by Pajarita » Mon Apr 01, 2019 9:20 am
Yes, there is if the person knows what he is doing but mishandling is not the same as not feeding a baby properly. There are studies that tell us that baby birds that went hungry will have eating disorders for the rest of their lives and I have found this to be true not only of babies but also of adults. I have a male canary that I had to handfeed because the mother got sick and he eats way too much all the time (I compensate by giving him lots of leafy greens and fruit/veggies and a lower protein seed mix so he doesn't get fatty liver disease). This is what happens when baby birds go hungry while growing up - as adults, they are never satisfied, they want more and more and often end up screaming all the time and/or becoming obese (the canary I have also cannot be bred because he never learned how to properly care for babies when he was a baby in the nest from his own parents - this when they learn parental skills). But I also had a lovebird that had been starved on purpose (girlfriend leaves boyfriend, boyfriend retaliates by starving her birds -his mate actually died of starvation and the corpse left in the cage) and he did not only end up with compromised internal organs and a super severe stargazing but he had to be handfed because, on his own, he would not have eaten enough to survive (he was always terribly skinny and would never gain weight no matter how rich was the food I fed him).