Telling baby birds apart?

[Babybreau]

Hey all!
I have a friend who breeds several kinds of parrots, among them Crimson Bellied Conures. When a potential adopter picks out a particular baby, is there any way of telling them apart so that they know which is theirs each time they go visit?
Baby birds change soooo much while growing, how to breeders tell one from another in a species where everyone looks the same?
My friend also raises English Bulldogs and Dogues de Bordeaux and she just ties a colored ribbon around the puppy's neck... Lol
Can anyone help?

 

[65sunnyday]

I would imagine leg bands would do the trick. You could even use seperate colors on each chick (the plastic ones can be colored.) In Scotland I saw sheep that had different colors sprayed on them to identify them.

 

[jmfleish]

Generally, breeders will use the band number if they use bands. Some breeders can just tell the birds apart...

 

[love4birds]

When you put that much time and love in to raising them, it is very easy to tell them apart

I recently raised some babies including three pearly conures. No one else could tell them apart, but all I needed was a quick glance. The oldest had the cutest face but was a little monster, and he had the most red right above his nares and one yellow feather on his left wing. The middle was the sweetest baby and had hardly any visible red above her nares, and her face was narrower, beak a slightly different shape. Lastly, the youngest was a personality mix of the other two, and had a little red above the nares.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

When I was breeding I ordered colored plastic open bands for my babies. Each color was a different clutch of eggs and the left leg was banded on cocks and the right leg on hens. I could also write a number on them if I wished. The bands were actually curls of plastic that were self wrapping around the leg. I still have one or two 'babies' with their original band on (8 years old babies). I think they were called temporary bands.

 

[Babybreau]

Thanks everyone!
She doesn't use bands, so we'll have to figure something else out. I like the idea of temporary bands. Someone mentioned memory wire as well... Guess I'd better get a Googl'in lol

 

[Bokkapooh]

A mother just knows!

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

When I picked out a PFLB at a specific aviary I wanted to buy, the baby was not yet weaned. The breeder had not banded the babies, so to tell my baby from the others in the clutch (which were all normal PF), Jenny put a drop of concentrated blue food coloring on the baby's head and renewed the spot as needed until the chick weaned. Toward the end of weaning, all the babies wore different color food coloring dots on their little heads! However, Jenny could tell the chicks apart without a problem; she said she labeled them with the dye so the future parent had peace of mind they were getting the baby they picked out.

 

[woubette]

paint a toenail with polish?

 

[prettyinpink]

paint a toenail with polish?

The fumes would not be good to breathe in

 

[Mythreeiggys]

Food coloring is what I've seen others use.

 

[melissasparrots]

With my quaker babies that I raise from day one, I mark them right after hatching with some food coloring and I just redo the food coloring every week or so when it starts to fade. Quakers are nice because they have the gray chests that the food coloring shows up nice on. I couldn't get it to work very well on my amazons. However my napes usually mature with slight variations in yellow around their faces so by the time they are a month old, I can tell on sight. Early in development I can tell by their weight, or if they still have the natal down, I can dye it. Once the green feathers start to come in, the color doesn't hold very well. The one year I had all same colored boys, I clipped a corner off a tail feather on some of them. It wasn't the easiest way to tell them apart, but it did work if I had to know. Generally there were personality traits I could take a pretty good guess who I was holding based on personality.
Melissa

 

[palmtoolady]

What I have done to keep straight which baby is which first I get a piece of paper, pen and scissors. Then I will clip about 1/2" off the outside flight feather of the left wing and write down which baby I did that too. Next baby clip 1/2" off the outside flight feather of the right wing and write down which baby I did that to. Next baby I won't clip anything and write down that baby #3 has nothing clipped. If I need a #4 and #5 I will clip 1/2' off the outside left and right tail feathers. If you had more than 5 babies You could continue to do this with the 2nd feathers from the outside. I usually use hatch dates for identifying babies. I am usually really good at telling which baby is which just with a quick glance but if I'm in doubt or want to double check I can always look at which feather has been slightly clipped. Years before this I had tried food coloring and markers but they always seemed to be rubbing off. I find this method to be fool proof but obviously can't be done until the baby starts to feather out.

Pat