Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can someone please tell me where I can find information on handfeeding Mexican RedHead Amazons? Someone gave me a pair, and I would like to breed them. I have purchased several books, and read whatever I can find online. I am trying to find out the amount I need to feed them, especially the first few days. (until weaned)
I have handfed before... just not babies that young. Please help.

Will the parents not feed their babies? I realizes some people say they make tamer babies if you handfeed but even then many people leave them with their parents until after 2 weeks. There is a much higher death rate in baby birds separated from their parents before that age.

If you are still set on handfeeding from day one or if for some reason the parents will not feed then my suggestion would be to ask your avian vet. The birds should have a wellness checkup with an avian vet before breeding either way. While they are getting your checkup you can speak with the vet or vet assistant about handfeeding that type of babies, how much how often and when to start etc.

If you are only handfeeding to make a tamer baby realize that you can do this without that amount of work. If after the first 1-2 weeks you remove the babies from their nest every day. At first just once a day for a few minutes. Gradually building the time up you handle them. This way they still get the good nutrition from their parents (as long as they are on a good diet) plus they get socialized with people. And you don't have all the worries that you would have with handfeeding. By weaning age they could actually be out of their nest with you for most of the time just making sure they are in their nest for the parents to feed when needed.

Also you will need to decide which way you are going to handfeed. Different methods work better on different sized birds and some methods make weaning much easier, but every method can have both pros and cons. Do you already have a good gram scale you will be able to weigh the baby on from the first day of handfeeding? Do you have a good food thermometer to make sure the food is the exact right temperature and do you know the exact thickness to feed at each age? IF you have already handfed you probably do have all this and know all that which is wonderful but if not make sure to talk to your vet.

A good book to try for any other questions would be Handfeeding and Raising Baby Birds by Matthew M. Vriends, Ph.D.

Sorry if it sounds like I am on a rampage against handfeeding. I am not against handfeeding if the circumstances are needed I have handfed many clutches but not because I breed birds. I have had to handfeed because many people want to try, they separate from their parents the parents will not start feeding them again when they try to replace them after trying to handfeed and deciding it was too hard. Then after all that the babies are sick, starving and they get turned over to us. Then if we are lucky and they are not too far gone we handfeed them and later have to work on finding them new good homes to adopt to.

I just received these birds. They are not set up to breed yet.
I have just been trying to learn everything I can before I take that step. I want to be as prepared as I can be.
I do not plan on pulling them from the nest until they are 2 weeks old.
As I stated in my last post, I have handfed before, but my babies were 6 weeks old when I bought them. (Blue Front Amazon, African Grey, Sun Conure & 2 quaker parrots) I hand fed all of them except the Sun Conure.
I just purchased the book by Matthew Vriends. And, I have the library searching for several other books that were recommended to me.