Posted by:
PHIggysbirds
at Thu Jan 22 17:33:49 2009 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHIggysbirds ]
You would do better with letting the parents feed their babies, especially at the beginning. Do not pick up the babies as parents that are not completely tame my become agitated and accidentally squash or kill their babies. If your lovebirds are very tame you may be able to chance touching the babies after the first few days. The babies will usually start calling for food within 1-2 hours of hatching and the parents will feed them at that time. Some parents wait until all eggs are hatched before feeding but most will feed within that couple hour period. Before that the babies are eating and digesting the rest of the egg from which they hatched.
Even in handfed babies it is best to leave the babies with their parents for the first few days (many say first few weeks) before taking over handfeeding. During the first few days the mothers regurgitated food is more of a milky consistency and has extra nutrients needed for the baby (it is called crop milk at times).
Some birds will ignore their first clutch of babies and they will starve. If you are positive that your babies are not eating, (if they are constantly calling for food and always being ignored or the parents completely leave the nest and don't reenter) then contact a local avian vet. Handfeeding is very hard to get right the first time. If you don't have experience I strongly suggest getting an avian vet to show you how to handfeed at first before trying on your own.
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- Babies! Lovebirds hatched - carmeny, Thu Jan 22 13:02:35 2009
RE: Babies! Lovebirds hatched - PHIggysbirds, Thu Jan 22 17:33:49 2009
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