Hi! I need all the help I can get!! I recently bought a mated/breeding pair of quaker parrots...well we have eggs now! Momma is sitting on them faithfully! Daddy is squawking because he wants momma out there with him. They are so cute when they are together they just groom each other, eat together, sleep together, even take a bath together. I have talked to a few local people and one lady said pull the babies when they are hatched, another said let them stay with mom and dad a week another said two weeks. When should we pull them to start hand feeding? How long do you hand feed? I have the formula to make the food (the lady we bought them from gave it to us). How often do you hand feed? At what time do you start weaning? When can you sell them? As you can see this is my first time with babies birds. I have 3 quakers over a year old (the momma and daddy as well as one other) and two cockatiels but when it comes to babies I don't have a clue! Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

have you ever handfed before? if not, i would strongly suggest having someone who knows how teach you properly. i've not done it, hear it's not "rocket science" but things can go drastically wrong if you aren't sure of what you are doing. formula has to be a certain temp range (or you can cause injury or illness), babies could aspirate the formula and die if the syringe is not placed properly, etc. i don't mean to assume anything, but judging by your words, i'm thinking this is ALL new to you.

good luck.

kris

Congrats on your Quakers and eggs!!!

Breeding is a lot of hard work. You have a few weeks to catch up on some research, which should help prepare you for the handfeeding/raising Quaker process.

Most breeders pull the babies from the next box between 10 and 14 days of age. I wouldn't go any younger then that, unless you absolutely have to. The first week to two weeks the parents are giving the babies some much needed nutrition that no handfeeding formula can replace.

I'd do some internet searching on Quaker breeding articles. There are some of them available out there. For more detailed articles, you make have to look at Cockatiel breeding articles (the basics are pretty much the same).

Also, Yahoo have some great groups that are specifically for breeding. You may want to look into joining something like that.

Thank you! You're right, I know nothing about it, it is ALL new so thats why I am starting early! I am really anxious to do this though and want to learn all I can before they get here! I wasn't sure if they were like cockatiels, I have checked out some books at the library and read alot on cockatiels since I have a pair of them. So I will remember that with these two! Thank you again!