The 'zons aren't wasting any time!

[IcyWolf]

Oh, I meant hand feeding the babies, not the parents. I suppose you could let the parents raise them but I've never known anyone to do that with any of the larger hookbills, usually only budgies and cockatiels.

 

[angel2k6]

we figured that getting to them to take something from our hand would help in building trust with them and it seems to be working they eat on their own but when we give them something like carrots and and apple we try to get them to take it from us gentle we let them eat their seeds on their own and some of the fruits and veggies just once in awhile hand feed it to them because when we first tried it they were biting now they are more gentle about taking it from us

 

[roxynoodle]

we figured that getting to them to take something from our hand would help in building trust with them and it seems to be working they eat on their own but when we give them something like carrots and and apple we try to get them to take it from us gentle we let them eat their seeds on their own and some of the fruits and veggies just once in awhile hand feed it to them because when we first tried it they were biting now they are more gentle about taking it from us

Yes, keep doing that to build trust with them. IcyWolf is talking about feeding babies a formula from a syringe that is made for baby birds. Breeders will pull the chicks from the parents after a certain amount of time and then feed them like the parents would to tame them to humans.

Actually this is the only way Pete will eat his peanut butter toast with medication right now is if I hand it to him piece by piece, the little turd.

 

[angel2k6]

Thank you that is helpful im trying to get to learn everything I can about these little guys some of their behavior is a little confusing its almost as he has taken over the female role or hes just getting her box ready for her either way its fun to just sit back and watch so were just sitting back and waiting for eggs to appear

 

[roxynoodle]

In some birds it is the male who chooses the nest site and gets it ready. And in some other types, they kind of do it together.

 

[IcyWolf]

Rasta and reggie have been in what I can only refer to as super breeding mode today, it seems like that's what they're doing every 10 minutes for the past few hours. I've noticed though that while they are mating it doesn't seem like, how should I put this?, things are lining up the way they need to be :20: Every other pair of birds that I've witnessed mating, regardless of species, seem like the male usually climbs on top of the female, at least partially, and then flips his tail under hers. These guys stand next to each other, the female puts her head down and raises her tail, and the male stands next to her and kind of rubs against her, all while making some interesting noises that I only hear while they are mating. He gets close to having his vent(sorry, reptile term, not sure if it's used for birds as well) against hers but normally it doesn't look like they are ever actually touching so it makes me wonder how successful they could possibly be. For you amazon breeders, is this normal? Is it just because they have never bred before(to my knowledge anyway) and they are just working the kinks out? Obviously this is something they are going to have to figure out on their own, I'm just wondering if this is how it normally goes. I got some pictures but I do apologize for the quality, my camera is having some lens problems and isn't working so i'm using a cell phone for all of my pictures right now and I obviously couldn't get too close to them while this was going on so I had to just zoom in as far as I could.

 

[Mitchell]

Congrats! They don't seem to mind mind just jumping in there and doing what you want them to do. I hope to get a couple of pairs myself that will be so eager to help me to supply a few more pet stores.