Parrotlet Babies Are The Cutest!

How Do You Learn To Feed Parrot Babies?

Man, that is a hard question! Anyone in the aviculture community will tell you that you should learn to feed parrot babies from someone who knows how to feed them. However, I had no luck at all finding anyone.

The first time I fed a parrot I was worried and scared. My girl was a Cockatiel and was already eating on her own. She also had enough experience being fed; fortunately, she was able to handle MY NOT KNOWING how to feed her! I was patient (with myself) and, truly, she was patient with me too. It would take 15 to 30 minutes to feed her, which is now done in a minute. It was hard, fun, hard, rewarding and frustrating. Oh, and arduous. Ugh!

Start With Human Help Or Parrot Help

Working with my Luna Love, my Cockatiel, was a great first experience because she ‘trained’ me. Actually, the first handful of parrots I hand-fed trained me, they had all been fed already, I’d just taken over the last couple of weeks of feeding.

There’s no substitute for practice and everyone will tell you that you’ll lose a baby, that even the best of them do. However, life means so much to me that I’m not ok with letting any baby in my care pay for my lessons this way.

Instead, I suggest that you let your parrot babies show you how to feed them. The most important thing is to hold them properly and to let them step forward to be fed or to back off when they step back and away.

I also suggest you start with a spoon, and parrot-feeding spoons, which are a funny shape to bring the food down to the middle of the spoon, is perfect. This makes it hard to force food down a parrot’s throat and cause harm. Instead, as you hold your baby parrot and your spoon, they can eat for themselves. Gently hold your parrot’s mouth, a finger supporting them under their head at their neck initially. You can soon back your fingers/hand away or barely hold your hand in place so that the parrot can move around.

Successfully feeding a baby parrot is exhilarating! Your parrot’s happiness at getting a full crop is contagious and adding to the miracle of life in this way is intoxicating!

By Kalyn
Author, The Parrot Bliss Bond, available on Amazon Books & Kindle
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