-
Posts
2,545 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Everything posted by Finnie
-
Personally, I wouldn't get her a male friend unless you want baby budgies. If she has already proven that she will lay eggs in spite of having no nest, then giving her a male will make her lay eggs that are actually fertile. She does have no nest, right? Because if you have anything in her cage resembling a nest, that alone could trigger her behavior and egg laying. She seems tame enough to be happy with just your company, if you can make sure you spend enough time with her.
-
You should be able to tell if their chest looks flat, or if it looks like there is a big round lump where the crop is. What kind of diet have you had the parents on this whole time? I give my breeding birds soft food, lots of vegetables, and oat groats. You can get oat groats at a health food store. They are soft and very easy for a chick to learn to eat. All of these things that I feed the parents while they are raising chicks are good foods for the youngsters to learn to eat when they get weaned. If you are worried that they aren't eating seed or millet, place a saucer in the cage with all of these things on it, and they will have a lot of easy foods to work with. They will be hungry. They will learn to eat something, and the more choices you give them, the better. Pellets are also easy for babies to learn to eat. How is the splay leg chick looking? We still haven't seen a photo showing it's legs, in order to know how serious/not serious it is. Or if the make up sponge is working.
-
They call them English types around here, too. But I realize how bothersome that sounds to the Australians! But I have heard that those bigger style of budgies can have more breeding and fertility issues than the smaller, more natural pet types. I have read of some breeders trimming the feathers around the vent, believing that they block the sperm. And then that seems to work, so there must be something to the idea that the show types need help. I don't know if you want to go to all that trouble. Maybe they will do better in the future in any case. If he helped her raise the foster chicks, then they ought to be a lot more bonded together now, so maybe that will be all it takes. I think with my pair, it was all the hen's fault. (And she too is the bigger, show type.) Some of her eggs looked like they had started to develop, and then got ruined somehow, at a very early stage. She laid a ton of them the first time, too. After the foster chicks grew up, she was able to hatch out and raise two of her own, but she had still laid about a dozen "bad" eggs again, that didn't ever hatch, apart from the two. And then she tried to do a third round, and again, over a dozen eggs, and no real development. But by that time I felt that was due to her overlaying and depleting herself, so I had to take away the eggs and box and give her a rest.
-
Some of Maz ideas will work, and sometimes they won't. I have tried to get a three to four week old baby to take some hand feeding formula, and usually they won't touch it. What usually ends up happening is that the chick is old enough to eat on its own, and it does. If they are a month old, you can take them out of the box and take the box away. They don't need it any more. The mother might be more likely to feed them if they are on the perch next to her. You can still make a little ice cream container shelter on the floor of the cage in case the babies want to hide in there. Put some seed and millet inside it, and the babies will eat that. If you prefer to have them with their father instead of their mother, that is fine too. I disagree a little bit with Maz about the father feeding the mother, and she in turn feeding the chicks. That is true in the beginning, but after about two weeks of age, the father starts to feed the chicks directly himself in a lot of cases. The mother will usually start to spend less time in the box, and leave the raising of the chicks to the father by the two to four week mark. Or they share. There will always be a lot of variation in how one budgie pair or another pair does things. I see your profile says you are in the U.S. Is that Canton, Michigan, Canton, Ohio, or Canton, Some Other State? I used to live near Canton, Michigan. (In Plymouth)
-
Female budgies definitely can fight, but that doesn't mean they always will. It's pretty cool to hear all of your stories of the hens that did get along.
