Wowthey are big for 16 days old! Was it parent fed?
Tell me in your opinion would they grow slower if you took them from parents day 1 & fed them?
I was looking at some with parent problem so eggs were pulled & fed from hatch.
To me the development of the chicks seemed very slow.
They are 5 weeks old & barely look older than your chick.
Do these look normal for 5 & 6week old chicks?
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Small chicks just turned full 5 weeks going on 6 & big chick full 6 weeks going on 7
Should they be flying & full feathers at 6 7 weeks?
I wanted one as they should be real tame being handfed from day 1 but I was also afraid they could be stunted in growth or had some health issues from being fed from such a tender age.
What is your opinion on getting a chick that never saw its parents? How does it affect tem vs how do they relate to people?
Are chicks pulled at 3 weeks just as social with people?
You seem to know a lot about hand feeding & development so I was hoping you could add your opinion to my questions.
Thanks
Yes this bub was parent started and brought in at 11 days old as I had an issue with the parents and wanted to take some pressure off them feeding the biggest chick, it had it's parents to itself for the first 5 days too so got stuffed full
But is really on track with what I would expect in terms of growth. I would expect fledging to occur at about 7 weeks of age.
The bubs in the pic do look stunted to me and just don't look quite right with the balding looking heads and the shape of the head indicating stunting, for 5-6 week old babies I would expect to see more feather development too. I don't have any pics of past clutch's handy and will try to get some pics up for you later today of some of my past bubs. I would expect to see peak weights (just before dropping weight to fledge) somewhere between 80-95 grams. One of my pairs produces smaller chicks as the parents are smaller, and there is probably a difference between males and females too.
Incubator hatched babies don't necessarily have health issues if the handfeeder knows what they are doing as hydration and crop stretching are really important early on. I have a Lori chick at the moment that I needed to pull the egg and incubate as it's mum abandoned the nest days out from hatching, it was a tough first few days but he is growing like a weed now and is actually a couple of grams heavier than another lori chick that hatched the same day and was parent raised for the first 21 days and it's feathering is ahead in development too.
I normally pull my GCC babies between 14-21 days old and have not seen any difference with how tame they are, I don't like pulling after the 21days though as they are harder to socialise with people and harder to hand feed at least initially. A baby that has been pulled by 21 days and has been adequately socialized should make a lovely companion.
Incubator babies that have never seen their parents can have behavioural issues if they are not raised with and socialised with other birds when being raised. The biggest problems I have had are babies that have been raised alone with no or little contact with other birds. the fact these babies are being raised as a clutch will reduce issues, if there is a gentle adult bird that can be used as a mentor for the babies it is ideal to have them together close to fledging so the adult can teach them basic bird social skills and how to eat etc...
I can't thank you guys enough for your continuous help.
