Conure Baby Advice Needed!

[Brazil&Zealand]

Hello! My first ever clutch of Green Cheeks recently began hatching! I have 3 babies that are hatched, and 2 eggs left. The older 2 babies are 5 days old, and the 3rd was born today. Any other babies that hatch should arrive in 2+ days. My plan was to remove the eldest 2 babies on Fri. the 20th, and throughout the weekend get them used to handfeeding in general and on 3-4 feedings a day. Or should I remove the first 3 all together? Or is that too late altogether for pulling chicks? My brooder setup is a 10 gal aquarium with a mesh lid, fleece (that i wash w/o chemicals) covering paper towels as bedding, a heating pad underneath 1/2, and covered mostly by a towel or blanket. Does this plan and brooder setup seem appropriate? If there is any problems, please let me know so I can change the plan. Thank you for reading and/or responding!

 

[Lady Jane]

@Monica

 

[Monica]

It's best to wait until the chicks are 2-3 weeks old before pulling, and if necessary, do supplemental feedings to ensure that all the chicks get enough food while still in the nest with the parents. The older chicks could out-compete the younger ones for food but this may or may not be an issue, depending on the parents. So in short, it sounds like a good plan.


@melissasparrots has experience raising chicks and can give better detailed information.

 

[Brazil&Zealand]

Thank you very much for the advice!

 

[BrianB]

Will 2 days make a difference between chicks ? I have two chicks that I plan on pulling this Saturday. One will be 17 days, the other 15 days. Should I pull them together, or one at a time to give the second chick a few extra days with the parents ?

 

[iamwhoiam]

I didn't raise conures so not sure the best time to pull them. I raised red-bellied parrots and pulled the clutch of 3 boys (SETI, Roswell & Zack) at the same time. SETI was just a few days over 3 weeks old, Roswell was one day younger than SETI and Zack was about a day or so away from 3 weeks. I always pulled all babies at the same time with the clutches I raised, generally from 3-6 wks of age. 2 days isn't that much of a difference. You could wait a few more days, though, to pull all of them together. If mom and dad are taking good care of them you could also choose to just leave them with mom and dad and just take them out to handle them and/or give them one feeding. Depends how mom and dad deal with that.