IndianRingNeck.com

Just wanted to ask a few things. I have a 30 day old indian ringneck.
When does the chick start walking properly. Secondly, i have kept it in an aquarium. I put small towels at the base but i have to change it frequently as the chick eats the potty if the cloth is not changed.
Hope somebody can help me. I am living in Dubai, UAE.

Hello and welcome. I'm just going to move this to the breeding IRNs section, hopefully someone will be able to help you there. I'm not very educated on the breeding and raising of chicks, so I hope some of our more educated people here can help.

IRNs that age will crawl most of the time. They will start walking and climbing around their 5th-6th week. Instead of towels, use wood shavings or a cage with grating floor that way feces will not accumulate as much.

thanks for the reply. i was using wood shaving but was advised not to use as the chick may eat it.
Another thing i wanted to know was, can i start feeding it fruits.
I gave a piece of apple yesterday and it ate it.

My birds are exposed to wood chips all the time and I haven't had one fatality from ingesting such. Wood shaving is an excellent source of fiber?

I use the larger piece Aspen shavings which are non-toxic and much harder for chicks to swallow accidentally. Pine is a satisfactory substitute.

At that age however and as mentioned earlier, you can use a cage with smaller grate flooring such as 1/2" x 1/2" wire mesh. It provides good traction and feces isolation.

You can start to wean them preferably with other softer foods such as whole-grain cereal loops, spray millet, and broccoli blossoms.

Please advice when we can give the chick its first bath. This is for a Alexandrine parrot 40 days old. Do we spray water or wipe with wet cloth.

In case u are thinking. I started talking about an IRN chick . I realized that it is not IRN but Alexandrine chick that I got.

IRN and Alexandrine babies aren't any different except for amounts of food to feed.

No need to bath them. Just wipe off excess formula stuck all over their body after feeding. When they get older, they will preen and bath themselves. Put a small dish of water along with the weaning foods.