Hand fed vs. Parent fed...

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I had a rare opportunity this breeding season. We have two pairs of goffin cockatoos and both laid a single egg a day apart. One pair decided not to feed their baby (it was in the nest and not fed for three days, late on day three I took the fairly weak little thing and started hand feeding it.) The other pair is feeding just fine. As breeders we are always telling each other that a parent fed baby is bigger and healthier than one that has been hand fed from day one. So I decided to see how accurate that really is. My baby is a day older than their, but their baby started being fed a day sooner. So they are pretty close to equal in age. BUT, they are nowhere near equal in size. My baby is a little over 25% bigger! Now, let me add that our breeding pairs are given pretty bird pellet along with fresh food. The formula I am feeding is the lowest protein fat content version by pretty bird as well (the protein fat ratio is lower than the feed that the parent birds are getting). I have to allow a handfed babies crop to empty at least once every 24 hours, while the parents never allow their baby to empty... common sense would say that the parent fed baby should be bigger, but we are now at three weeks old and mine is still substantially larger. Our isn't fat, it is simply bigger in skeleton and structure overall. In another week I will be pulling the parent fed baby from the nest and at that time I will take a photo to put here to show exactly what the difference in parent fed vs. handfed is here at our aviary. Our pairs of goffins are related and they are identical in size as well as ages. I normally don't get to do this, because as long as the parents will feed their baby I won't pull it until at least a month old ideally. As it stands though, our baby looks almost a week older than the parent fed baby, and I am curious to see exactly what that means for them at weaning age and throughout life. I will have them both looked over by a vet when they wean to see if we can identify which way is physically healthier... I still agree that parent fed babies are mentally more stable though.