This is topic about which Missy and I have
very strong feelings. We have come to feel
very strongly about the ethics involved
in selling unweaned baby parrots. We hope
that the needless suffering, stunting, psychological
damage, guilt, financial loss, heart break
and especially death can be avoided as breeders
and pet owners come to understand the reality
involved in selling unweaned babies. The
two most vulnerable times in a babies life
are at hatching and at weaning.
Every day we get calls from inexperienced
bird owners with questions about how to
hand-feed their new baby parrot. This type
of question cannot be answered over the
phone is just a few minutes. There is much
involved in proper hand feeding and weaning
of baby parrots. I see many babies in my
avian practice that were fed, housed or
weaned incorrectly. The baby birds are the
senseless victims in these situations. Many
of these new owners have never previously
owned a parrot, much less hand-fed baby
birds. They usually are not given written
instructions or even a hand feeding demonstration.
Verbal instructions and reassurance that
hand feeding is easy and that nothing will
happen may be the only guidance they receive
before leaving with their new baby.
This situation will almost invariably lead
to any number of horrible outcomes. Inexperienced
hand-feeders are not able to recognize problems
before irreparable damage occurs and death
becomes inevitable. Upon examining one of
these little birds, you will often find
bacterial and yeast infections, crop burns
and other problems, but the worst of all
to find is a perfectly healthy baby that
died of starvation simply because the amount
to feed and the number of times a day to
feed was information foreign to the hand-feeder.
These problems do not stem only from the
new owner buy can also originate from a
breeder who is ill-informed, has less concern
for the babies than for the money, and/or
doesn't want to be bothered once the bird
is out of their care. This does happen every
day!
New owners are trapped into buying this
adorable little down-covered and by being
told by the breeder that they must hand-feed
their new baby themselves if they want it
to bond with them. This is very misleading.
Let's look at it from a practical standpoint.
Birds have two types of development. The
first to consider is imprinting. Imprinting
occurs at the time their eyes open. When
the eyes first open, the form that a baby
sees will be the form that he will associate
as future flocking buddies. When humans
are seen first they become the form in which
baby birds consider as themselves. To them,
we are birds and they are humans. The second
type of development to consider is bonding.
Bonding is something that occurs gradually
and must be fostered. It may not even occur
before the bird begins sexual maturity.
If bonding were to occur between feeder
and baby, babies would bond to their mothers,
and we know this does not happen. Bonding
with the pet parrot depends on the friendship
that develops, not who held the syringe.
