My Finches' egg hatched! advice needed

[Giselle]

Are the parents not taking care of the chick???

Hand-raising birds is extremely risky and often leads to fatality. You need to learn it from another more experienced breeder to fully understand how to do it. I had an emergency situation where I had to hand-feed a couple of budgie chicks and it was not a pleasant experience. I had nobody to teach me. All I had were a few websites with conflicting information, and by the end of the day, I had a dead chick in my hands. I don't want to scare you, really, but hand-feeding is not simple if this is your first clutch and you've never bred before.

There are many risks involved, including burning the crop of the chick with too hot formula, choking the chick with too cold formula, aspirating the chick by squirting the food down the wrong pipe, and the inevitable feeding too much/too little. I know quite a few beginners who fed too little and their chicks developed much more slowly and had abnormalities due to malnutrition. Once you get the hang of it, however, it's actually very simple. But seeing as this seems to be your first clutch, my advice is to let mom and dad do the work.

Here's a greyt link. I think it's one of the best out there:
http://www.cockatielcottage.net/feeding.html

[dogzr#1]

Thanks a ton!! They aren't really taking care of him like it said in the books I've been reading. They don't sit on him much (they do a little during the day and all night). I think I'll try handfeeding if they don't feed him or take care of him properly. I bought some formula for the chick so I'll give him that. Well again thanks

[Giselle]

Honestly, finches aren't the best birds to handfeed :/ Especially since the chick is, what, around 24-48 hours old? He'll need around the clock feedings, LITERALLY. With my two-week old or so budgie chicks, I had to wake up at 6 am to feed them for every three hours after that until 12 am midnight. Of course, finches are different and I suppose they mature much quicker, so you'll actually have to feed more frequently but for less days. I took plenty of naps, but, regardless, it requires a lot of time and effort. Handfeeding is not an easy task and it sounds like Mom and Dad are doing an adequate job. I'm not familiar with finches, but budgie moms are supposed to leave the nest box every now and then for a little foot exercise and water/food breaks. Truly, birds make the best moms I would let them handle it and unless you see the chick is being ignored/unfed, *then* I would intervene. Good Luck! They're very cute, rat-looking things at this stage

[bckrazy]

Dogz, are you supplementing your finches diets? They'll need a lot of extra nutrients and special feed to care for their babies.

I agree that hand-feeding should be avoided if at ALL possible!