-
New Budgie With Some Tail Feathers Missing
Finnie replied to SL26's topic in Health Questions and Tips
When a new growing feather breaks, it bleeds, so you would definitely be seeing blood. Red mites don't live on birds, it won't be those. They live in dark cracks and come out at night to feed on birds. Feather mites do live in the quills. I think they require a microscope or magnifying glass to see them. I had a similar question a long time back, and I think somebody posted a photo. I can try to look for that. I think with French molt, the feathers fall out completely, and don't grow back. So I kind of think that with the feathers breaking off, it's a different problem. But I'll have to see if that was mentioned in my old thread when I find it. It sounds like your usual new bird routine is going to save you a lot of worry! Hey, so are the photos of the new guy? Edit- added this part later: I found the photos. They weren't in my thread, but there was a link to the FAQs article that had them. And apparently I am wrong, the feather mites live in the barbs of the feathers. Maybe it was Quill mites that live in the quills. http://forums.budgie...=306&artlang=en -
Sometimes they look like their foot is injured or broken, and it really isn't. Then it looks like they made a miraculous recovery. As long as there was no broken skin or blood, then you probably don't have to do anything. As for antibiotics, I don't use them unless I'm sure there is an infection that they can cure. Overuse of antibiotics just creates resistant strains of bacteria. okay, I apologize, that isn't really very funny. But leaving them to bicker and fight is stressing them out anyway, so you might as well be proactive and prevent a worse problem. Wear gloves if you are worried. It is also helpful to own a net. Babies have an uncanny ability to fly past you out of the cage, and then you will need a net to catch them. How old are the chicks now? If they are at the four week mark, then you have a few options. You could take away the mother, instead of the father. You could make a shelter on the floor of the cage, put the babies in there, and take the box away. Or once the chicks are in the shelter, you could let the parents stay together with their box and raise a second round. If the chicks are safe in the shelter and don't bother the parents, (or vice versa), they can stay for a week or so until you move them to their own cage. Or you can move them to their own cage now, but then you have to watch them carefully to make sure they are capable of feeding themselves. If the chick is pecking the mother away and won't let her feed him, then he may be already eating on his own.
-
Oh, I gotcha now. Seeds in poop are dehusked, but not digested. I had gotten the idea that they were whole, husks and all. Good to see you worked out the photobucket. Yes, this forum only takes photos that are hosted somewhere on the internet. You can use other hosting sites besides photobucket, but I'm not familiar with them. So in your photos, she's not looking like an unweaned chick, like I had thought might be the case. I would guess that if she's put on weight, then the baytril and or the probiotics is helping. I'm pretty sure that if she had megabac, then neither of those two things would make any difference. When her course of baytril is over, you should continue the probiotics a few days longer, and then you should watch her to see if she has a relapse. I've heard of antibiotics masking a problem, but not curing it. Well, I knew you wouldn't be able to get an adult or older chick to eat formula from a spoon, which is why I suggested the crop feeding. People do that sometimes with a sick bird to get some nutrition into its crop quickly before the bird's digestion shuts down. But it sounds like your hen is eating and pooping, you just want to know why all the seed isn't being digested properly. Birds who play on the wires a lot often tatter up their tail feathers. That might not be any problem. The only reason I mentioned the other feathers was to get an idea if she was so young that she still had her baby pin feathers. I have seen other people posting their new baby birds on here that they got from a store or breeder, and the chick hadn't even fully feathered up yet! But that is not the case with this bird. How long are you supposed to keep giving her the baytril? Fingers crossed that that will solve your problem.
-
I see from your new thread that you have worked it out how to start a topic of your own!
-
You need to get that second cage pronto! - this sounds to me like he was attacked by the female, or vice versa. At this stage it can be necessary to act quickly in order to avoid a tragedy. For future reference, or for folks who are reading and learning how to breed budgies, an extra cage is a must have item on your supply list. Sooner or later, the chicks will have to be removed from the parents unless you are keeping them all and your original cage is quite large. And it is very common to have to take away one or the other parent. Hens often become run down from raising chicks, and may need to be isolated for a rest, and to get them to stop laying eggs when they start a second round and you don't want them to breed a second round. IT IS VERY VERY COMMON FOR PARENTS TO ATTACK AND KILL THEIR FIRST ROUND CHICKS WHEN THEY WANT TO CLEAR THEM OUT AND START A NEW ROUND As for the cock's leg, Robyn's advice is good. Budgie legs tend to heal very well, so good luck with him.
-
When Show Budgies Reach Sexual Maturity?
Finnie replied to macaw's topic in Breeding Show Budgerigars
I agree with Robyn. It's been mostly show breeders on this forum who I have done all my learning from. 12 months is what they always recommend. And more, if the twelve month old bird seems immature. -
My guess is that even though you didn't see any little blood spots, it was still due to the foster mother plucking the down from the babies. They can be quite gentle about it. I have read advice on here in the past that a down-plucking mother is not a danger to her babies, but that if a hen starts to pluck the real feathers, then she can do permanent damage, stunt their growth, and even go on to actually injure or kill the chick. Did you by any chance let the foster mother go for a second round? I have twice been able to get a hen that laid infertile eggs the first time to go on to a successful clutch of her own by letting her foster some chicks in the first round. Somehow the whole parenting thing makes something click, and her second clutch of eggs would then be fertile. Maybe it triggers hormones, maybe it reminds her to actually mate with the cock. Who knows?
