JeffNOK Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I have been volunteering with a parrot rescue in my local area. The woman who runs the rescue also breeds a few types of birds. She recently came into possession of a breeding pair of CAGs who ironically were the parents of one of her pet greys. I am considering obtaining a baby CAG from this pair. In the past very few of these parents' offspring survived, and there is speculation that the mother may have killed them. The female is currently on eggs and with any luck some babies will hatch in 2 or 3 more weeks. The plan is to remove the birds from the nestbox on day one and immediately begin handfeeding to prevent the possibility of the mother injuring or killing a baby. My question is two-fold. First, how does pulling a baby on day one impact its development? Most babies are pulled after three weeks. I have heard that babies pulled too early may suffer more neurotic or phobic behavior. Secondly, should I be concerned that my baby grey shares half its DNA with a possibly murderous mother? As I mentioned earlier, the lady who runs the rescue has a pet grey female from this pair and seems just fine--sweet, happy, fully feathered, and a great talker. I want a happy heathy grey baby. Should I be concerned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcusCAG Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 I can't offer anything significant to help with your first question, I'm sorry, but as regards the second: I guess the issue is, why has the mother killed them? Perhaps there was something wrong with the clutch (I read in some parrot book recently that sometimes the females can tell when something is wrong, and may choose to destroy them prior to hatching for that reason--rare, but supposedly true). Or perhaps there was something in her environment that prodded such a violent response. But if it's happened a few times, er, I don't know. Although I did read online a week or so ago at this one site, one breeder said that she had a lovely handful of newly-hatched Quakers whom she removed from the nest(box) while they were still very young to photograph them... and when they were put back with the parents, the parents killed them all!! So she said it was an expensive lesson learned and speculated that, as they were prior to a certain age, the scent of her 'humanness' on the babies must have made the parents kill them from some natural instinct. I don't know, honestly. But that's what's coming to mind now that I'm thinking of it all, and maybe it has some bearing on what happened in the past with this mother Grey? Hopefully someone else can supply a better answer, anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave007 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 ************* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave007 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) Hmmmm---Have to say this The person who runs a legitimate bird rescue,adoption center is usually a person that feels that no more parrots should be bred for any reason in order to create more parrots. Their feelings are that there's enough parrots in the world and their main concern is to rehome the existing parrots in the shelters. It doesn't matter whether the baby birds are being given away or are being sold. Most shelters object to that. Legitimate shelters won't breed more birds. Legitimate shelters also think that there are too many breeders of all types of parrots and feel strongly that it should stop. I'm familar with many shelters in many different states and they say that their main problem is getting people to rehome existing birds. The last thing they wanna do is draw in people who've heard that there's babies for sale or are being given away. Basically, it's called ---conflict of interest There may be people who work at a shelter and want a baby bird and the shelter owner will tell the person that he/she needs to go to a different place to get that young baby bird. There are very simple answers to all of your other questions above but first read this. Many people here will even try to convince others to adopt existing birds. Many people here have adopted rescue birds and that applies to many species. The only requirements are that a person/persons have some type of past experience with mature parrots. Birds in shelters are usually older, have been a few homes and need forever homes. I strongly respect the people that take that attitude. For those that don't have that prvious experience and want a bird, going to a shelter to get a bird that hasn't even been born just doesn't sound right. I have greys that were much older when I was given the birds. They didn't do what the young birds do but in my eyes I succeeded in making them happy and they in turn made me happy. Edited July 10, 2011 by Dave007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNOK Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) Ok. Well I've been doing some research and based on the things I've read, I'm less inclined to get a bird that is handfed from day-one. As far as the info shared about rescue groups breeding...well I guess it's food for thought. My main concern at this point is to get a happy healthy baby grey from a reputable breeder. If I was more experienced with mature birds I would consider adoption--but other than a budgie as a teen--I'm new to the avian world. I will continue to help out at the rescue. I don't know if they way they do things will make everyone here happy or not, but I'm learning a lot in the process. Edited July 11, 2011 by JeffNOK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara2 Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) Ok. Well I've been doing some research and based on the things I've read, I'm less inclined to get a bird that is handfed from day-one. As far as the info shared about rescue groups breeding...well I guess it's food for thought. My main concern at this point is to get a happy healthy baby grey from a reputable breeder. If I was more experienced with mature birds I would consider adoption--but other than a budgie as a teen--I'm new to the avian world. I will continue to help out at the rescue. I don't know if they way they do things will make everyone here happy or not, but I'm learning a lot in the process. This is not an AG but it is a story of a parrot that had to be taken from the nest before it even hatched. It might give you some insight. I posted this previously in the Other Parrots thread but I'll post it again here for you: http://nitasnest.homestead.com/moxie.html Edited July 11, 2011 by Barbara2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNOK Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) Barbara2- Thanks for the link (and the "snip"!) Edited July 11, 2011 by JeffNOK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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