Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 8/19/2007

Question
If we are currently feeding our older parakeets regular bird food how can we make it so that the 2+ day old parakeet will be able to eat it at its young age? and what utensil do i use to feed it?

Will the parents allow the baby birds to stay in the cage until another batch is on the way?

Answer
Hi, Katie.

Baby keets won't eat seed until they are being weaned.  The parents will start weaning their babies when they leave the nesting box.  

If you are going to handfeed them, you will use baby parrot handfeeding formula and a handfeeding syringe.  You purchase these items at a pet store or online.  If you are going to handfeed, you need to pull the babies completely from their parents when they are about 7-10 days old.  This means you completely take over their care and feeding.  Visit my website for more information on all of this:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.htm.  

In addition, an all-seed diet is a poor diet for birds.  There's more information about this, too, on my website.

Once the babies start leaving the nest, mom bird will consider laying more eggs.  She may lay more eggs while some babies are still in the nesting box.  Once they leave the nest, daddy takes over teaching them what they need to know and feeding them.  However, you shouldn't allow babies from one clutch to remain in the cage while another is on the way because it's too much for the adult birds.  Daddy bird is trying to keep mom fed while mom is incubating eggs.  I recommend you remove clutch 1 babies ASAP after daddy weans them, especially if mom has laid more.  You probably need to consider just how many babies you want, as keets can be very prolific, and control the number of clutches.  Only allow your adults to have 2-3 clutches per year, depending on their health and the number of babies they have per clutch.

Chrys