I have for many years been breeding parrots and raising them both by hand and in the nest. I started by comparing the weight and growth rate of my hand-reared babies with those being reared by the parents and experimented with feeding formulas until I arrived at one which gave me similar results. This was before the advent of commercially prepared formulas. I still use my own formula for the first few days of rearing the babies, if you would like the recipe, please click on the 'Food' link below. Thereafter, I use 'Kaytee Exact' or 'Pretty Bird', but there are plenty of other makes that will give you good results.
It was difficult knowing what weight a baby should be at any given stage of development and how much food to feed it at that weight. In case others have the same worries hand rearing parrots, I thought I would copy my rearing sheets omitting personal details as not all these sheets relate to my own birds. See the links above for various species.
The references to feeding times are: -
2 hourly feeds (9 times daily) - from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
3 hourly feeds - 7 a.m.; 9 a.m.; 11 a.m. and then every 3 hours to 11 p.m.
4 hourly feeds (5 times daily) - 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
5 hourly feeds (4 times daily) - 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
3 times daily - morning, mid-afternoon and late evening.
Twice daily - late morning and late evening
Once daily - late evening feed to ensure they have a full crop overnight.
I hope you find the records useful. If you have to rear a baby for which I have not reproduced a rearing record, please contact me as I have hundreds of rearing sheets for all sorts of species only a few of which are on this site at any one time. Contact me if you have worries about the type of feed or the temperature requirements. Do not worry as we all make mistakes and someone somewhere will have made the same error before you. E-mail me at
psittaculturist@parrots-psittaculturist.co.uk
Parrot breeding information
I do not normally recommend particular sites, I like to leave you to do your own exploring. However, there is one site that you may find interesting if you have a pet parrot - http://www.birdtricks.com
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