Budgie Tragedy

[donjasjit 0]

I've had a real tragedy for my budgies. Recently one of my birds laid eggs which hatched into a beautiful pair of blue and yellow birds. I was very excited.

 

Now my aviary is outdoors and the breeding cages are not made separate, the breeding boxes are part of the main aviary. I've got two breeding boxes and two breeding female birds. One of the birds seems sterile, she does not produce any healthy eggs, but it is this bird which started a rackus. It went to the nest of the other breeding bird and forcbly evicted the two chicks and threw them to the ground. The two pretty little chicks wandered all day on the ground of the aviary. I sort of thought that it would be unwise to interfere in birdy matters and let things be.

 

In the morning when I looked in I was shocked, the chicks are gone. Apparently there is a very tiny gap in the mesh netting and some creature came in the night and whisked away the chicks. Of course I immediately fixed the gap but I can't tell you how angry I am at that sterile breeding bird. I could kill it if I could get my hands on it.

 

I am never going to let it happen again. What steps should I take for chicks.

 

1. I have decided to have a nursery cage for chicks, I am going to take over the chicks almost as soon as they are hatched. What are the facilities I need to have in the cage.

2. How does one hold a hatchling.

3. How are the hatchlings fed. Does one use a dropper or does just one leave the food in a food box and what food does one give the chick, should it be liquid or normal food.

4. After what period should I reunite the hatchling with other birds

5. What other steps should I take for the hatchling's care in the nursery cage.

5. Is there any way to tackle the jealousy factor among breeding female birds.

 

I eagerly await your advice.

6

[**KAZ** 0]

I am sorry you have experienced this but is usually happens at one time or another when you have a few pairs of birds in an aviary with a few nesting boxes ( also called colony style breeding ). There will always be one hen that wants what the other hen has....your wanted the nestbox and the chicks were in the way of that. The best way to stop this happening is to separate a pair of birds for breeding in a separate breeding cage with nestbox. And only once chicks are old enough and can fly and eat, put them in your aviary. No nestboxes in the aviary works best. :hap:

[KathyW 0]

What steps should I take for chicks.

 

If at all possible leave them with their parents. The parent birds can do a far better job of raising the young than any well meaning human.

 

If you cannot leave them with their parents for one reason or another (eg parent dies, is ill etc) and you have other hens with similar age nestlings foster them out.

 

If you HAVE to hand rear (not recommended, especially for the inexperienced):

 

1. I have decided to have a nursery cage for chicks, I am going to take over the chicks almost as soon as they are hatched. What are the facilities I need to have in the cage.

 

No cage. Newly hatched chicks need to be kept in a temperature controlled brooder box. Keep the temperature constant at around 30-32 degrees C until they are mostly feathered and then start lowering it gradually (about a degree a day should be okay) to ambient temperature so that when they are ready to "fledge" to a cage they are used to ambient room temperature. You can buy or make a brooder box but temperature control is critical. Chicks can chill and die very easily.

 

2. How does one hold a hatchling.

 

Carefully. Make sure your hands are warm. Cold hands can chill them (see above).

 

3. How are the hatchlings fed. Does one use a dropper or does just one leave the food in a food box and what food does one give the chick, should it be liquid or normal food.

 

There are hand rearing formulas readily available at good pet stores. Vetafarm make a good one. Follow the instructions on the pack. The food must be warmed as you would for a human baby. Initially chicks can be fed with a plastic syringe (no needle!!!!). You'll need a good supply as they can deteriorate rapidly after only a few uses. For the first week they will need to be offered food EVERY 2 HOURS - thats all day AND night. As they get older you can decrease the number of night feeds gradually, and adjust the day feeds to their appetites. Feeding can be messy. Have warm water and tissues or paper towel handy to clean the chicks after every feed. Hand rearing formula sets like concrete! But don't get the chicks too wet - they could chill too easily.

 

Let me emphasise it is not a good idea to hand rear unless you have absolutely no other choice!!!

 

When the chick is old enough you can try feeding off a small tea spoon. Once they move out of the brooder you can introduce seed scattered on the floor of the cage to encourage their natural foraging instincts. You will still need to hand-feed until you are CERTAIN they are eating seed independently.

