Incubating & handraising cockatiels

[coorusu]

I'm getting some cockatiel eggs from a friend of the family in a few weeks to stick in my incubator, and I'm a wondering about some things when incubating and feeding them.

What's the proper humidity for the first 18 days? Can I do a dry hatch like chickens?
How many times a day does the baby need to be fed for the first couple weeks (every hour, every other hour, etc)?
How soon after it hatches do I need to move it to the brooder and give it its first meal?
How warm does the brooder need to be? Will a red heat lamp and blankets work?

Thanks! Any help would be much appreciated. UwU

 

[duckncover]

I wouldn't recommend hatching cockatiels. It might be easier to hatch them than take care of them. I have a breeding pair. The parent birds feed the babies every 30 minutes to an hour at first and do this through the day and night. I don't think you would have very much success for the fact that the hand feeding formula doesn't have the antibodies in it that the parents give to the babies when they are under 2 weeks old. This is why the babies are usually pulled at 2 weeks for handfeeding. I'm not discouraging you but being a mama cockatiel requires complete dedication. As the baby grows it will need less and less feedings.

 

[coorusu]

thank you for your opinion! i might see if i can get him to keep the eggs under the female then!

 

[Rosa moschata]

People used to chickens, ducks, etc. are a bit "spoiled" at how easy it is to raise birds from eggs, and often ask here on the Cage-Bird area about doing the same with these birds, thinking that their experience with hatching poultry can be easily translated to all other birds. Raising an altricial bird species from the egg is more like raising a baby mammal from birth than it is like raising a precocial bird species from the egg. Breeders of exotic mammals raised for pets typically remove babies for bottle-feeding after spending some time with Mama because it's too difficult to attempt to replicate those first few weeks artificially, and even when successful, the results aren't usually as good for the babies.

 

[coorusu]

i have handfed parrots before, just not from day one. :----) i was just hoping for a few tips so i don't kill the chick right after it hatches. i know what kind of stressful situation i'm going to get myself into, thanks.

 

[Rosa moschata]

And that's the rub -- I, too, have handfed baby birds, and bottle-fed a couple baby mammals, but Day-1 babies of either would be too much of a hassle for me to intentionally seek. The main benefits of hand-raising are based on the visual associations the babies make with their care-givers. As such, the goal should be to begin the process right before, or as, their eyes open. Doing it much earlier is a lot more work with no additional benefit toward bonding-- in fact, it increases risk of problems. See if you can get your friend to let the parents raise the babies for the first couple of weeks -- until the eyes are just barely starting to open. It'll be easier on you and on the babies.

 

[coorusu]

thank you very much, i might just do that! sorry for being snippy. i felt your previous response was rude, and so i got defensive. i'll talk with our friend and see if he wants his bird to care for another batch for a couple of weeks.

 

[Rosa moschata]

It wasn't intended to be rude, so I'm sorry you felt that way. But look through posts in the Cage Bird area to see how many times someone asks about hatching parrot eggs to save money on buying them as birds. Typically, the poster starts out with some variation of "I've hatched chickens and ducks and guineas, so I know about hatching. Where can I buy hatching eggs from parrots (or toucans, or other altricial birds)?" Perhaps after seeing it so many times, I skipped to the point -- but I wasn't intending to be rude.

 

[coorusu]

oh no, i can understand. i'm sorry for leaping to conclusions. thank you very much for the information you've given me.