Hand rearing, it's hard work, but its very fun. Hand rearing/raising is when you have a baby animal (like a bird or kitten) and you raise it from a baby to an adult using the proper formulas.
- before you hand raise, you need the following things.
1. Patience
2. The correct formula
3. Depending on the age or species, A heat lamp or incubator
3. Knowledge of the species, and how to raise
4. Be ready!
Have you hand raised an animal? Tell me about it!
Was it fun for you?
What animal did you wean? And how many?
What formula did you use?
Was it a learning experience?
Have you not hand raised, but you want to?
why do you want to?
Are you ready?
Have you researched about it?
Personally, I have only hand raised 2 young parakeets, and a bunny. It was hard work, I had to get up at 4 AM a lot. But in the end I'm very glad I did it and I'm hoping to hand raise some cockatiels soon =) I used Exact baby parrot formula for the birds. I used KMR for the bunny and added some stuff in it.
It definitely was a learning experience for me. The birds now have grand babies of their own.
And so, is it all worthwhile? From personal experience, it is a lot of work and the youngsters at weaning do tend to be slightly less robust than those that are parent-reared. Once weaned, however, and eating independently, they do quickly compensate and catch up and are certainly quite raceable. This procedure is, however, best reserved for those special youngsters. I guess it all depends on the value placed on that particular youngster by the fancier. It is nice to know, however, that the options of incubating and hand-raising are now practical ones.
please do not ask for medical advice here, thank you!
Please don't use this thread to learn how to hand raise. Instead, study and do research on it.