On Easter morning our first Caique chick hatched. It is an "only chick" and it's parents, Booters and Chompers, are fairly tame. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try the co-parenting technique of raising a tame chick. Each morning and evening we handle the chick while Booters and Chompers enjoy some out of cage time. So far it is going very well. Booters and Chompers do not seem to mind us handling the chick. The chick is growing well and has learned when it gets to come out and play. It is waiting for us at the nest box door when we go in to get it! We will be keeping this chick ourselves but if all continues to go well we will continue to experiment with this approach for future chicks. In this way our chicks will be hand tamed yet still well socialized with other birds. Our breeders will also get the satisfaction of raising their own young. The chick is not yet DNA'd and we have not picked out a name for it. At the moment we just refer to it as our little chicken nugget! If you have any experience using a co-parenting approach I would love to hear from you.
aVIARY nEWS
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