# Hand feeding utensils?



## J.Muller (Feb 17, 2013)

Greetings cockatiel lovers!

First, I would like to ask your opinion on what is the best age to pull a chick from the nest and hand-rear it yourself?
Second, I would like to know what do you consider to be the best hand feeding utensils? I have a few syringes of various sizes and eye droppers. Would these be good enough?


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

The best age AFAIK is 3-4 weeks for hand rearing.
I dont have much idea about utensils wait for a while sure others will give you better answers


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## nikami510 (Nov 21, 2012)

When i hand fed my babies they were about to be 4 wks old and i fed them with a 10cc syringe. they took to it right away. best to wait to feed them when they are hungry and their crops are empty. temperature and consistency are very important. and recording their daily weight first thing in the morning is also important. there are obviously more details to hand feeding and there are several good websites and stickies on this forum that help you with this. 

My best advice is confidence in knowing that ultimately the health of your babies is what is most important to you and that you are trying your best for them. 
I got really nervious listening to all the horrible things that could go wrong with handfeeding babies and although they are things that are important for you to be knowledgeable about if you do the research and are 120% sure of wanting to this then you should be confident that everything will turn out well.

Cockatiels are a huge contradiction. They are fragile and hardy all at ones. Little humongous bundles of love and joy.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Most breeders pull their chicks at about 2 weeks old. 

Hand feeding utensils include:
-a food thermometer
-syringes
-spoons
-formula
-a few bowls
-towels you don't mind getting dirty
-formula (of course)
-104* water (of course)


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## nikami510 (Nov 21, 2012)

breeders obviously have loads more experience handling baby tiels and choose to pull them out for hand feeding sooner but if you have little to no prior experience i would wait till 3 to 4 wks. 
By them they have more feathers covering their bodies and have gotten a little bit more of the things their bird parents provide to their babies immune systems.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

The only issue with pulling babies later rather than sooner is that some babies do not take well to the syringe when they get closer to the 4, 5 or 6 week mark. If you allow them to be fed by their parents too long then they will flat refuse a syringe by the time they are 6 weeks old.

Also, if anyone is inexperienced with handfeeding, then I suggest this first time around to only do supplemental feedings/coparenting. This is when you allow the parent birds to do most of the feeding, and then you also do a feeding daily. This gets the babies used to being handled, used to the syringe, and also gives the human practice without the worry of the babies getting too little amount of formula.


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