About handfeeding

Handfeeding in the parrot owner community is quite a sensitive topic and everybody seems to have their own opinions and arguments. When I first got birds, I did quite a research on pro's and con's and finally settled with the decision to let the parents raise their babies and I would act more like a co-parent, if necessary. Here is why.

I spoke with some, now retired lovebird breeders and a couple of them, whose opinion I take very seriously, said that handfed babies seem to be prone to more problems when they grow up. They are more difficult to set up in pairs and seem less capable of bonding with another bird. Mothers who were handfed tend to abandon or pluck their chicks more often than those who were fed and raised by their parents. They tend to have more behavioral problems such as screaming and feather plucking. Those breeders also noticed no correlation whatsoever with the bird being tame or or not. All pointed out that it's the daily time spent with the owner was all what mattered for the bird to be tame or not, regardless of handfeeding or being raised by parents.

Handfeeding is done primarily because of two reasons - people believe that handfeeding chicks will make them more tame. But after speaking to the reputable breeders I heavily doubted that. It's the frequent handling and interaction with the babies what makes them tame and comfortable around humans, not the food. The second reason is the commercial interest of the breeder - the sooner the babies are removed from their parents, the quicker parents will go into another cycle of laying eggs, which means more $$$ in the end. 

Last year the Netherlands banned handfeeding of all pet birds. Yes, you read that right - it is forbidden by law. The lawmakers found that if there is no medical reason or emergency situation, removing chicks from their parents and thus depriving them of paternal care and nurture is equal to animal abuse. That pretty much convinced me. I am sure that other European countries will soon adopt the same laws and actually ban handfeeding.

I want to be clear about one more thing. I don't judge those breeders who practise handfeeding just because they are convinced it's the best for the birds. I compare it to the fashion in the 70's when human babies would go on formula from day 1, and breastfeeding was considered not necessary or not complete. But now we know better, right?  

The first two weeks the lovebird mother feeds the babies, and the father feeds the mother. The food is thus regurgitated and preprocessed by two sets of crop enzymes. Neonates lack digestive enzymes in the first two weeks of life, so this way is the nature's developed way of dealing with that. The baby food is always the right consistency and right temperature. After two weeks, the whole upbringing of baby lovebirds is taken over by the father. He feeds them, although mother sometimes chips in, especially if the clutch is big, but with smaller clutch what we had she is just chilling and lets the father do the work. The mother also starts eating on her own again - during incubation and first two weeks of baby life she is exclusively fed by her partner and comes out of cage only to poop and shred. The father teaches them how to fly, how to look for and eat seeds, to tease their mother, to perch, to bathe and many other beautiful things. It breaks my heart that a big part of baby birds completely lack this experience. 

This pretty much convinced me of not handfeeding the babies. From my own experience, I totally confirm that handfeeding is not necessary for the birds to become tame. I stock small amounts of formula in the freezer, just in case. But it was hardly ever necessary. I handled the babies from day 1 for increasing period of time as they grew older. The birds could step up before they could perch decently. They were so affectionate towards us and groom our eyebrows and eyelashes, which made us really happy. I also noticed that they learn by mimicking their parents' behavior towards us. As our birds are really tame and well mannered, so became their kids as well. They grew into beautiful birds and now are great pets for their human friends and wonderful partners for their bird companions and parents to their own chicks. 

 By letting the nature do its work and just be there as a involved co-parent gives the best of both worlds to the baby lovebirds. They learn how to be a bird from their parents and they get used to be around humans and interact with them. It is the love, care and touch that matters when taming a baby lovebird, not the syringe with formula.