Hand-reared parrots – when is it necessary?
Raising parrot chicks is one of the most exciting—yet also one of the most responsible—tasks in the world of bird keeping. For beginners, it’s important to understand when and why hand-rearing chicks may be necessary, and when it’s better to let the parents do their job naturally.
Nature comes first – but it doesn’t always work out
In an ideal situation, the parent birds raise their own chicks. This is the most natural and gentlest option for the babies. However, it can happen that the parents do not care for their offspring properly—or sometimes they may even abandon them. In these cases, human intervention can be lifesaving.
It’s important to intervene only when it’s truly necessary—hand-rearing is not a trend, but a last-resort solution for a critical situation.
The challenges of nest checks
Some bird species—especially sensitive ones—do not tolerate frequent nest checks well. This is particularly true for rarer or more “wild-natured” species. In such cases, a camera installed in the nest box is a huge help: we don’t disturb the birds, yet we can still monitor the chicks’ development and step in on time if something goes wrong.
We ourselves chose camera monitoring because we didn’t want to risk the chicks’ safety with overly frequent inspections.
