trying to reconcile myself to the nightlight idea (total darkness seems more healthy and natural.) But when a fledgling falls off and you wake to the whole aviary flying madly around..............and then you have to graduate light/dark until they find their perfect sleeping perch................a simple nightlight seems, well...simple good sense.

A friend's cocatiel escaped and was gone two days (with 40-degree F nights.) He was found 6 miles away. He "gave himself up" on a large, outdoor dog kennel (the type with the chainlink sides and roof). We're guessing the sight of that "cage" from the air was the best thing he ever saw.

Well, most of this was said in the descriptive titles. Two hens setting at once. One I need to let rest, but I like her genetics. Anyone ever successfully switch eggs on a hen?

Too new to contribute substantively to the discussion, but I have a young Sky Blue/Type 1 Yellowface and am hoping (as I have read) that upon her first 3-month-old molting, some of the yellow will infuse the blue body color and give her more of the turquoise (my term) body color of her mother.

Very late on this topic and perhaps you will never see the posting. I've had good luck with a "mash" approach recipe: boiled sweet potato; cooked quinoa; al dente seven-grain cereal; cilantro and then just a tiny amount of mixed seeds. Make small balls and roll them in some rolled seven-grain-type cereal (raw). As the seed-addicts dig through the potato for the seeds, they can't help but discover other things. Vary the recipe with proven, safe additional veggies. The balls are freezable. Also, don't let your birds buffalo you by refusing to eat; eventually they will rethink their boycott (and will be healthier for it.) Mine sure love fresh cilantro. Interestingly, they prefer the stems to the leaves and chew out the "pulp" leaving the outer skin of the stems. They return for the leaves much later. Watching not only what they eat but HOW they eat has taught me a lot.

I have sure noticed that my birds enjoy "ledges" as well as perches. Each nesting house has a piece of tile set on top of the roof to prevent the wood from becoming too soiled. I recently turned the tiles "rough-side-up" to promote natural wear on their nails. But my point is: consider perhaps providing some nice flat ledges (safe bark species etc.) near the top third of your bird room. Looking at a video of birds in the wilds of Australia it struck me that we give them the equivalent of tiny branches, but seldom a nice fat "tree".

Hello. This is my first posting. Am dealing with a second clutch hatch in which the third and last little one is significantly younger than the other two. At what point (agewise) are these little ones savable? Is it best to remove it from the clutch entirely, or try to supplement and hope it becomes strong enough to demand the parents' attention?