Baby Conures,

Question
QUESTION: Hi Chrys,
I talked to you a few months back about my Conures might be laying eggs.
Hello,
I have four Conures and a Budgie is a 4x5 foot cage.  I put boxes and things in
there for them to play with.
Their diet is fresh vegetables, corn etc, and millet and oatmeal.
Last week, much to my surprise, three young Conures appeared from a long wine
box.
They are almost completely full grown and look almost exactly like the mother.  Mom is
green and gold, father is blue and white.
The new 'babies' come out, look around and go back into their box.

When I talke d to you last time you said I should look in there.  Well, I did, and saw 4 eggs but I did not know what to do after that, so I left them alone.
Now they are hatched and alive and well.

Should I just leave them or should I be doing something?
They have done everything by themselves so far, and I don't want to upset
anything.
They all look healthy and normal.

Thanks.


ANSWER: Hi, Paul.

Great!  How old are these babies?  I would have recommended you handfeed these babies so they would be tame enough to handle, but if you haven't done so yet and since they already look like mom, they are probably too old to start handfeeding.  The one thing you should be doing is offering them a variety of nutritious, healthy foods every day.  I do not recommend an all-seed diet for any parrot.  Also, if you don't want them to continue to breed, you'll need to remove any type of nest or anything that resembles a nest.  Once the babies are old enough (eatng and drinking on their own), you probably should separate them into their own cage.

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Chrys,
Thank you for your reply.
The babies are so close to full size I can almost not tell them apart from the mother.
My follow up question to your sugggestion is what and how do I hand feed them?
I give them anything they will eat.
Their diet is fresh vegetables, corn etc, and millet and oatmeal.
Their favorite is corn and leafy green Bok Choy.
I will buy another big cage.  Should I keep the young ones by themselves in the cage away from the parents?
Or put them in their own separate cages?

ANSWER: Hi again, Paul.

I need to know how old these birds are.  They may be too old for handfeeding.  The type of handfeeding I'm referring to is using a handfeeding syringe and baby parrot handfeeding formula and delivering the formula into their mouths/crops.  If these babies are already weaned (eating other foods), you don't need to handfeed them using parrot handfeeding formula.  You can always feed them food out of your hand (another way to "handfeed").

It's always a good idea to separate offspring from parents usually because the parents don't want their babies to remain with them indefinitely (if more breeding is planned) and so that the parents/offspring don't bond with each other.  8 conures and a budgie (I'd separate this budgie out into a cage of its own) are probably too much for the 4x5 cage (depending on what type of conures these are) and all the accessories.  This is why I recommended you separate the babies into their own cage.

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Chrys,
Thank You for your reply.
The baby birds are about 10 weeks old give or take a week.
I have 6 conures including the two babies.
The budgie appears to be getting along well with the conures.  I did take him out for a few weeks but he became very quiet and inactive.  So I put him back in and he is active with the conures again.
I live in China and there are no bird accessories to be found, so no formula available.
When should I separate the babies from the parents?  I don't know if they are capable of eating food on their own.
They ARE full grown but still have the fluffy feathers on their back under their folded wings.
ANSWER: Hi again, Paul.

You still haven't stated what type of conures these are!  

At 10 weeks of age, these birds should be completely weaned (weaned means eating and drinking on their own).  These babies must be eating something.  You state "I don't know if they are capable of eating food on their own" but in another post you stated you feed them fresh veggies, corn, etc.  So I'm confused...are these babies eating and drinking on their own or not?  You should be able to see if they are eating on their own or not or are the parents feeding them?  If the parents are still feeding them, you can't separate them from their parents.  If you don't know what these birds are eating, you need to find out what is going on before I can help you further.  If parents are still feeding, you need to wean the babies first before you can separate them (they need to be weaned regardless).

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi CHrys,
1) I do not know what kind of conures they are.
2) Sorry I confused you about feeding. All the birds are in one cage and their food is available to anyone who wants to eat. I can not watch them all day to see who eats and who doesnt, so I don't know if the 'babies' are eating by themselves. For sure the parents still feed them, but I do not know if that is their only choice.
By the way, how do I wean them without separating them from their parents?
Yesterday was the first day I saw one young one away from thier box and nibbling on some corn on the cob.
And lastly, I have looked at other web sites to see what kind of Conures they are.
One certainly is a 'Sun Conure' or at least looks exactly like the photo.
If color has anything to do with type, the second is a blue wings, almost white body with a black head (The father)
The third is a greenish bronze gold color. (The mother and babies.)
They are all about 4 - 5 inches in length.

