First ever Caribbean Flamingo chick
We are very excited to have our first ever Caribbean flamingo chick.
We love our flamingo group, and were delighted when two eggs were laid this summer. However one egg was infertile and then the second pair stopped incubating about a week too early. Keepers decided to put the egg in an incubator not knowing if it would hatch, but within days the egg started chirping! The chick hatched successfully on 19th August – it’s early days but so far it’s growing well on two-hourly feeds of a special ‘fish soup’ prepared by Keeper Becky.
Keeper Becky Waite explains “Our flock was very small until last summer when five arrived from Slimbridge Wetland Centre. With a bigger flock size we were in a stronger position to achieve breeding success. Many of the pairs have built nests in the shallow pond area which is an ideal location as the mud is the perfect building material.”
PLEASE NOTE: He (or she, we don’t know yet) is not out for visitors to see but may be spotted out on the lawn of Glanmor House for short periods for exercise.
FOLLOW OUR ‘FLAMINGO CHICK UPDATE’ with behind the scenes photos and videos > Here
Becky continues “Both parents were hatched at Chester Zoo in July 2002, so are 17 years old. They came to Paradise Park in 2004. This egg was laid on 20th July and hatched on 19th August, so took 31 days to incubate. Due to the parents having stopped incubating the egg a few days before it was due to hatch, we stepped in and put the egg in an incubator. For the first few days I am feeding the chick every two hours between 6am and 10pm.”
Initial feed recipe
75g krill
75g sprats
75g hard boiled egg yolk
2 cups of baby porridge
1 tsp bird park essentials (vitamin powder)
1/2 tsp calcivet
1200ml water
This is blended together and passed through a sieve, blended again and then sieved one more time.
Initially the formula is being mixed in different ratios with water depending on his age to ensure it passes through okay.
Flamingos form strong pair bonds, and just one egg is laid with both male and female feeding the chick on a special ‘crop milk’. They are long lived birds that can reach the age of 40, and able to breed from age 6.
Read more about our flamingos here