# Chick Help



## Dooly (Jun 14, 2012)

Okay, yikes where to start?
My name is Asha and I am totally obsessed with these birds might be a good introduction. And, like I mean it's a dangerous obsession. I draw them constantly, research them all the time and visit the pet store to see them every day I work. After years and years of wanting one I finally have the opportunity to keep one as a companion.
That's a massive deal for me.

I want to hand rear one myself from about Three weeks old. Now don't get me wrong, I know my stuff. I wouldn't take on such an amazing creature at a younger age if I thought I couldn't do it and so therefore put the little guy at risk. I have mates that breed cockatiels who I can turn to for help, but they don't hand rear so they don't have all the answers to my questions.
Okay long story short, I'm mostly posting this as a double check. I want to make sure I've got everything I need to know down packed and ready to go.

I'm pretty much after tips, tips on handfeeding, keeping them warm, where to keep them, things i need to keep in mind. Even things that your bird liked as a chick. It might be a vauge post but seriously, if anything pops into your head, post it. It doesn't matter if i've read it before as you might have some important details i missed out on

Cheers

Also i hope i posted this in the right place, i couln't figure out where to place it haha


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Welcome to the group! But the question that I have to ask is, why do you want to handfeed the baby yourself? It isn't necessary for taming/bonding purposes, and it would be much safer to get a weaned handfed baby from a reliable, experienced breeder. If you spend much time reading the threads in our breeding section, you'll see that there are about a million things that can go wrong with handfeeding, and even experienced breeders have problems sometimes.

We have several sticky threads in the breeding section that would be helpful. I would recommend starting out with this one, on the dangers of handfeeding:
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=26995

Also this one, including reading all the links that it contains. It's about feeding and development problems, most of them related to handfeeding:
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27514

If you still want to handfeed after this, the best way to learn it is to locate an experienced handfeeder in your area and have them teach you in person. If that isn't possible, search youtube for videos on handfeeding birds and watch several of them.

Here are some more useful threads from our breeding stickies:

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=6140 on how to be prepared for handfeeding

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=18189 more tips on handfeeding

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=19342 what to do during an aspiration emergency

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. And please, think very carefully before you go ahead with this. Handfeeding is serious business, and the life and safety of a sweet baby bird is at stake. My birds have raised 38 babies in my house. I did co-parenting (aka assist feeding) with all of them for socialization purposes, but I didn't pull any of them to be raised by handfeeding alone because the risks scare me too much. Good parents do a better job of feeding the babies than any human can.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*If you still want to handfeed after this, the best way to learn it is to locate an experienced handfeeder in your area and have them teach you in person.*

More importantly than this is to know what a healthy chick looks like.....such as is the development appropriate for it's age, is it digesting well, what a healthy crop looks like, and proper skintone. *IF* you do buy an unweaned bird *the first step* is to go to a qualified avian vet for a health check-up, and specific answers to your questions.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Here's a good article on what normal development looks like: http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/watch-me-grow.html 

This baby was bigger than average so many babies won't weigh as much. But otherwise, this is what you're aiming for.


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