buying a young african grey

[Matt_Woodard]

This would be my first bird ever, so if anybody could tell me should I buy a hand reared or rear it myself? I talked to a few breeders... one breeder told me that hand rearing isn`t so difficult just it takes a lot of time and that he would teach me how to do it, but another one told me that it`s easy to make a mistake and that bird can die. I don`t have problem finding the time for few months and not go out, but I`m afraid if I make a mistake and the little one dies. Any suggestions?

[jdolezar]

How can someone have "a passion for birds", and be too lazy to hand-raise one ? Having raised literally hundreds of greys and macaws, I can assure you that you will almost always have a better relationship with one that you raise yourself - and you aren`t buying problems that some breeders "build into" their greys. It appears that most breeders are virtually clueless about how to properly raise their babies anyhow. Any fool can breed CAGs, but it takes a lot more ability to socialize a baby correctly. Unskilled breeders create screaming / crying problems, as well as plucking.....and worse yet, "one oerson greys".

It is quite difficult to screw-up so badly that you might kill a baby - but very easy to mess-up the socialization. So I do not think that a total novice should buy an unweaneed baby , but at the very least the new owner should be involved DAILY with the hand-raising for at least 4 weeks. It does make a difference in how the baby will relate to you over the long haul. I wouldn`t sell a grey to someone who did participate to that level (as a minimum). People who lack the dedication to at least assist in the hand-feeding aren`t going to have the dedication to care for an adult bird either. Hand-feeding is not as difficult as caring for, and correctly handling an adult - so hand-raising is only half of the job. With proper instruction, anyone can safely hand-raise a parrot. But if you have no experience, you should leave the baby in a CAPABLE breeders home, and help him raise the baby. You`ll be glad you helped, and you won`t have the problems that seem to come with an "off the shelf" baby that may have been raised in a less-than-optimum fashion.

[Guest]

birds.