Baby African Grey Parrot Hand Rearing

Hand rearing a baby African Grey Parrot or any other avian for that matter, is a dangerous thing to do if you don't know what you're doing. It takes a great deal of dedication and it can be time-consuming. Unless you have the knowledge of hand rearing birds, you should not attempt to buy a parrot or any other bird. You could possibly harm the bird or even kill it.

Many well meaning people purchase baby parrot without knowing what they are letting themselves in for. This leads to frustration and heartache or anger. Baby parrots have died, at the hands of the well-meaning people through the lack of knowledge and know how.

I would advice most people to purchase a bird that has already been weaned. They are raised for you to the stage where you can nurture, raise and love your young parrot. You might pay less for a week old baby but the added expenses will be a lot more than you bargained for. Expenses such as the formula for hand rearing African babies, a heating pad and syringes are to name a few.

Then there is the chance that the new baby won't make it. You will have to keep record of each feeding, weigh the baby on a continual basis. You need to keep everything very sanitized as the baby parrot does not have a strong immune system and will be susceptible to many illnesses.

The formula has to be the right temperature and of the right consistency, to cold and thick can result in food staying in the crop and resulting in harmful bacteria to grow. Formula that is too hot can cause crop burn, if it is to runny it can cause malnutrition and dehydration.

You have to know how to open the African Grey抯 beak without force for it to start feeding, if you don't, you could injure the beak and cause deformities, this is why hand rearing experience is vital.

It may seem that a parrot has a strong beak, and adult parrots beaks are strong enough to cause injury, but baby do not have strong beaks yet.

Then there is ensuring that baby does not get to hot or too cold, both is disastrous and can have fatal outcomes.
The baby cannot regulate his body temperature therefore as his newly adopted mother you should do that for him. That means a constant check must be done continually, and you have to know the symptoms of the baby parrot being too hot or cold.

You need to know how much formula to give the baby parrot both the amount he needs to drink and the amount used to make the formula. You do not want to give the wrong dosage to the baby. You need to know when to present solid foods to start the weaning process. You will need to know what to give the baby parrot to ensure that he gets sufficient vitamins and minerals. As too little or too much could lead to many different health problems later.

Hand rearing does not take a couple of days, but rather weeks. It will demand a lot of your time and you need to patient, very patient. However, should you decide to hand rear a baby African Grey Parrot; all this will certainly be a good well worth it.
I would advice that you get a baby parrot from two weeks, and follow the guidance of the breeder and your avian specialist. When going to buy a baby parrot regardless of how young or old there are a few things you need to look at.

Most important is make sure that it is a reliable breeder. The cages should be clean and the other birds should be in a good state. Ask the breeder what is the baby parrot eating and keep to that diet for a week or two and little by little introduce other foods.

Ask questions about the parents, ask to see them. Do not accept a parrot if he shows any symptoms of illness, faeces on the tail or anal area if it is a baby, if they seem to be lethargic, have fluffed up feathers, if they screech when any one approaches them. If they are not completely alert and are clumsy.

Parrots have an instinctive need to hide their health problem but there are a few things like the above that give us an indication that everything is not fine. If after reading this article you still really want to hand rear a baby parrot, go to my blog, which will give you the information, you will need.