Baby Green Cheeks and Hand Feeding

[Wolf]

What a perfectly good horror story! I can understand where you react to this in the manner that you do. I have gone by such places during times such as you describe and have seen a whole lot of people behaving terribly shameful ways. It is truly tragic that some of us must act in such a manner.

[RhaewynsMom]

Yeah, it just makes it weird when you have to deal with stuff like that. Cause all these thing just go running through your mind about what is or isn't ethical and what's the right thing to do. And then do we have the right to apply those same principles to animals? I just find I get very conflicted about it.

I watched a documentary on a guy who took care of parrots that weren't native to California, and it was just interesting because he really took the time to note who they were and what they were like in so much detail. It was in a way that no one had really researched before. So I could really see where his observations would be so helpful to learn more about that particular species. He wasn't a scientist or anything. Just an ordinary guy who looked like he had a lot of demons and somehow took to these birds and they him. It was kind of mind boggling because in a way, there is still so much we don't know and understand and he kind of took this big step and made these strides.

[Wolf]

I would love to see the documentary, it sounds wonderful to me.

[Pajarita]

Most likely she is referring to The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, look for it in YouTube, I am sure they have it there.

I understand your concerns, I also would not destroy an egg that already has a baby growing in it - and that's how, although I am completely opposed to breeding parrots, I ended up with a few 'eggcident' babies in my birdroom. Most notably a pair of lovebirds which had found a way to get under the sink cabinet (between the floor and the bottom of it) by chewing a small hole in the back against the wall to make a nest there and were smart enough to come out every morning and every evening to eat (I had a flock of over 30 of them at that time and would always count them at feeding time to make sure nobody was nesting somewhere -but these two fooled me) and, by the time I noticed one of them missing and went looking for it, I found the nest with fertile eggs already half-way incubated. But a mammal's pregnancy is not the same as a freshly laid egg. With eggs, there is no real embryo until it's incubated because it needs heat to start the process of splitting cells so, when you take the egg the same day it's laid, there is no life in there, just the potential for it (if you broke it open, it would look just like a supermarket egg), so you are not killing a baby bird or anything like that.

[JaydeParrot]

I agrre with parjarita, I'd definitely try to take the eggs away as soon as possible (so I wouldn't know if they were fertile) and exchange with fake eggs. As much as it would be sad to prevent potential chicks from existing, I wouldn't want to bring chicks with a lifespan of 30 or more into a world where they would most likely moved from owner to owner. No one knows how long they're going to live or what might happen in their life even the most well meaning person can't provide a forever home there's no such thing.

I agree that I would have trouble taking them though if the chick foetus had already formed inside the egg, for that reason I would personally try to take away/destroy the egg ASAP before the chick has a chance to form.