that they are handled each and every day so that they are use to humans handling them but I don't feed them their parents do that. It's people miss using the term.

You can always ask to but your hand in the cage. If they "Step Up" on to your finger without hassles you will know that they have been handled - Where is Sydney are you there are a few of us here that are breeders

Good luck on finding your new baby...here where I live I have yet to come across any budgies that have been hand reared most have been parent reared with not much handling either. Good luck, there are some awesome breeders on this site that will work with what you are wanting.