Purchase of unweaned chicks

[pchela]

I'd like to hear peoples thoughts on this before I weigh in. I plan on writing a faq about this topic soon.

I would not consider hand feeding one bird or feeding a handful of times experience. By experienced I mean people who have been trained by experts and have hand fed for a good length of time.


Edited to fix poll.

[Michael]

I don't like the question. I believe it depends on experience. No one would ever become a hand feeder or breeder if they could never work with a baby chick. However, 99% of the time, I think people are not only safer, but also better off buying a well hand raised parrot by an experienced breeder.

I want to say no, but I don't want to ruin the ability to get unweaned babies for folks who really know what they are doing. However, if the question would run, "Do you feel it is okay for most people to purchase an unweaned chick and hand feed it themselves?" Then I would say no. I would say that even experienced parrot owners mostly do not qualify to hand feed either. The requisites for hand feeding stem more from breeding/feeding experience which can be gained from seeing how its done and attempting it under supervision. Trying it once doesn't qualify someone either. How much is needed, I don't know but there's definitely a category of experienced feeders and then there is everyone else. I will not vote unless the question makes an exception for experienced people with hand feeding experience.

[pchela]

Perhaps I can edit the question. (not sure if that's possible)

[Michael]

Yup. Click edit. You can change anything you wrote or the poll like when you entered it. Sorry, but I do believe there is an exception to this concept. As long as that exception (that qualified people can still do it) is made, then I can state a definite position on the matter for the rest of parrot owners.

[Kim S]

Only recently did I get the opportunity to see for myself how much 'fun' handrearing is. Two of my cockatiel pairs desided to abandon their chicks so I had little to no choice but to handfeed them.
For some one who never handfed young birds it is impossible to imagine how much work this is! It is backbreaking. Especially the young ones that need 5 or 6 feeds a day. You can't do this if you have a full time job, let a lone a life outside your birds.

I dont think people who never had a bird before should get a chick that still needs feeding. You need to be able to read the bird. You need to feel when something goes wrong. You need to know when it is ready to be weaned. You need to see when you need to go back a step and feed a bit more. Theres more to handfeeding a parrot than stuffing the seringe into the bird (which can be a pain to begin with). Not to mention the gazillion things that can go wrong....

On the other hand, you'll need to start handfeeding some time if you want to become experienced.


So, if the question is whether people who have no experience with birds should purchase an unweaned chick, my answer is no.

[Brittanyv326]

Me and the lady I got Sade from were just talking about this, how people will pay less money to get an unweaned bird. She told me the intricacies of hand feeding and I quickly realized that things can easily go wrong if a beginner tries it without help, like if the person held a baby (not sure if it's all birds or just macaws) to restrict them from "pumping" (wing flapping) while feeding that it could kill them. Food being too hot could burn straight through their crop. Food being too cold could block it up. And I'm sure there's a zillion other things too and someone who hasn't been properly educated and had hand feeding demonstrated and trials supervised by the experienced hand feeder could very easily make everything go wrong. I absolutely don't think someone should attempt this without prerequisites I mentioned.

Anyway, we were talking about how a lot of people are so money oriented and not concerned about the welfare of the parrots. The breeder/seller has the money, so whether the buyer kills the bird the next day doesn't matter. The buyer is looking to save some money so buys a baby that needs hand feeding still. Of course this isn't the only reasons pricing is done this way. What do you think drives a breeder to sell an unweaned baby to a beginner and vise versa besides money though? I'm curious.

[pchela]

What do you think drives a breeder to sell an unweaned baby to a beginner and vise versa besides money though? I'm curious.

That's an easy one. Hand feeding a chick to completion takes a lot of time, a lot of work and a considerable amount of money. If the hand feeder can sell the chick early he saves a lot of money and a lot of work and sadly, some breeders just don't seem to care if the baby ends up dead as long as they get paid.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I put "no" but I guess I'd also not want to see legislation limiting it. The mainstream opinion is that this is not desirable in most situations. However, I also agree you need to start somewhere... if the person is willing to train and spend some time doing the job under supervision, then it doesn't seem crazy to me. There is probably a bit more risk to the young bird, but everyone involved needs to weight that into the picture. I have to add the disclaimer that I've never hand fed a bird, only read about it -- but my husband has hand fed and raised babies (and had one defect in preference of his mother, but that's another story).

[HyperD]

I'd also not want to see legislation limiting it.

Here in the UK it is illegal. There was an Act passed in 1951 that stipulated

"No mammal shall be kept, displayed or sold unweaned or, if weaned, at an age at which it should not have been weaned. Non-mammals must be capable of feeding themselves."

So is it legal elsewhere?

[Kim S]

Wow, I never heard that it was illegal anywhere.
I dont think its illegal here, the Dutch variation of Ebay is full of unweaned parrots.