Superb Parrot - Nswfmpa.org

Animal Care Studies - Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, Richmondincreasing to a thicker consistency to 30% solids. Then the Gastrolyte is discontinued andreplaced with cooled boiled water for the remaining rearing period.When seven days old the 2-00 a.m. feed can be discontinued, allowing the chicks crop toempty overnight. As the chicks grow so does the capacity of the crop capacity and thefood intake increases while the duration between feeds is extended to three hours thenfour hours and so on. Generally the feeding intervals are determined by the speed of thecrop emptying. The hand-rearing diet is changed at seven days old to the hand-rearingrecipe specified above. The hand-rearing food should be fed at a temperature of 42.7°Cfor very young chicks, gradually reducing to 40°C for older chicks.Normally weaning off the hand-rearing diet would take place at about eight to ten weeksof age. This may vary between individual young birds. The first indication that the birdsare ready to be weaned is their growing lack of interest in the hand-rearing food. Whenthis behaviour begins a variety of appropriate foods can be placed in a shallow dish in theyoung birds brooder or cage for them to start to experiment with. Soft foods are idealsuch as corn kernels, peas, spinach, soft pear, carrot, and sprouted mung beans should allbe offered in small-diced pieces. A pre-soaked parrot mix containing sunflower, canaryseed, oats and millets can also be offered. The soaking makes the seed husks easy tobreak and weaning parrots will soon learn to extract the flesh, play with it for a while andthen experiment with chewing it. The same parrot mix could also be run through ablender and offered as a crunchy mix and may take a young birds fancy quicker thanlumps of food.Hand-rearing food should be gradually reduced in quantity and regular feeds per day cutdown to once daily. Preferably the one daily feed should be in the evenings to ensureyoung birds have sufficient food in their crops to sustain them through the night. Thereduction in hand-rearing food will also encourage the young birds to feed themselves.When the young birds have been observed, eating and swallowing properly, and there isat least a level teaspoon of food in their crops during the late afternoon hand-feedingshould cease. However, close monitoring of food intake should take place for severaldays to sure that the young birds are definitely feeding themselves. (Low 2004) (Sindeland Gill 2003) (Wilson 1990)11.9 Specific RequirementsThe best substrate to brood a small chick on for the first few days of its life is tissues,which are replaced every feed. When changing the tissues every feed, any unusualfeatures or changes in faeces will be detected immediately. Use several layers of tissue ata time, as a single layer soon breaks up with moisture from the faeces and the chick willbegin slipping on the under surface.Once the chick enters the growth phase, sawdust is by far the most popular substrateused. It is cheap, fairly easily obtained and an excellent absorber of fluids. The oneproblem with sawdust is that from the pin-feather stage chicks can begin to pick at thebase materials. This may result in a full crop of sawdust. To assist in the preventing theKeith Naylor 28/3/2005 Version 3 70