Carly Lu’s Flight Blog

The following is a post I requested from Wendy Craig, of Wendy’s Parrots about the requirements for hand-feeding and weaning baby parrots. Wendy has been raising a wide variety of parrots for over a decade. Her flock is composed of African Greys, Amazons, Alexandrines & Macaws, including the highly endangered Blue-throated Macaws and Red-fronted Macaws of Bolivia, which she specializes in. She is widely regarded as one of best breeders in the country, with babies that are renowned for their excellent health and sociability. Wendy is also a trainer, and has several free-flighted Red-fronted Macaws who were trained as adults, and one Scarlet Macaw that was trained after weaning.

Purchasing unweaned baby birds is a recent fad among a minority of flight trainers, who believe it is necessary to have a “baby bond” when beginning outdoor flying, rather than patient training. In addition to birds inevitably outgrowing any baby bond, the dangers of inexperienced owners hand-feeding babies is well-known enough that the sale of unweaned birds is illegal in the state of California. For more on the baby bond being unnecessary with good training, see the guest post by Barbara Heidenreich.

So You Want To Buy An Unweaned Baby Bird?

by Wendy Craig

With all the knowledge out there these days I’m still surprised at the number of phone calls I get from people wanting to purchase an unweaned baby parrot as well as all of the information I read on the internet supporting it. So let’s take a look at it.

Why would you want to by an unweaned baby and why would someone want to sell one? Exactly who benefits from the sale of these unweaned babies? Is it the baby? The buyer? The seller?

I’ve heard it said that handfeeding a baby bird is an art. I’m not so sure I’d call it an art but it is a learned skill. And not all baby birds are the same. So you can’t really learn to hand feed properly from feeding only a few babies. Macaws, Grey, Cockatoos, Eclectus all feed differently. They like it at different consistencies, different temperatures, different rates of delivery etc. And then there are variances with each individual bird. Sound confusing? It can be! You can feed the formula too cold and get a bacterial infection or too hot and burn the crop. Then there is slow crop and what to do about that? Would a novice even know what constituted a slow crop? The number one injury from hand feeding is aspiration. One veterinarian even suggested that 79% of all hand feed baby birds aspirate to some degree. Did you know there were different degrees of aspiration? The one that is readily apparent is the immediate aspiration of a baby. That is when it dies right as you are feeding it or right after. Then there is a second degree aspiration where the baby becomes ill after a few days. Symptoms vary but a dose of antibiotics in time can sometimes solve the problem. Then there is the third degree aspiration or the sneaky kind. The one that isn’t apparent for months or years after it happens but ultimately leads to an early death, sometimes after a lengthy illness and sometimes quite suddenly. Still want to buy an unweaned baby bird?

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In response to a comment by Gay Noeth, I agree and do not think people should undertake outdoor flight training just because they want a better life for their bird. Even a bird who is free-flighted spends most of its time indoors, and that life also needs to be enriching, filled with exercise opportunities, and choice. The friends I know who do freefly do it with an interest that borders on obsession. It takes over our weekends, our vacations, and our social life. It’s not something that’s just a casual pastime, like walking a dog. It’s also no guarantee of a better life, if it’s not done safely or if their life indoors is too restrictive. I have seen some home setups and aviaries that I would move into myself if I could!

Anyone who tries to guilt trip pet owners into feeling they must freefly their bird, such as the widely circulated “press release” by Birdtricks.com which is headlined, “Thousands Inflict Animal Cruelty On Their Parrot“, is at best morally indifferent. Considering the advertisement goes on to say that their intent is to teach pet owners how to freefly their parrot with a series of videos which demonstrate poor, rushed, and inconsistent training technique from a total novice in bird training, it is outright reckless. I can think of no reason to publicize this kind of thing with an “animal cruelty” press release, other than to drum up business at the expense of pet parrots.

My primary interest is seeing companion birds’ lives as enriched and “natural” as possible, so they can be birds, not toys. I think keeping birds flighted is a very large part of that, and freeflight is wonderful. But to this day one of the most exciting training events Carly and I have had together was when she did that first voluntary jump-flap off the counter, when she had barely any flight feathers. If I could see more people experience this kind of interaction with their birds, I would be a very happy camper indeed!