Expert: Christopher Emory - 1/26/2011

Question
Hello I have a couple of questions about my Budgies!
I have 6 eggs that hopefully will start hatching on Saturday! Yay! So my question is I want to be able to hand feed, but I don't know if I should! Can I hand feed just 2 of them? My husband is going to let me keep the two! I want to have a relationship like my mom has with her love birds that she hand fed! Is it ok to separate just two of the babies? Or should I not? If i don't hand feed all of them then I should just leave them alone?

Answer
Alesha,

It is quite common for breeders to handfeed only a select few. I have 100+ budgies in a outdoor aviary and every year as the mood strikes me, I select my breeders and then select a few baby budgies to handfeed. I simply remove my pick from the nest box and leave the rest. You will have no issues with doing that. I recommend that you go ahead and order some handfeeding books, handfeeding formula/supplies and be prepared to handfeed them when you choose. I prefer to leave my babies in the nest for 14 days for several reasons. (1) Formulas are great but even the most skeptic scientist will tell you that nothing fully replaces the mother's "milk". The birds seem to grow at a better rate when they get their first few weeks of nutrients from their mother. (2) Time, Time, Time!!! A day old baby requires feeding AROUND THE CLOCK! At 14 days old, I usually feed every 6 hours. Alot better than every hour!

Best of luck!