Our birds as pets...

We have found most handraised birds make excellent pets providing their owner is prepared to spend quality time with their pet. Some breeds however do require more work than others.

Handraising

We have been successfully handraising birds for a number of years now. All of our handraised babies have found good homes across a number of states of Australia.

Our babies are handraised from approximately two weeks of age. We prefer to spoon feed them using a bent up spoon rather than using a crop needle. Whilst a crop needle may be quicker and cleaner we find that the method of spoonfeeding, whilst slower, results in a far friendlier bird who is happy and content to be handled. We use a commercially available hand-rearing mixture.

At approximately 5 - 6 weeks we introduce a soaked sprout mixture to the babies as they start to wean themselves from the handraising mixture to seed.

Looking after your bird

It is important that you and your bird bond early. From our experience we have found it most beneficial if you take your bird home soon after they have fully weaned. This is usually around 6 - 8 weeks of age.

Below we have listed each of the birds and how we have found them as handraised pets:

King Parrots

We have found King Parrots to make excellent pets. They are not considered great talkers however we have recently had one of our handraised females starting to talk quite well at around six months of age.

Crimson Wing Parrots

With a similar nature to the King Parrot the Crimson Wing also make excellent pets. We believe they do however require a little more work than the King to ensure they remain friendly. They are not considered great talkers and at this time we have no feedback as to either way.

Superb Parrots

Unfortunately at this stage we have no real information on the suitability of Superb parrots as pets.

Regent Parrots

Our own pet Regent, 'Sid' has been with us since the 2008 breeding season, coming to us with one lame foot and so lives inside. He has a friendly personality, will come (most times) when called and has a reasonable vocabulary of words.

In addition we have another six month old male Regent who has been around Sid and now has the same vocabulary as well as being able to call the dog!

Indian Ringnecks

We have found the Indian Ringneck to make quite good pets providing the owner is prepared to spend a reasonable amount of time with them. They can become nippy if left alone for too long but will often tame back down if sufficient time is spent with them. We have found them to be reasonalbe talkers with birds as young as 6 months old starting to pick up words and phrases.

Our own blue male who has spent all his time in an outside aviary has picked up numerous words and phrases.

Mallee Ringnecks

Unfortunately at this stage we have no real information on the suitability of Mallee Ringencks as pets.