handfed tiels

we are currently handfeeding our baby tiels... here's a couple of pics at feeding time.

soooooo ugly they are cute LOL

http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/snakes/tiel.jpg


i believe i can flyyyyyyyy


http://www.timelessspirit.com/images/snakes/tiels.jpg

Oh what wonderful pics! How many babies are you handfeeding? How often each day? What do they eat? (can you tell this stuff fascinates me LOL) I recently watched a parrot baby being handfed and it was just like this....so darned ugly that it was cute!

Very cute pics! I really like them when they get just about half their feathers in. Keep us posted and thanks for the pics!!:D

Aww.. how adorable! I love parrots, but they are too noisy for my mom.

That's so sweet!


Are they handfed because their mother can't/won't feed them? Or is it done on purpose to insure tame birds? Either way, it looks like a monumental undertaking!

Handfed parrots make better pets than parent raised birds. It's a common practice in the parrot trade. Parent raised birds make better breeders, however, so there is a balance.

we handfeed for two reasons... one to keep the clutch alive and the other is to assist them to be more tame. we've allowed the parents to feed to weaning and still had friendly birds (as we held them daily) but unfortunately we usually loose some of the clutch when the parents feed (survival of the fittest)

so, at this point we are feeding about 4 times a day - we do start out at every two hours though... and we feed till they are 8 weeks old and weaned. some wean at 9 weeks... some at 7.5 weeks... depends on the individual bird.

we started with 4 babies. one died in my hands which broke my heart... not sure why it died, i cried all day after that happened. another we have right now has a deformed leg, so it'll need a special home and the other two are doing great.

a normal clutch for our birds is 3. the mother is piebald and the father is an albino whiteface. we don't pair them off, they do it themselves. we don't actually try to breed them it's more a case of ("mom they're doing it again") so we put the nesting box in for them LOL so we only get one, maybe two clutches a year. the ones i don't find homes for go to a great local petstore (where i used to work) and they buy them from me.

we feed them a bird pablum we mix with water and syringe it into them. their "booty dance" while they eat is sooooo cute. the kids come running when we are feeding the birds. their little bums bounce up and down realllllly fast (helps with swallowing) heehee... you gotta see it to believe it... sooooo funny.

parrotlets would be a good choice for your mom... world's smallest parrots. and very quiet!

I had a tiel for a long time. She was indestructable it seemed like, she got attacked by our dog, but she survived. She was 18 when she died. Tiels are great birds they're so much fun too.

oh ya they are soooo tough. ours take a round out of the cats if they get too close. whacking them with their wings... the cats don't even bother anymore!

taught our dog a lesson or two as well LOL

There is a black capped conure at work now that is so sweet. I wish I could take him home, but as far as I know all parrot species will scream at some point (only way for them to keep contact in the jungle with their flock)