Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone direct me to a good website that tells exactly how to hand rear a bird? I am thinking of getting a Sun Conure in the future and I may want to do the hand feedings myself, so I want to get as much info before I visit a breeder and make the decision. Also, does anyone know if it makes a difference in bonding if the new owner does the hand rearing or if the breeder does it? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hand rearing makes no difference on the bonding of a bird. Many people both breeders and individuals claim that if you handfeed a bird it will bond to you and be a good tame bird. This is not necessarily true. It is not the handfeeding that makes the bird bond to you. It is the socialization. You can have a very tame sweet bird that loves you to pieces that is parent raised as long as it has been well socialized. You can also have a handreared bird that will bite, scream etc, because it hasn't had good socialization while being handreared. Also if the bird does have to be handfed it would not matter whether the breeder or the new owner was the one to handfeed it as long as it had lots of interaction. In fact most times a bird will change its allegiance after it is weaned, especially when it reaches maturity. Once birds reach maturity instead of wanting to be bonded with a person it sees as the parent or nurturer many times it will decide instead to bond with a new person it sees as a friend, new flock member or potential mate.

I would never direct a beginner to handfeed a bird just to get it to bond with them. There are too many things that can go wrong besides which you will not get a health guarantee from any breeder on an unweaned chick. If through your own mistake you accidentally cause the death of an unweaned baby or cause it to develop asperillogosis, a slow crop, crop stasis (due to cold food, improperly mixed food etc), a hole in the crop due to feeding implements, too hot of food etc then you are not only torturing and causing the death of this poor bird you are also out all money spent on that bird up to that time.

That being said there are still those who will insist on handfeeding their own bird even though they have never done it before (and yes I know there is a first time for everything). If you are one of these people please get an actual person to show you how to do it correctly don't try to get your info from pictures or just reading about it. Reading about it is a poor substitute for experience and hands on training. Talk with your avian vet (if you don't already have one find one as you will need one for your new bird) they may be able to take the time to show you how to properly feed your bird (although most will tell you this is a bad choice and to buy a weaned baby) or ask the breeder directly. If they are a good breeder (although then they usually won't sell unweaned birds to someone without lots of experience) but anyway they should be able to let you visit several times and show you how to feed the baby bird, how to mix the food, how to weigh the bird to make sure it is gaining the appropriate amount of weight, how to check the crop to make sure it is emptying correctly etc.

Thanks so much for a well informed response. People say a lot of things, so out of curiousity, I had to ask others for their opinions. I have never hand fed a bird, so I have no experience. So I guess it would be a better idea to let the breeder do it and watch whenever I visit, if I go that route. I know of a bird in a pet store that has been there for about 6 months, he/she really makes a fuss over me when I visit, loves kissing me and seems to hate going back into the cage when I have to leave. But my dilema there is that he/she is in a pet store. I'm nervous about buying from a pet store. I have wanted this bird for several months, am I mental for waiting? LOL

Hi

I totally agree. If you've not done this before then it should be left to the breeder to rear & it is much safer & better for the bird to go to you fully weaned than have you possibly end up with too many complications from rearing the bird.

And it doesn't make a difference in the bonding between you & the bird. Regardless of whether you rear or get a newly/fully weaned baby. The baby still needs to get used to the new members of the household & the new house. Some babies also refuse being reared by new people if they already have started being reared by one person.

I did the completion of the rearing for my eclectus parrot but what I also did was visit the breeder at regular times & helped her to hand feed him. You could ask if you can help with the rearing on occation so you can get a little experience for this for the future?

Hi, I have a sun conure and she's a crazy. Well, I just got her a couple of months ago and she (I don't know if boy or girl) has totally attached to me. Gracey likes to be hand fed, in fact that's what I have been doing with her this week to give her attention. I have given defrosted frozen veggies one at a time while she sits on my lap while I watch TV and she dances she loves it so much.
I don't know if you intend to aquire a baby bird to rear, but I imagine that it would create further bonding with you if you reared instead of a breeder. On the other hand, there are issues of proper ways...I know my adult concure likes to be hand fed.