Two new hatchlings at the Toledo Zoo have a lot of growing to do before they will transform into long-legged beauties with signature pink plumage.
Two American flamingo chicks hatched July 10 in the zoo’s Avian Breeding Center. Chuck Cerbini, curator of birds, said they were artificially incubated and are being hand-raised by staff.
“Flamingo hand-rearing is very common in zoological facilities,” he said. “We do it because we can more closely monitor the health and development of the chicks.”
Hand-reared flamingos also tend to be calmer, which is beneficial for living in captivity, Mr. Cerbini said.
The zoo has hatched just one other flamingo chick, in 2017. It’s unusual for northern zoos to hatch flamingos, but quite common in southern zoos, Mr. Cerbini said.
“It’s something that we haven’t done a lot of before,” he said. “These birds will stay here. We’re raising them to slowly increase the size of the flock that exists here.”
When removing the real eggs for incubation, the zoo gives chicks’ parents a dummy egg to allow them to go through their natural behaviors, taking turns incubating it. They eventually realize the dummy egg will never hatch.
“Our flamingos share an enclosure with other species,” Mr. Cerbini said. “If they had their own enclosure, we might let them try it on their own. But ultimately, it’s better for the health of the chicks to hand-rear them.”
The zoo will not know for a few months whether the babies are male or female. When they hatched, each weighed just less than 3.5 ounces and was about 5 inches tall.
“They spend a lot of time sitting,” Mr. Cerbini said. “It takes them a little bit to get mobile.”
Adult males can stand up to about 5 feet tall and weigh around six pounds, while females are typically a little shorter and lighter. The birds grow fairly slowly and must be carefully monitored to ensure they do not gain weight too quickly.
“If they gain too much weight, they could develop issues with their legs,” Mr. Cerbini said. “We’re monitoring them very closely. Young birds are very sensitive and could be prone to infections at a young age.”
The chicks are syringe fed a homemade formula — a blended slurry of fish, shrimp, hard-boiled egg yolk, and baby cereal — every two hours during the daytime. They do not need to be fed overnight.
Their down feathers are a very pale gray, almost white. They will develop gray feathers and maintain that coloring until they’re about 1.5 to 2 years old. Then they gradually turn pink. The color is derived from the beta carotene in their diets.
The chicks remain off-exhibit in the Avian Breeding Center, but Mr. Cerbini expects they will join the main flock in Flamingo Key sometime in the late summer or early fall. They will be easily identifiable by their gray color and smaller size.
First Published July 18, 2019, 12:29 p.m.
