Selling Unweaned Baby Birds

 

By Joyce Baum

Thinking of buying an unweaned baby bird? Read this first! I do not support selling unweaned baby birds for their safety.  Some of the many things you need to know about before deciding to buy and try to hand feed a baby bird yourself:

• Depending on the age of the unweaned baby, you need to prepare a nursery. It must be sanitary in order to help prevent the outbreak of disease.
• Important things to know about the brooder for the baby are the correct temperature, humidity, lighting and bedding. Some of these change with the age of the baby.
• Formula must be fed at a proper temperature and consistency, and utensils should be sterile. Different species sometimes require different formulas, and the consistency changes as the babies get older. The amount of formula to be fed differs at different ages.
• Instruments used to hand feed include different types of syringes, pipettes, spoons, gavage needles and tube feeding.
• Babies should be weighed daily in order to insure they are gaining weight. Proper weight gain for each species should be known, and records should be kept. By physically examining the baby bird, you should know what to look for as danger signs. Any kind of stress can cause problems with weight gain.
• Poops should be checked regularly for proper consistency.
• Many diseases and health problems can show up, including the following: Aspiration (food in lungs which usually kills), Regurgitation (possible infection, burned crop, or overfeeding), Polyomavirus (kills baby birds), Aspergillosis, Bacterial Infections, Injuries including excess bleeding, broken bones (splayed leg is common), Abnormal Beak Growth, Crop Stasis (food not digesting), Dehydration and/or Malnutrition, Diarrhea, Fungal Problems (yeast, candida), and many more.
• The buyer of unweaned babies accepts all the risks of health problems and possible disease and death.
• The only way to stop people from selling unweaned babies to inexperienced hand feeders is to refuse to buy an unweaned baby bird, and to refuse to patronize breeders and/or pet stores who sell unweaned baby birds.

 
Please buy your baby birds only when fully weaned and eating well on their own, from a reputable breeder or pet store who sells only weaned, healthy baby birds.

 

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