Parrot incubation and hand rearing?

Question

Hi there. I am going to start incubating and hand rearing parrots, mostly african greys and yellow crowned amazons.

Can I use an incubator on the market or does it have to be a special type? I assume temp must be higher than a chicken egg. Any help in regards to the correct incubator/temp/humidity etc.. and rearing process would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks

Louise

Answer 1

The first thing you need to do is purchase a good book on incubating and hand rearing a baby parrot. With out that you are in for many pitfalls. You also need to go visit someone who is doing this. Let them show you how to properly hand feed

the babies. There is more to it than what I can type here. I have dozens of books on hand feeding  and different aspects of raising parrots. I have a little over $20K in  my birds. Last season I raised three baby parrots. So far this year I have four parrots hatched. There is more to it than what type of incubator to get. You don't need an incubator. You let the parents hatch the eggs out and feed them for two to three weeks. Then you rob the babies and hand finish them. If you hatch them out of the incubator you have to feed them every two hours for the first 10 - 12 days before they don't need feeding at night. If you don't have breeder birds where are you going to find the fertile eggs? I wouldn't feel comfortable selling eggs. I get a lot of infertile eggs which means you would be blowing a lot of money on clear eggs??

Answer 2

Why don't you join a parrot club in your area.  They have a lot of breeders that belong. This is something you really have to talk to another breeder about.