Our hand-rearing
We attach great importance to the fact that young animals are raised by their mother animals. However, if nature does not go its natural way, we support the rearing by hand.
Our way into hand-rearing
Our first hand-rearing was an Inca cockatoo. After a short time we were able to determine that the egg was not incubated by the parent animals - practice makes perfect.
That is why we decided at short notice to do hand-rearing. Already after 3 months we were able to place the young animal in perfect health and full of joie de vivre to one of our Inca ladies.
When does hand-rearing occur?
If a breeding pair does not lay eggs, we observe their behavior around the clock. If we notice that the egg is not incubated sufficiently, we put the egg in the incubator to be on the safe side and place an artificial egg under the couple so as not to miss a later chance.
If the couple devotes themselves to the artificial egg at the end of the breeding phase, we put the original egg under it 2-3 days before the hatching date - this is how the young bird hatches in the nest and is raised by the parents. If not, the little one will hatch in the incubator.
From egg to chick
Parakeets and small parrots lay between 4-6 eggs per clutch and for the most part raise all the little ones. As they have a life expectancy of around 15 years, as many offspring as possible are important for species conservation. Macaws can live to be around 40 to 80 years old. They lay an average of 2-4 eggs per clutch and raise up to 2 young animals. Here we as humans can help, so we hand-raise eggs that have not been considered or stragglers in order to raise them with food rich in protein and fat.
Latecomers often cannot keep up with their older siblings in terms of development. In hand-rearing, it is important that the young birds come into contact with other young birds for a short time and are thus socialized in order to counteract any imprinting on humans.