-
Please forgive me, I'm sure you meant to put them in an incubator, but I couldn't help imagining you hunkering yourself down over the eggs.... :lol: I agree with the others, fostering to another hen would be much better than using an incubator. I have raised a couple of chicks before from day one. It is possible, but it is SOOO much work, including loss of sleep and the mental exhaustion that comes with that. I won't do it again. Mothers do produce crop milk for the newly hatched chicks, but commercial hand rearing formula is designed to provide all the nutrients a growing baby chick needs. You just mix it thinner for the first two days, then slightly thicker for days 3-5, and then the regular apple-sauce consistency until the chick weans. By the way Nana, welcome to the forum! Technically, this question should go in the breeding section of the forum, but since it is by way of introducing yourself, I think it fits okay here. I see you own 12 budgies. Where do you hail from, and how long have you owned budgies? It's nice to have you here.
-
Lol, guys, I cheated. I looked up in my records from when Allen was born to see what I had written back then. Kaj, you would not be able to see that he is split to cinnamon. I just know he is because his mother was a cinnamon. (For those of you who didn't already know, you are getting the idea that Birdlove bought Allen from me. ) Also, the "mutant two" refers to the yellowface part, not to the sky blue part. It is more commonly known as YF2 or yellow face type two. But in genetics, the words "type 1" and "type 2" mean something entirely different, so it's not really a good idea to confuse the issue by calling the yellow face mutations "types". It took me a while, but I was able to train myself to say "yellowface mutant 1" and "yellowface mutant 2". Birdlove, that is so funny that he likes the camera! I've had some like that before. The only photos of them you can get is a huge blurry beak filling up the shot.
-
Since you mention that she is very young, I wonder if you might be dealing with an unweaned chick problem, rather than an illness. The whole seeds in the poop seem to suggest that the bird is not cracking the seed. Now, if an adult bird had a digestion problem, you wouldn't see uncracked seed, because the bird would have husked it before swallowing it. And from what I've read about Megabac, that causes the bird to be unable to swallow, so the seed is picked up and spit back out. One of the first things I would try is to give the chick some foods that are easy to eat, or even give it a crop feed of hand rearing formula, if you can do that. Spray millet is easier to husk, and if you can find oat groats in a health food store, those are de-hulled whole oat grains. Very very easy for a young chick to learn to eat. Being so young is an advantage for you to be able to get her to try foods that your other birds won't eat. So put a dish in her cage with everything healthy under the sun you can manage. Shredded carrot, finely chopped Swiss Chard, cooked peas, bird pellets, which she could eat without having to husk them first. If you can get a hold of some commercial soft food or make your own from one of the many recipes on line, my guess is that a hungry baby bird will try to eat anything, and this might help you with your problem. If you look at her closely, can you see any evidence of new feathers that haven't fully grown in? That would indicate six weeks old or younger, but they could potentially still be poorly weaned at an older age. At least with the whole seeds in her poop you know that she has been swallowing food. That is a good sign, because it means she isn't too sick to eat. Good luck, let us know what happens. Can you post a photo of her?
-
This is the pair that is breeding and has the splay leg chick, right? And these chicks are almost at fledging age, aren't they? You might want to keep an eye out for the parents fighting with each other or with the chicks. One parent sometimes wants to start a new round of breeding and will attack the chicks to get them out of the nest. And if the other parent isn't ready to start again, there can be trouble between the two. That could change this scenario from "sick bird" to "attacked bird", so I would be keeping an eye on things. It is also okay to take one parent away at this stage, because the other parent can finish out the raising of the chicks. So isolating the father and giving him a heat lamp is a good plan. How has he been doing over the last couple of days? By the way, perching on one leg is normal, and how they sleep, so that by itself is not a bad sign. But do keep an eye out for any other symptoms, Trying to sleep with two feet on the perch is a sign of loss of coordination and balance. Good luck. Let us know what happens, and keep trying to get up photos of that splay leg chick.
