Hand feeding and raising a baby budgie is a lot of work! Here you can see what has went into raising the little baby you will take home with you.

Once the babies are pulled for hand feeding they are kept in our nursery. They are never more than a few feet from us, and are very used to the normal activity that goes in our home.

Each baby is with mom and dad in the nest box until they are 3 weeks old. During this time they are getting lots of nutritious food and crop milk from mom to build up a healthy immune system and get a good start! At 21 days old we take them from the nest box and they are moved into the nursery box.

The nursery box is a similar size to a nest box and stays warmer than the outside air 

by up to 10 degrees. They will stay in the nursery box for about a week or so until their feathers come in completely and they can keep themselves warm. It is filled with shavings and millet sprays

Each day all of the babies are moved from the nursery box and it is emptied, disinfected, dried, and refilled with fresh shavings and millet. 

Keeping everything as clean and sanitary as possible is very important to prevent bacteria from growing, which can easily make a young chick sick.

After each feeding the baby gets cleaned up, and then snuggled, talked to and loved. This is when they really gain trust and bond with us and is extremely important.

This bonding and careful care is why so many of my babies both males and females are already beginning to talk at 4-5 weeks old, and why they grow into well adjusted, trusting and very tame adults!

Hand feeding formula needs to be mixed fresh at every feeding, and needs to be at the perfect temperature. If it is too hot it could easily burn a hole through the delicate skin of their crop, and if it is too 

cold it will cause their crop to stop digesting, which often leads to a condition called "sour crop" which can kill them quickly. 

Each morning they are weighed with a digital scale, and records are kept to make sure everyone is gaining weight and growing properly.

When they are about 4- 4 1/2 weeks depending on the baby, fully feathered and starting to try to climb out of the nursery box we move them into the nursery cages.

Here they have lots of new foods in shallow dishes on the floor that are easy to reach, and toys to play with to keep them occupied and to explore.

By this time they are getting very strong and active, and are constantly flapping their wings every day to strengthen their muscles so they can start to fly soon. 

At this age (4-5 weeks) they really start to eat new foods and begin weaning themselves. 

We abundance wean all of our babies

which means instead of taking feedings away from them to make them hungry and force them to try whatever food then have, we give them as much variety of food as possible such as pellets, veggies, egg food, fruits, whole wheat pasta, and spray millet to encourage them to eat on their own.

With such a variety they soon start  

refusing hand feedings when we offer them, and by this age depending on the baby they are usually on 2 feedings a day.

At 6 weeks the babies are usually weaned and eating lots of foods on their own. In the next two weeks after this we work on step up training, coming in and out of the cage, talking, and playing.

It is also during this time we make sure they are confident in eating on their own, and taking care of themselves. They spend as much time as possible out playing with us  and exploring our home safely. 

After weeks of cleaning, training, feeding and lots of love they are fully weaned, confident, very at ease and bonded to people and ready for their new homes!