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Risks of improper hand rearing are aspiration pneumonia, crop burn, puncture of esophagus or crop, malnutrition and starvation. (Romagnano A 2003) According to the experience of the author, the end weight of the babies can become 10-15 % lower than the weight of the parents. Studies have shown that hand reared chicks develop more skeletal deformities compared with parent reared chicks (Harcourt-Brown N. 2004 ). There are data that show that baby parrots that are separated from the parents are more vulnerable to infectious diseases, because their immune systems are less well developed. One of the reasons described is that neonatal handling is stressful. (Phalen D.N., Wilson VG, Graham DL 1994) Among other scientific work , part of the references is an Inaugural Dissertation , pHD-study , at the University of Bern in 2004 by Schmid about the influence of the breeding method on the behavior of adult African grey parrots showing the differences in behavioral problems between hand raised parrots and parent raised parrots. This study showed that hand reared African Grey Parrots develop more aggressive and more selective behaviour towards humans compared with parent reared birds. It also showed that chicks that were separated from the parents at an age under 5 weeks developed more stereotypes compared to chicks that were parents raised for a longer time. Research by Myers at all ( 1998) , working with cockatiels ( Nymphicus hollandicus) showed that fledging only occurded in pairs where the males were parent reared. Hand reared females produced more infertile eggs and laid eggs outside the nest box more often. Discussion In the Netherlands there is legislation, within the Health and Welfare Act for Animals, that prohibits , in different species, separating young animals from their parents/mother during a specific period of time. Young dogs may not be separated from the mother until the age of 7 weeks. For cats it is also 7 weeks, for rabbits it is 4 weeks and for chimpanzees it is 4 years. Because parrots are not mentioned within this act, incubating eggs and hand rearing baby parrots is not illegal in the Netherlands. This contrasts with data that show that recent advancements in the field of neuroanatomy and cognitive ethology confirms that many avian species exhibit complex cognitive and learning abilities (Pepperberg I.M. 1999). Because of the known negative effects on the welfare of the animals , the Dutch Parrot Foundation is campaigning in the Netherlands to include parrots on the list of animals that may not be hand reared and separated from the parents. Typical examples are Moluccan cockatoos that are mainly hand reared within aviculture showing screaming behaviour, fearful behaviour, biting behaviour , feather picking, feather destructive behaviour and self mutilating as common behaviour problems. When visiting parrot rescue facilities it is painful to see the many Moluccan cockatoos that are donated because of serious behavioural problems. It is even more sad when we realize that we are dealing with an endangered species in Indonesia. There may be medical indications to justify hand rearing baby parrots. When hand rearing is a necessity it is important to take all the measures to prevent the negative consequences of hand rearing by creating circumstances that are as natural as possible. To prevent problems, hand rearing in projects like the Californian Condor project or reintroduction projects of endangered cranes, hand rearing was developed in a way that there was no human-animal relationship during hand rearing, mimicking the natural situations as much as possible. Special condor feeding puppets are used as surrogate parental models the same way surrogate parental models are used in hand rearing cranes within reintroduction projects (Horwich R. H 1989) . Conclusions Parrots belong to the most charismatic, intelligent and social animals which have a very high life expectancy. It is the responsibility of avian veterinarians and aviculturists to prevent problems and to enhance the welfare of parrots in captivity. Considering the available data and based on the current experience there is every reason to conclude that hand rearing of baby parrots is not in the best interest of the health and welfare of parrots. Baby parrots should have the legal right to be raised by their parents at least until they reach an age at which the birds are no longer dependant on their parents concerning their nutritional needs. It is not in the best interest of the females to be manipulated and forced to have more clutches because of commercial interests of the breeder.
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