MrFeatherly

There are 3 chicks left and the oldest is 8 days. I just fed them again and they are feeding well. I've got a lamp over the box which is at about 36 degrees. Is it okay to leave the lamp on all the time? Does the bright light affect their eyes at all? I've never seen the Dad go into the box. I might try putting him in a separate cage with the box and observe what happens. 12 months is definitely not what I was advised at the markets... Thanks for the information, it's very helpful.

The cock bird is about the same age. The chicks had almost no food left in their crops so I don't think the father was helping at all. Should I try moving the chicks and dad into a separate cage and see if he feeds them? Or is he likely to attack them? I have taken the chicks out and started feeding them hand rearing food from a syringe. These are the only chicks we have. The hen had previously mated with another bird and laid 11 eggs which didn't hatch. When the cock died she started again straight away with another bird and we had more eggs within a couple of weeks. I saw her mating again this week. If she was too young to breed is it possible she just got tired from taking care of the chicks and died from exhaustion? I've taken the nesting boxes out and will wait another 6 months before trying again with the other birds. Thanks for your advice

Hi everyone I had a budgie die today and she had 3 babies. The babies are only 8 days old. I don't think the father is feeding them at all. He sometimes sits on top of the nesting box but has never gone inside. I need some advice on how to take care of the babies. I'm not sure what happened to the mother. She was only about 6 months old. She seemed fine yesterday but this morning she was sitting on the bottom of the cage. She made a lot of noise when I picked her up so I put her down but an hour later she was dead. The mother's previous mate died in a similar way a couple of months ago so I'm a bit concerned. There are 4 other birds in the aviary but I haven't seen any of them fighting so I don't think the mother was attacked. I found a dead chick in the nesting box yesterday but it looked like it had been smothered by the other chicks because it was a lot smaller. I'd appreciate any advice Thanks