Hand-feeding Cockatiel chicks

If you want to hand-feed your baby birds to make them hand-tamed and more affectionate you can wait until they are at the age you are comfortable with.
At a very young age they will need to be fed every hour.
For more details purchase a Cockatiel handbook (the paper back ones are inexpensive).
Just remember at sometime after 4 weeks they begin to wean so hand-feeding should be before that..... as far as making them hand-tamed the younger the better.
They wean between 6 and 8 weeks, usually. This does depend somewhat on the individual chick.

Even if you are not planning on hand-feeding and the parenst are not feeding their chicks then you have no choice but to hand-feed. If neither parent is feeding their chicks and they are older then 15 hours but so young as to be not yet weaned then you need to take over their feeding.

If you do a web-search on "hand-feeding Cockatiels"
some web videos of hand-feeding should pop up in your results.


The following web-page with a video of how to hand-feed is on the Kaytee website.
Web-page with video on hand-feeding birds.
It just happens that we use their powder formula for hand-feeding our young chicks
and their Rainbow product for our adult birds.
(No. I get nothing from them for saying that!)

Most people use a syringe to hand-feed when the birds are very young.
We found the syringe builds up pressure and squirts out too much formula too quick.
So we use either an eye dropper (when the formula is still watery enough) or a Pipette.
The Pipette is plastic and only $1 each at one of our local pet shops.
What is good about this Pipette is since it is only one dollar and plastic; then we can cut farther up the tube to make it less narrow as the formula needs to be mixed thicker which is as the chicks get older.

Eventually when we notice the chicks are biting a lot on the litter in their nest-box and/or brooder then we try with a very small plastic measuring spoon to see if they are ready to eat without a syringe or Tubette. The reason I suggest a plastic spoon is because chicks beaks are not as hard as when they are older and that is just my personal precaution. When using the plastic spoon as the chick bites at it, turn it up towards the bird's face like when spoon-feeding a baby.


Our main computer that had those photos (of Rosemary hand-feeding chicks) stopped working. This paragraph was added in using a friend's borrowed laptop.
Check back on this blog post once in a while because the next time we have chicks ready to handfeed I will try to add a picture of my wife feeding a chick with the Pipette so you can see what I am talking.


At the point they are biting at the spoon and eating well we will mix a little of their smaller seeds a including some millet seed in their formula to begin get them ready for weaning.
This will vary from chick to chick because depending on their development and even their personality some chicks might not be ready as soon to eat off of the plastic measuring spoon.

Seeds especially millet seed are easier then pellets for the very young to eat when the first begin to wean. Since at this point your birds will begin to explore their home put some of such seeds in a food dish (preferably a low flat dish for now), we will also spread it on the floor of their brooder house and/or their nest-box.
Shortly after this it will be time to give them a shallow water cup/dish.

Don't forget to talk to others (in person or by e-mail) for suggestions as well as asking your local pet shop if any of their sales clerks who have experience with Cockatiels and/or hand-feeding birds!



These are what I consider helpful suggestions.
Please refer to Cockatiel Handbooks and to the instructions which come with hand-feeding formula, as well as finding someone who knows about this for detailed answers to your questions.




---------------------------------------

Webring banner


Powered by WebRing.

***************************************

Very Lowest Prices ever.

$15 one of our Grey Cockatiels!


Update as of May, 5, 2008:
Currently we only have one typical Grey (probably a male) for the price of $15 as we recently sold 4 of our Cockatiels.
And our other Grey has mated.
He is nesting and brooding over his eggs with his mate.

This is also true of our other adult birds for that price have mated and are nesting.

If these new mating pairs work out as good parents with healthy chicks then we will be asking much more per pair for these breeding pairs even though they are not hand-tamed.
The reason is a successful breeding pair are worth much more then 2 individual separate birds.



Our hand-tamed Cockatiels are still for sale at $125 each bird.

************************************** **************************************

Prices of other stock.

Breeding of pairs and sexing of birds not guaranteed.
Some we know their sexes because they have mated at least once since we had them.

We plan on keeping our 2 albinos (Father & son) .
$125 for any of the other hand-tamed Cockatiels.
The ones that we hand-raised and are ready for sale
are from 10 weeks old up to 6 months old.

Cash only, pick up here in Auburn Maine.
Contact at:
PastorBill3rd@JesusAnswers.com

**************************************