Finishing off parent raised chicks?

[kamerynn]

I've just (last night) picked up four baby ringnecks from a breeder. He said he thought they were about a month old but when I went to pick them up I found them to be fully feathered, looking about a week ahead of my 7 week old that I'm already handraising. Being a bit older isn't an issue for me - we'll be spending a lot of time with them to get them quiet - but I'm a bit uncertain how to approach feeding them. Although they look older, they've been parent raised and their development seems to have progressed at a different rate to the handfed babies. They seem healthy though - the biggest one outweighs my girl by 20g. They're still very babyish, no signs of biting though they're not happy about being handled.

My 7 week old (and the 6 week old as well) are exploring, climbing, tasting everything, preening themselves ... the new ones aren't interested in the weaning foods and seem very clumsy with pretty much everything, though they're on the verge of fledging. I'd expect a handraised baby at that age to be on 2 or 3 feeds a day, but what do I do with this lot? I'm offering formula from a syringe but I expect I'll have to continue crop feeding them until they no longer need the formula. How much should I be giving them and how often?

[dog_glenn123]

Hopefully one of the girls reply i dont hand feed so cant answer.
But good luck anyway.

Ta Glenn

[kamerynn]

Well, in the absence of advice to the contrary, I'm going with "if the crop's empty, feed it". The oldest one had a full crop this morning (felt like seed/pellets) so I guess they're having a go at the food when I'm not watching them. I'll just play it by ear and see how they go.

Has anyone else tried taming babies at 8+ weeks? How hard was it?

[jimmyjack]

Hi sorry i cant say for 8wk olds, but I took over at 5 weeks, and had a similar reaction. They were very skittish and just huddled and hissed the whole time - i was quite worried, but i think its just the instinctive fear after being raised with the parents so long. Theyve visually and audibly attached to the parents, anything else is a threat. feeding was a problem, and yes i took the same approach, if the crop was empty and it had been a while, id feed them.
It took a few weeks, and once theyd gotten a bit bigger, instead of running away, they began running along the front of the cage for me to get them sounds like youre doing the right thing though. keep at it.

[kamerynn]

Thanks Jimmyjack. They're still unhappy about being handled but they're just about weaned now, and hopefully once they're not getting a crop needle poked down their gullet they'll see humans in a better light. Still no biting and they'll perch on a finger provided they're inside their cage and can't fly away. Off to new homes soon where I'm sure they'll become lovely pets