-
Long term, it would not be a good idea to house three budgies together. You can get away with it while they are babies, but when they reach adolescence and their hormones kick in, two females will fight over the only available male. Likewise, two males would fight over a single female. I agree with Robyn about the quarantine and the no nest. Since you have plenty of time to prepare, you could consider getting a quarantine cage that is large enough to be a permanent home, and then if you ever run into problems down the road, you will have two cages for separating out any budgie that fights with the others. I have always found that keeping budgies in even numbers is best, because they each need to have a bosom buddy. And in small flocks, such as 8 or fewer, balancing out the genders is important. In huge flocks, they have more options, and it seems that boys will buddy up together if they don't find hens of their own. But if you just have three, and one of them is a well tamed pet, that one could be housed alone, as long as you provided it the companionship it needs yourself.
-
Photo bucket gives several choices of links to use, but our forum doesn't accept them all. I think I have been having good luck with the one called "direct link". But I know that in the past, I was using a different one, and then all of a sudden I had to change. Try going through them all to see which one works. Sheesh, it would be so much easier if this forum would just let you copy and paste photos, or download them directly from your computer. They don't have a nest box in the wild, they have a hole in a tree, which is a completely different environment. From what I know about nature, there are microorganisms that break things down organically, and our wooden nest boxes probably don't have too much in the way of those. Now having sounded like I was disagreeing, let me hasten to agree that I don't think excessive cleaning of a nest box is necessary. Whatever microorganisms our captive birds do have, it is important for the immune systems of the chicks that we don't completely wipe those colonies out. That's why I think it's only necessary to once, maybe twice, scoop out the majority of the crud if it seems to be getting too disgusting in there, and not be overly aggressive with nest box cleaning.,
-
maz7, I'm sorry you have a sick budgie. It sounds like you might need to start a separate thread about that.
-
Hm, yeah, six can be a little noisy in the house, if they are used to the budgies living outdoors! Maybe the younger kids could compromise and share one or two.
-
Allen is an opaline greywing dominant pied (single factor) yellow face mutant two sky blue split to cinnamon. Birdlove, those are fantastic photos. Allen may be a ham for the camera, but I think a lot of the credit needs to go to the photographer! By the way, I was looking at images of yf2 budgies today, and a very familiar looking one came up. Sure enough, it was Allen, that you must have posted to a website called Budgie Info. He is definitely unique and beautiful.
-
I realize that this thread is quite old, and whatever Jaffa was going to do is done and over by now., But I wanted to add some advice for other people who may come across this topic who have the same situation. I don't think it is ever a problem to remove a hen's eggs if she is laying too many. She may or may not try to keep replacing the removed eggs, but chances are she is a chronic layer, and is going to keep laying new eggs no matter what you do. (Removing the box is often a good way to get a hen to stop laying.) Laying over a dozen eggs is a problem, because she will just deplete herself, and eventually the eggs she lays will be thin-shelled and infertile. You have a couple of options. If you want to try to let her raise some chicks in order for her to learn from the experience, you should candle the eggs and like A'shaar said, only leave her with a manageable amount, IF any are fertile. MARK those eggs, so that if she lays more, you will know which ones they are, and throw away any new eggs. Then wait a reasonable amount of time for the marked eggs to hatch, and see what she does with the chicks. Regardless, I would not let her go a second round after that until she has had a rest. The other option is that since there are already problems, you may want to just remove the box, throw away all the eggs (people with other sitting hens can foster any fertile ones), and in this way disrupt the hen's laying cycle. Give her a good rest, and perhaps the next time she comes into condition, she will be smarter about what to do. But some hens are just not good breeders. If she is infertile, or refuses to mate with the cock, or can't incubate properly or won't feed chicks, then it is just as well not to breed from her anyway, because she could pass those traits on to her offspring.
-
Yes, I agree. If you can leave the box in place, just scoop or scrape out as much of the bad as you can, and then add some new clean materials. No need to take the box down, or use any type of cleaner on it. One suggestion I would add is to use about a cup full of seed with the new bedding. That way the chicks can be learning how to eat seed on their own before they fledge. At 3-4 weeks old, they are about to fledge soon anyway. Good luck with the splay leg chick. Can you post photos of it?
-
Hi Katie, Yes, been breeding the budgies all along. I'm up to the 170s of ring numbers now! It's so hard to believe I've had that many customers! Well, not counting how many I've kept. I love animals too. It was always my dream to have a farm with horses and chickens and dogs. If I ever got to have one now, I'd add an outdoor aviary to the list.
-
The first one is a greywing light green and the second one is an opaline dilute light green. Birdlove, is this at the Indianapolis Zoo? One of my other customers used to be a keeper in this exhibit. It's awesome to go inside there!