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The Pros and Cons of Selling Unweaned Baby Birds

To an untrained individual, weaning baby birds can be difficult. To hand-feed properly, one must know how to prepare the formula to the correct consistency and temperature, how to read the body language of the bird to know when it is hungry, how to manipulate the syringe properly to avoid aspiration, how much and when to feed, how to clean feeding utensils thoroughly, and how quickly to decrease feeding as the bird starts to eat on its own. Learning proper feeding technique comes through practice. As an avian veterinarian who regularly sees newly purchased baby birds, I speak to owners often about how to hand-feed and wean their new pets. I have seen many owners who were properly educated about hand-feeding bond closely to their new family members through the weaning process, but I have also witnessed disastrous outcomes of improper hand-feeding (including severe crop burns, aspiration pneumonia, emaciation, and even death) by owners who were not instructed correctly. I was reminded recently about the potential worries a new bird owner can have about their weaning baby when I acquired a 3-month-old goffins cockatoo that refused to eat at home what it was eating at the breeder’s. Despite the fact that I know how to wean a baby and that I counsel owners regularly about weaning, my emotional attachment to this bird, as its owner, clouded my judgment and made me worry that I was not doing things right. When I spoke to other veterinarians, bird breeders, and pet store owners about how to wean my own bird, it seemed that everyone had a different opinion as to who should actually perform the weaning process. Thus, to offer different perspectives on the hand-feeding/ weaning process, I invited 2 avian veterinarians, 2 pet store owners, and 1 bird breeder to participate in a round table discussion. The participants are Susan Clubb, DVM, Dipl ABVP (Avian), Rainforest Clinic for Birds and Exotics, Loxahatchee, FL, USA; Ira Hertz, owner of Bird Jungle, Scarsdale, NY, USA; Scott Lewis, owner of Old World Aviaries, Austin, TX, USA; Bill McGrath, owner of Parrots & Company, Stamford, CT, USA; and April Romagnano, DVM, Dipl ABVP (Avian), Animal Health Clinic, Jupiter, FL, USA. I think that this discussion will sensitize veterinarians, bird store owners, breeders, and bird owners to both the potential benefits and the problems associated with the sale of unweaned baby birds. Thanks to all of the participants for their very thought-provoking comments.