Scarlet Chested Parrot chicks

[88keysau]

Hi all,
One of our pairs of scarlets has successfully bred this year and we have 4 chicks. They are about 4 weeks old and still in the nesting box. They have had no direct human contact yet - is it necessary? We think that some degree of human interaction at a young age might minimise their future stress from handling. At what stage should we expect them to be leaving the nest and is there anything we need to provide in particular??
Is handling a risk at this stage?
Cheers,
Karen

[vankarhi]

Gee well firstly congratulations on the chicks ;D

Sorry I can't be of more help though lol I have no idea about those birds......but hopefully someone with more knowledge will come on and be of more help

[avinet]

They will likely leave the nest within a week - normally around 5 weeks, and then they will be fed by the parents for a further 2 or 3 weeks while they wean. All you have to do is make sure there is plenty of good food around for them to learn to eat nutritiously.

With regard to handling, it is too late if you wanted to handle them to get tame pets, and note that Scarlets don't really make good pets anyway so you haven't missed out there. If you want to handle them to make them a bit calmer in the aviary then you can at 4 weeks, but Scarlets are a pretty laid back sort of bird and it isn't a big issue. Won't do any harm but neither is it really necessary. I never found it was necessary when I bred them.

cheers,

Mike

[jusdeb]

Scarlets ( well mine anyway ) are very shy birds and dont go much on humans at all ...as said just be calm when your around them and they wont usually bat an eyelid at you.