Birds of Paradise - Eclectus Babies

Eclectus parrots generally lay two eggs, which hatch approximately 28 days later. With Indy and Ollie, it is exactly 28 days later, and has never varied. Indy lays her eggs with 2 days in between. If the first egg comes on Monday, the second egg will arrive on Thursday.

Indy broods her own eggs and has been an excellent little mother. The babies stay with Indy for approximately 2.5 weeks and then are pulled for banding and hand feeding. We use AACC (Avicultural Advancement Council of Canada) closed bands, which show the year of hatching and a distinctive number of each individual baby.

Are newly hatched Eclectus babies cute? You be the judge. This is a 9-day-old baby (at right). His eyes are now open and he can sit up for short periods on his own. The dark gray down is just breaking through the skin. His natural mother Indy is still feeding him.
	Here is the same chick at 2.5 weeks old (at left). Now, he is cute! He is a bit awkward, but he can hold himself up and looks more alert. He is being pulled for banding and hand feeding. His hand feeding will last until he is approximately 4 months old. He will wean at his own pace, we believe in the "Abundance Weaning Method". Any day now, we will see little green, or red, feathers peeking through and know if he is actually a boy. He was!
Here he is again at 2 months (at right). He is still being hand fed and not really eating anything on his own, just yet. We are starting to add easy to eat items like Cheerios, Rice Crispies, and Spray Millet for him to sample. We now know his name will be "Merlin" and he will live in the Ottawa area. Isn’t he a little Sweetie?