REASONS AGAINST HAND-REARING

However, there are several arguments against hand-rearing parrots which are enumerated below:

The chicks are imprinted on human beings, especially when they have been kept alone during the nesting-period (Wagner, 1999).

Under certain circumstances, hand-reared parrots can become incompetent parents (Wagner, 1999).

Breeding pairs do not have the opportunity to experience how to rear their young, which will probably make the next generations unable to rear their chicks naturally (Wagner, 1999; Sistermann, 2000).

The chicks (particularly the birds that have been reared isolated from the rest of their clutches) are not well socialized with other African grey parrots (Wagner, 1999).

Unfortunately, the production of very tame hand-reared parrots for the pet trade may be used as an excuse to keep those highly sociable birds alone (Lantermann, 1995).

Baby parrots with gene defects do not die prematurely (the natural selection is hindered) (Wagner, 1999).

Chicks which have been fed with a tube have difficulty in learning how to hull seeds properly (Wagner, 1999).

The breeding behaviour of hand-reared cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) was studied and the results showed that hand-rearing has got different influences on the sexual behaviour of males and females. Hand-reared females as compared with parent-reared birds laid their eggs more frequently on the ground of the aviary, instead of laying them in their nesting-boxes. Interestingly, exclusively breeding pairs involving parent-reared males were able to rear their chicks till they had reached their independence (Myers et al., 1988).

Sistermann demonstrated that hand-reared macaws, African grey parrots and cockatoos have significantly more problems breeding and bonding with conspecifics than birds that have not been hand-reared.

The problem that most frequently occurred among parent-reared breeding-pairs was feather-plucking of the chicks by their parents. Interestingly, feather-plucking of the young was not the main problem which could be observed in hand-reared pairs.

The main concern with hand-reared parents was their neglecting to feed their offspring (72.4% of the hand-reared grey parrots did not feed their chicks). Besides, unfertilized clutches were found significantly more often in the case of handreared parents (Sistermann, 2000).

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