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310 Hand-Rearing Birds

and replacement with dummy eggs, fostering eggs or chicks to more reliable parents, monitoring
eggs and chicks, and providing supportive care to chicks until parents can fully care for them. For
example, these techniques allowed a male–male pair of Cape griffon vultures that had built and
defended a nest to foster hatch and rear a chick. The chick was given supplemental feedings for 3
weeks before morning and evening weights demonstrated that the parents were feeding it ade-
quately. After that, no further intervention was needed.

Record Keeping

Detailed records are essential to ongoing improvement of rearing methods and future successes.
Careful recording of quantitative data will facilitate later analysis. Key data can be captured easily
with an efficient record-keeping system. Active records should be kept in the rearing area so that
information is captured while it is fresh in one’s mind. Recording data directly to the computer is
most efficient and will facilitate later analyses.
Chicks are considered to be 0 days old on the day of hatch. Daily weights, diet and amounts con-
sumed, feeding frequency, type of enclosure, enclosure mates (if any), and brooder temperature and
humidity are the most essential data to record. Weights should be taken each morning before the first
morning feeding. It is useful to record the percent gained each day and/or to track weights graphi-
cally. Diet ingredients, including supplements and size of pieces offered, should be noted and the
actual amount consumed recorded. This may be complicated by the fact that water or other fluids are
usually added, but solids and liquids offered should be weighed separately, both to guide others in the
future and to allow nutritional analysis. After each feeding, the weight of any remaining food is sub-
tracted from the total offered, giving the amount consumed. An alternative way to determine the
amount consumed is to weigh the chick before and after each feeding. This second method is less
easily done when isolation rearing methods are being used. The brooder temperature and humidity,
or those of the room or chamber once the chick is no longer brooded, should be recorded at each
feeding and when the chick is handled for other reasons, such as a veterinary check.
Other quantitative information recorded at each feeding includes an estimate of crop fullness
(0–100%) before and after feeding, duration of feeding/puppeting session, and feeding response. A
scale of 0–4 is used for the feeding response, with 0 defined as no feeding response and 4 as lunging
eagerly and eating very quickly. Even if separate medical records exist elsewhere, including basic
information about examination, treatment, and/or medication (including method of administra-
tion and acceptance) ensures that the chick-rearing record provides a complete picture.
In addition, narrative comments, especially detailed descriptions of behavior and developmental
stages, as well as both successful and unsuccessful feeding and handling techniques, are particu-
larly useful for future chick rearing and for training new staff. Comments should be more detailed
than “looks good” or “ate well.” Photo and video documentation of California Condor chicks at all
stages of development is proving especially valuable for determining whether chicks being reared
by condors in the wild are developing normally.

­ Incubation­of Eggs

California Condor eggs are incubated at 98.0 °F (36.7 °C). Humidity is set at 45–55% relative humid-
ity (RH) to start. As with all artificially incubated eggs, eggs should be weighed on a regular sched-
ule to monitor egg weight loss, adjusting incubator humidity to increase or decrease weight loss