[color=#000066]Hi All,

I just got a 6 week old quaker. I have ALOT of questions.

1. When do they start to fly?
2. Talk?
3. When do I put him in a cage?

4.Im feeding him now formula with a syringe until when does this last? The pet store guy tld me to call him in 10 days tand hell tell me what to do.

5.What is weaning?

Any other tips or suggestions ALL welcome....

Oh I forgot 1 more we are suppose to feed him every 8 hours but yesterday after about 5 hours he was already hungry what should I do?

Thank you

Iraida

Congrats on your new fid (feathered kid)!

First I have to rant about a pet store selling an unweaned chick to someone with no hand-feeding experience! Is it a large chain store or a mom/pop operation?

You have to make sure you're feeding from the correct side of the chick's beak, or you could accidentally send the formula down his/her windpipe and kill him/her. One of the many handfeeding experts will chime in with instructions soon.

I believe if he/she is showing signs of hunger at 5 hrs instead of 8, you should do a feeding. Also, at this age, I think they should be getting more than 3 feedings a day. More like four-five around the clock, right(?) Do you know the right temperature for the formula?

Do you know how to check the crop to see if it's full or empty? The crop is a little pouch between his/her beak and chest that will puff out when fed.

Weaning is slowly transitioning the chick from formula to a diet of parrot pellets, seed, fruits, veggies, pasta, potato, ... all kinds of good foods that people enjoy! There is also a list of foods you should NEVER feed your baby as well as woods & plants you should NOT use as perches/toys.

Right now the best thing you could do is run to Barnes/Noble or Borders or search online and rush a copy of Mattie Sue Athan's guide to the quaker parrot or ANY Quaker Parrot or parrot book you can find. They will answer a TON of your initial questions.


Welcome to our forum. You will learn SO much here and meet a lot of great, caring folks. Please post pictures when you can.

Good luck!

In my honest opinion, since you know NOTHING about hand feeding a little bird I would take the bird back to the store and have them finish hand feeding and weaning the bird.



I am sure that you could do it but it is really risky when you know nothing about it.



THIS IS JUST MY OPINION

Take the chick back. It's shoddy business to sell unweened babies.

Handfeeding doesn't "deepen" your bond like a lot of petstores profess. It reinforces trust between the chick and humans, but any deep mother/chick bond disapates once the baby is fledged. And if the unthinkable happens, if he dies, there's no way to tell why. Did you kill him by handfeeding or did the chick come with a disease that he succumbed to while in your care? Either way YOU are out the money, and a bird, and a lot of grief.

Take him back, it'll only be a few more weeks and you'll have a much healther bird.

You guys are assuming the pet store knows how to handfeed. Also, you know these folks won't want to part with their new baby. Personally, if the place didn't know enough not to send it home with them in the first place, I wouldn't trust them to care for it any more.

I think a much better option would be for them to hook up with a reputable breeder in their area and learn the ins/outs of handfeeding and weaning. They only need to do it for another 3-4 weeks probably. If they learn it properly, they should be able to do it. Plus, it would be quite the bonding experience.

It's interesting, because there's a Petsmart here that has a 5-6 week Quaker for sale. I asked them this very question, and it sounds like they offer the option to pay for it and they will wean it or you can take it home and try yourself. It's the first QP I ever saw at a Petsmart. They used to have the big Macaws and Toos, but I think they've gotten out of them...

PetsMart and PetCo made a deal with PETA. The two chains agreeded to stop using glue traps and to stop selling birds larger than conures/quaker/IRA's and PETA would stop protesting them.

Hey, I work at Petsmart part time and knew we didn't carry the big birds like you said, but didn't know that was why. Interesting the things you learn from other people, huh?

We have never gotten a Quaker that young before. And, even with people that have been trained to do it, it's still difficult sometimes. I am comfortable handfeeding at work, but I wouldn't want to do it on a baby I bought. I would feel more comfortable with a breeder doing it. Does that make any sense? I mean I am confident of how to do it at work, consistency of forumla, temperature of formula, which side of the beak to feed from and how much to feed, but I still would feel better with a breeder doing it that does it day in and day out, 4 times a day. All the birds we have hand fed have only been on 2 feedings a day. Now, we have only gotten weaned baby birds for a right good while. I agree about selling an unweaned baby to someone who doesn't know how to handfeed except for the pet store showing them. We require that they come 3 different days/times to learn how to handfeed before we will let the bird go home. We watch the person feed the bird and make sure it's doing it correctly before we let it go.

Just remember, I only work there part time to feed my crew (4 dogs, 2 cats, 4 lovebirds and a Quaker very soon) Plus, I enjoy working there. I do not make the policies at Petsmart nor do I necessarily agree with all of them. I just do my best too look out for the animals. (Didn't want ya'll to go off on me just because I work for Petsmart.......:0)

Yah that is messed up selling unweaned birds to anyone not referring to you. I mean anyone can buy it and stick it in a tree and it will die. Never buy an unweaned bird unless your experienced.