By the way, this morning I saw the two 'babies' nibbling on the corn.

Have a nice day Chrys.

From Paul.
ANSWER: Hi again, Paul.

Thanks for the additional information.  Sounds like you have some conures that are mixed/hybridized.  Not a good thing in the parrot world.

Since these young birds have been left with the parents to be raised, I'd say just leave things the way they are.  The parents will eventually wean them.  However, if you want to wean them yourself, you'll need to separate them from the rest so you can see what "stage" of weaning they are in so you know where to go from there.  If the parents go to nest again, which will happen if you don't remove nesting areas from their enclosure/cage, you need to be prepared to separate their offspring if things get aggressive inside the cage.  Adults usually don't like previous offspring in a cage with new eggs/hatchlings, but this also depends on how large the cage/aviary/enclosure is.  I'm actually surprised the budgie has lasted this long in the same cage!  

Don't overfeed corn.  Corn binds with calcium in the body and often makes a bird calcium-deficient.  Your birds need a variety of healthy, nutritious foods, particularly veggies.  Limit seed...seed is high in fat, low in nutritional value.  Provide pelleted food if you don't already.

I think I've answered your questions.  If not, let me know.

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Chrys,
The single Budgie bird does very well with the Conures. He is very interactive, sometimes chasing them around. For sure he does not appear to be stressed out.
I live in China, and there are no 'bird' pet stores here so no pellets available or anything like that.  I had to get bird gravel sent from Canada.
So they have a corn cob about every 2-3 days, a full dish of millet seed always, broccoli and leafy greens every day. I give them every kind of vegetable and fruit.  They do not appear to like a wide variety.
They appear to be healthy, lively and normal.
I understand your 'caution' so here is my question.

Should I cut back on the corn and millet seed in the hope that they will be hungry enough to eat other vegetables and fruit that they normally refuse to eat?

In terms of 'time', about when should or could the young ones be weaned/separated from the parents?
What are the 'stages' that I should be looking for?

And why is it not good to crossbreed in the parrot world?
Should I be expecting more problems?

Thanks.

From Paul.

Answer
Paul,

Don't give your birds gravel.  Gravel is only necessary for birds that don't hull their seeds.  Gravel can become impacted in your bird's crops, which requires surgery to correct.

A corn cob every 2-3 days is too much corn.  Cut in half.  Parrots LOVE seed.  To a bird, seed is like candy to a child.  As long as seed is available in a cage, most birds will select the seed over other foods.  I recommend you remove the millet seed while other food is being offered, at least.  I recommend seed be left as a treat.  Offer as much variety of other foods as possible....there's a huge selection to choose from!  Cooked brown rice with veggies mixed in, pasta (no sauces), dry/sugarless/nutritional cereals (such as Grape Nuts), the broccoli and greens are good (but not every day)....anything healthy and nutritious for us is good for parrots.  Parrots won't eat things they don't recognize as food, so you have to keep offering until they get used to the item.  

I start weaning conures at 4 weeks of age.  They are completely weaned at 8 weeks of age.  However, I pull babies for handfeeding when they are about 10 days old.  Parent-raised babies will often continue being fed by the parents until they are 3-4 months old, depending on when they go to nest again and/or when the parents decide enough is enough!  Since these are parent-raised birds, you'll need to watch to see if/when they are eating on their own before you separate them.  In other words, you need to ensure where they are as far as eating on their own goes before you should make any further decisions.  If you separate them without knowing how they are eating, you'll need to ensure they have plenty of food available at all times (until they are eating pelleted food on their own between feedings).  In other words, my parrots have pelleted food available 24/7.  When I get home from work in the evenings, I feed each a variety of other foods.  You don't have to feed 10 different items every day!  As long as by week's end your bird's have a balanced, nutritional diet consisting of a variety of different types of foods, you've done your part.  I offer my birds seed once per week, some get larger nuts more often.  As far as "stages," the birds should be eating a larger variety of food each week.  Each bird is different so trying to generalize would not be right.

Hybridizing contaminates the gene pool.  In other words, instead of having "pure" sun conures, you might have 1/2 sun conures 1/2 some other subspecies of conure.  Crossbreeding is OK say in the dog or cat world because these pets have been domesticated for so long.  However, not the same in the parrot world.  In addition, parrots are becoming endangered, often times nearly extinct.  This is the main reason for not hybridizing.  I want my grandchildren to experience birds as God/Mother Nature created them; not as they are from the mistakes of humans.  In some bird species, hybridization can result in many health problems at least.  Some species of parrots are so genetically dissimilar, no eggs become fertilized.

Chrys