 

4. After what period should I reunite the hatchling with other birds

 

When they are fully fledged, able to fly and eating seed by themselves.

 

5. What other steps should I take for the hatchling's care in the nursery cage.

 

Assuming you have the temperature control and hand feeding sorted, then you will need to watch for sour or impacted crop (food not digesting properly - can have lots of underlying causes), regularly clean the brooder - I find lining with paper towel and changing it every feed works best. Avoid sawdust or anything that they could chew and get lodged in their crops. Have some antibiotics handy as infections can kill quickly and hand reared birds seem more prone to succumbing to infections than parent raised chicks. And be ready for vet bills as you may need to consult your vet often, especially in the learning phase. Get as many books on hand rearing as you can and read up.

 

5. Is there any way to tackle the jealousy factor among breeding female birds.

 

As Kaz mentioned putting the breeding pairs in a separate breeding cage is by far the safest option.

 

If you wish to aviary breed then allow for twice as many boxes as hens, and if it looks like a fight developing over a particular box remove it! You can put it back later in a different location.

 

If you have a particularly nasty hen causing trouble you could remove her until the others have finished breeding.

 

You can also remove parents and young to a breeding cage after hatching if you're careful about it. In fact what I would have done in your place when you first found the chicks evicted would be to remove them and their parents to a breeding cage. If the chicks were not fully feathered, put them into the nest box - the parents should find them pretty quickly. Then just keep a close eye on things to make sure the chicks are being fed (but not every 5 minutes or you might put the parents off ... ).

 

Lastly and at the risk of sounding repetitive, don't hand rear unless all other options don't work. The natural parents (or even foster parents) really do the better job.

 

Cheers,

KathyW.

Edited August 14, 2007 by KathyW

[the pie 0]

Well said Kath.

[splat 0]

Yes well Kathy. Totaly agree

[donjasjit 0]

Wonderful advice. Thank you very much. I am beginning to realize that hand rearing a chick may not be the best way to deal with the problem.

 

I have a rather small aviary- 10ft by 10ft by 10ft, if I partition a potion of it for breeding birds I am afraid the flying space of the other birds will be severely curtailed. The chicks which I lost were not very young, they had feathers growing. Now I wish to knew, suppose they had not disappeared in the night, would they have survived by themselves on the ground of the aviary. Would the other birds have fed them, or could they have fed themselves.

[**KAZ** 0]

Wonderful advice. Thank you very much. I am beginning to realize that hand rearing a chick may not be the best way to deal with the problem.

 

I have a rather small aviary- 10ft by 10ft by 10ft, if I partition a potion of it for breeding birds I am afraid the flying space of the other birds will be severely curtailed. The chicks which I lost were not very young, they had feathers growing. Now I wish to knew, suppose they had not disappeared in the night, would they have survived by themselves on the ground of the aviary. Would the other birds have fed them, or could they have fed themselves.

The chicks should only be out at the stage they can fly and are fully feathered. Having been thrown out of the nest they would have been in shock, would have gone unfed overnight at the very least, and maybe not fully feathered enough to cope. You could divide an aviary of that size quite easily to accommodate your breeding birds and still have space for the others, I am sure.

Edited August 14, 2007 by **KAZ**
spelling errors

[Budgie's r cool 0]

Girl budgies have some of the most emotions of having babies out of all animals maybe even humans.

[donjasjit 0]

The chicks should only be out at the stage they can fly and are fully feathered. Having been thrown out of the nest they would have been in shock, would have gone unfed overnight at the very least, and maybe not fully feathered enough to cope. You could divide an aviary of that size quite easily to accommodate your breeding birds and still have space for the others, I am sure.

Thanks for the response Kaz, a few years back I did just what you suggest now. I had divided up the aviary, with separate space for breeding birds. But over time I found that 1. The birds don't breed that often 2. It is very difficult to catch the birds and return to general population once the breeding part is done 3. I had misgivings over whether it was right on my part to take away flying space from 20 birds for just a pair of birds.

 

But this tragedy may force me to reconsider. Anyway I think was right in posting on this forum. I was almost in a state of shock on losing two pretty chicks(one blue and one yellow) in the manner I described above. The advice and concern of the forum members has provided me solace.