Is this the first time you have attempted to hatch an African Grey chick from a fertilized egg? Or maybe you came upon an orphaned young bird that needs your help to care for it.
In this short guide, I recounted some of my own experiences of raising hundreds of African Grey birds from eggs to fully grown, independent birds. In addition, you may reference my rearing sheets by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. My documentation for other different kinds of eggs and young birds is included in this guide for your convenience.
How to Incubate African Grey Eggs?
To incubate African Grey eggs, start with an incubator built for parrot or exotic bird eggs. The incubator you employ should have precision temperature control to one-tenth of a degree and, preferably, a humidity control system.
If you do not have an incubator or heat lamp, then you can prepare a cardboard shoe box, and place a medium-sized towel. Place the egg in the center of the cloth. Wrap the egg in the cloth. Next to the box, place a desk light with a 40-watt bulb. Plug in the light and turn it on. Leave the light on for 12 to 16 hours every day.
From my breeding experience, the required days, temperature, and humidity are as follows.
African Grey Egg Incubator Temperature and Humidity
- The incubator temperature started at 37.2 °C.
- Relative humidity started at 50%
African Grey Egg Incubation Instruction
- The average incubation period is 28 days till hatching.
- 1-hour egg turning from day 10.
African Grey Egg Measurement
- Length: 43.72 mm
- Maximum breadth: 32.62 mm
- Minimum breadth: 31.51 mm
- Volume: 22.207 ccm (0.5098)
African Grey Egg Hatching
- Chick weight: 16.95 grams
- Shell etc weight: 2.31 grams
- Shell etc thickness: 0.27 mm
The egg is normally moved to the hatcher (which is set 0.5 °C. below the incubator) on the internal pip and the chick is moved to the brooder (which is set 1 °C. below the hatcher) on hatching.
Baby African Grey’s Hand Feeding Schedule
- From 4 to 6 hours after hatch: 2 hourly feeds (9 times daily) – from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- From Day 7: 3 hourly feeds – 7 a.m.; 9 a.m.; 11 a.m. and then every 3 hours to 11 p.m.
- From Day 16: 4 hourly feeds (5 times daily) – 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- From Day 51: 5 hourly feeds (4 times daily) – 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- From Day 59: 3 times daily – morning, mid-afternoon and late evening.
- From Day 75: Twice daily – late morning and late evening
- From Day 89: Once-daily – late evening feed to ensure they have a full crop overnight.
- Day 92: Independent Day
African Grey Growth Stages
- Eye slitting on day 12
- Fully eye open (round eye) on day 25
- Quills opening on wings to show color on day 24
- Moved to a cage on day 50
Baby African Grey Hand Feeding Formula
Here is my hand-rearing food recipe for a newly hatched baby African Grey. When I used my own mixture on my newborn babies throughout the first one to two weeks of their lives, I found that they were able to digest it better and grew a little bit quicker than they would have otherwise. After about one to two weeks of using my homemade mix, I moved to utilize one of the numerous commercial hand-rearing meals that were available at the time. These meals are designed specifically for use in hand-rearing animals.
How to Feed a Baby African Grey Parrot?
While you clean and disinfect the preparation area, wash and dry your hands, and prepare the formula, leave the baby in his nest or brooder. Warm bottled water should be mixed with powdered formula, preferably an African grey-specific baby parrot formula.
If the baby African Grey refuses formula, give him warm, weaning meals from your hand or a spoon, such as cooked brown rice and mixed vegetables, thick formula that he can eat on his own, and completely cooked beans with some sweet potatoes or carrots. If your pet bird is having a more liquid formula, then you can try a syringe.
How to Hand Feed a Baby African Grey With a Syringe?
You may attempt to persuade the baby African Grey to drink on its own by giving it liquid in a spoon or a little syringe. While holding the syringe close to the bird’s bill, slowly inject a few drops of liquid into its mouth at a time using a gentle but firm pressure.
As the crop, which is a pouch located on the front of the chick’s neck, expands, gradually depresses the syringe’s plunger. Avoid letting the harvest get too large.
When to Stop Hand Feeding African Grey?
I usually start feeding once a day from day 89, and stop hand feeding completely on day 92 (independent day). When the baby African Grey is ready to transition to one hand feeding per day, hand feed solely at night so the baby has all day to explore its new meal. To increase hunger, a very tiny quantity of Hand Feeding formula (HFF) may be given in the morning. To help the bird wean, moisten the identical product with water or fruit juice.
What to Do When a Baby African Grey Egg Hatches?
Place the African Grey chick gently in a tiny box lined with tissues, paper towels, or similar material, and loosely cover the top of the box with newspaper or a towel. Keep him or her warm and quiet by putting a heating pad on the lowest setting beneath half of the box or a small hot water bottle inside the box (Or a brooder that is set 1 °C. below the hatcher). The box should then be placed in a closet or similar warm, dark, quiet, and secure location away from humans and animals.
It is possible to teach an African grey parrot to comprehend hundreds of words and phrases, and they make wonderful companions because of their ability to imitate human speech and their friendly demeanor. There are accounts of these birds being maintained as family pets in biblical times; some people believe that the African grey parrot has been kept as a pet bird for thousands of years.
This grey-feathered parrot is notable for its amazing ability to correctly imitate spoken words and phrases, as well as its feather coloration. This bird’s ability to comprehend human speech is another factor that has contributed to its meteoric rise to fame in the scholarly community as well as the pet industry.
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