How Much to Feed African Grey Parrot Babies When Hand Rearing

The amount of formula to feed an African Grey Parrot chick and the times between feedings vary from bird to bird.As stated in a reply to a previous post, African Grey chicks are like children – each has their own needs and personality.

How Often Should you Feed the African Grey Parrot Chick?

 

The general rule of thumb is to feel the chick’s crop. If the crop is nearly empty, it is time to feed the baby.

What we usually do is to start feeding every three hours from the time we take them from the nest – usually at three or four weeks. We monitor the crop clearing carefully during that time to make sure the crop never completely empties. You should also take care not to leave too much food in the crop as this could lead to illnesses in the chick.

When you find that the crop is empty after two hours, you need to decrease the time between feeds and if the crop is still relatively firm after three hours, increase the time between feeds.

Here is an African Grey parrot chick with a nearly empty crop.

And here is the chick with a full crop.

Your bird therefore mostly dictates how often he/she should be fed.

How Much to Feed your African Grey Parrot Chick

When the chick is still very small, you need to feel the crop to make sure you don’t under or over feed the chick. When the crop is feeling stiff, not hard though,  the chick will have enough formula for the time being, Overfeeding can lead to the chick bringing up the excess formula and underfeeding will be detrimental to the bird as it would stem development of the bird. As the parrot babies get older, they will stop feeding when they’ve had enough.

They will also begin to show interest in other foods like shelled sunflower seed, fruit and a boiled mixture of other seeds. From about six to eight weeks we introduced these foods slowly before and after feeding the formula to get the birds accustomed to a variety of other food except formula and sunflower seeds.

African Grey Babies Now 7 Weeks Old

The African Grey Parrot chicks are now 7 weeks old and full of feathers. Hand rearing the chicks has not been such a mission as we first thought and they are becoming more and more independent. They started to eat soft food over the weekend and now resides in a proper parrot cage with extra mesh at the bottom to prevent them from falling through.



The smaller one is a keen learner and already starts to react to instructions to climb onto your finger, but the feet are not yet co-operating and if she has one claw closed the other refuses. Her balance is much better than the bigger one which is a complete sweetie.



The younger one also is the most inquisitive and will investigate anything and everything you place inside the cage. She now decided she likes the soft food better than the porridge and it appears that she will be weaned long before her older sibling as she eats less porridge with every feed and more soft food and seeds.



I don't know how we are going to say goodbye to these two in two weeks time as they each has their own personality and are adorable, but I suppose that is part of breeding African Grey Parrots.

African Grey Parrot Babies Develop Feathers

Our African Grey parrot chicks are nearly 5 weeks old now. They have grown by the hour and I think doubled in size during the last week. They are eating well and this week started to develop feathers.

Even the red tail feathers, unique to the Congo African Grey start to show.

The parrot chicks enjoy stretching their legs and simulating flight by flapping their wings - causing mayhem in the brooded as wood shavings fly all over the place. As mentioned in the previous post, they discovered their voices and now they tend to "talk" to the person feeding them (Especially if the porridge is not provided quickly enough.)

You will notice the eyes are fully open and trust me, they see quite well. The eyes will turn more yellow as the African Grey parrot matures and the black eyes are a dead giveaway for a young parrot.

African Grey Chicks - 28 Days Old

The African Grey Parrot babies are growing by the hour. Feeds are now 4 hours apart - yah! More sleep, but they are cute as buttons. Each one of the African Grey chicks has his own personality and feeding time turns into playtime for them.

The photo's show the oldest hatchling after a feed, stretching those legs that must support him for the rest of his life and exercising the wings (not that those small wings would ever support the likes of the round body).

Since three days ago, they are fluffy little creatures and both discovered they have voices. Night time feeds tends to get a bit noisy and I predict the one sleeping would soon be awaken by the antics of the baby parrots.

Dont' you also want one?

From Baby African Greys

African Grey Chicks Are 17 Days Old

The African Grey parrot chicks are now 17 days old and have been in the brooder for the last 3 days. They require feeding every two and a half hours and it feels like I have a newborn baby in the house again.

From Baby African Greys

As you can see, they grew tremendously during the last ten days and they are now able to sit upright during feeds and move around in the plastic container we keep them in. On the small segment of video, you'll notice the color in the brooder to be funny. I had to use night vision on the camera as the infrared lights gives the picture a too reddish tint. The eyes of the African Grey chicks are sensitive and the harsh white light used to warm the brooders may damage them.

The eyes are just starting to open and they are definitely able to hear and distinguish between different sounds. Upon entering the breeding room, they will lie quietly until they hear the chair in front of the breeder scrape. During the past three days they have come to recognize the sound as being associated with feeding time.

Each baby consumes approximately 7.5ml of formula during every feed and they are cute as buttons when they sit bold upright after a feed to allow the food to digest. Even without feathers they both "groom" the little plumage (and there really isn't much to see) like their adult counterparts.

They start to make noises during and after feeding and even at this early stage there is no mistaking them for any other bird than a parrot.