Remember Me? Hand Feeding Weaning Age Chicks

When my mother introduced me to canaries, she would have me hand feed one. I always like to stuff them and failed to notice it was a different chick each time!  So off and on I top off a few usually around banding age unless their is trouble and continue until they start to refuse and hide.



When I got close to this cage, feeding another cage, this weaning age chick started crying, FEED ME! Very unusual to beg at this stage, so I offered it food. The second chick initially wanted no part of it.

But then the next day it started crying ME TOO!

The disadvantage of hand feeding at weaning age is that it prolongs the time several weeks till they wean. Only chicks that were fed before the fear refusal stage will open wide. To transition to self feeding you will need to teach them to nibble.