Breeding Update

[tomlou670 0]

I feel like a Child on Christmas Eve waiting for morning . The Third egg should be hatching anyday now. Second Chick is doing very well, getting fed by Mum who in turn gets fed by male. He has his routine lol. He grabs some seed, jumps up and drinks some water, then he jumps up into the egg and biscuit, then back down to the seed, and back to the water. Mum will either fly up to where he is sitting or she will perch outside of the nesting box and he flies down to her. Once today I was walking by with something in my hands and she stretched her neck to see what I was up to lol. How long should I wait to remove the eggshells. I have removed the first two already. I have heard she will eat them for extra calcium, but she hasn't done that and I discarded both within a few hours of hatching. It will be exciting to actually see what they inherit from both parents. We have another pair in another cage where the hen tends to be sitting on the bottom of the cage in a corner. We are keeping a close eye on her, as that is what Hedwig when she laid an egg on the bottom of the cage. how many spinach leaves can we safely give them, I bought some the other day. We wanted to put vitamins in the water but were afraid of overdose,having read that the chicks could OD on the vitamins.

[tomlou670 0]

The third chick just recently hatched . So now we have two babies. Kramer is eating the seed and egg biscuit and other stuff like crazy. I just put fresh water in the cage and he is going back and forth from the water to the food and back. Once in awhile he cocks his head in the direction of the nesting box. What is weird, is the first and third chick hatched in the evening around the time she laid the eggs. The Second Chick hatched in the morning . We will be trying to get pics while she is out of the box tomorrow when there is alot of natural light,to avoid the camera flash. Talk about major size difference lol between them, and they were only born two days apart,lol :yes:

[**KAZ** 0]

Good news :yes:

 

 

Dont forget that now parents are feeding babies they will eat vegies and many other things they dont normally eat. Commercial egg and biscuit is mostly made from crushed sweet biscuits made for human consumption and not necessarily the best thing for parents to regurgitate to babies.

Give them their seed, and grated carrot and some silver beet. Try buying some budgie starter for the parents or make them soft food daily.

 

Here's my soft food recipe

 

 

An easy to prepare soft food for budgies consists of ( quantities in PARTS as I make a large quantity for my budgies )

 

2 parts rolled oats or quick cook porridge oats.

1 part egg and biscuit or budgie starter

1 part dry fine/medium polenta

1/2 part budgie seed

3 scoops ( Tablespoons ) powdered whole egg ( optional or substitute )

2 scoops Whey protein ( optional )

1 scoop wheatgerm

calcivet

 

to make it easier just use the ingredient in bold and make it up dry and put in a container and just mix as much wet mix as often as you need to.

Edited August 15, 2010 by KAZ

[tomlou670 0]

by budgie starter for the parents, is that the hand rearing stuff is used to hand raise the babies. I do notice the other day, Kramer ate spinach leaves, he used to NEVER eat that stuff, lol. you mentioned parts, what size is a part lol, out of curiosity.

[**KAZ** 0]

by budgie starter for the parents, is that the hand rearing stuff is used to hand raise the babies. I do notice the other day, Kramer ate spinach leaves, he used to NEVER eat that stuff, lol. you mentioned parts, what size is a part lol, out of curiosity.

 

Budgie starter is budgie starter not handrearing formula. Blue box. http://www.wombaroo.com.au/budgie_starter.htm

 

One part means if you chose to use a cup for a measure the cup is one part..........two parts would be two cups and half a part would be half a cup. Same if you used a tablespoon. One tablespoon would be one part, two tablespoons would be two p[arts, half a tablespoon would be half a part.

All depends on what you use to make up your batch, a cup or a spoon or a scoop etc.

Edited August 15, 2010 by KAZ

[tomlou670 0]

I just checked the nesting box while the hen was out. Number 4 has hatched. According to my calculations, it was not supposed to hatch until tomorrow night. I thought they were supposed to hatch two days appart, the eggs were laid two days apart. We have Budgie starter being sent to us ASAP, and they absolutely are devouring the silverbeet, how often can we give it to the budgies as they all went nuts over the stuff. The one budgie seemed to hype out on the stuff. Most of the fights were between couples not wanting to share, we wound up putting in more to cover the squabbling. the second born dwarfs the other two, I checked to make sure it did not roll over onto the other two chicks. To be continued............... :glare:

[Finnie 0]

Exciting to see all this progress, Tomlou!

[tomlou670 0]

 

Here is a picture of three. We think it looks like one egg is starting to hatch. It's scheduled to hatch in the early evening today anyways. The oldest one's eyes are almost open. sorry about the blur, but as you can see by the blur, the one kept rolling around lol. Will update with more, when the other two hatch. . Funny thing is when Kramer saw the camera it was almost as if he was trying to pose for it. Standing up straight and proud.

[**KAZ** 0]

Very cute Its hard to get non blurry shots of babies sometimes...they wriggle around so much. 50 shots to get two or three good ones

[Dean_NZ 0]

I want little pinkies

 

Mine were due yesterday but it is cold here so I am giving them an extra 3 days leighway on account of chicks developing slower in cold weather. Hopefully hatch tomorrow as i have candled and they are still moving around in there but havent yet pierced the egg sack. *SIGH*

 

Glad to see your progress at least

[tomlou670 0]

Just a funny little thing that happened today. We put some millet outside for Kramer,so he could enjoy a treat. He loves Millet. Well,anyways, he stuck his head inside the nesting box and spotted the millet I had stuck in there for Hedwig. He proceeded to climb into the nesting box and Hedwig did a low squawking sound. He went back out, then he proceeded to climb back in. She screeched at him as loud as she could, I am guessing the scuffling sound was him trying to turn around, cause he could not get out of the nesting box fast enough,lol. I checked inside when she came out to stretch and be fed, and the chicks were all okay. He must have learned his lesson, because he hasn't gone back in since. We might have another pair going to nest. They were going to town in the cage. Keeping an eye on them, she keeps going into the nesting box. She won't even let him in at all. Ollie tried to sneak into it while she was preening, but she spotted him and chased him away.

Edited August 20, 2010 by tomlou670

[**KAZ** 0]

[tomlou670 0]

The last two eggs were clear when I candled them, so it looks like four chicks with 3 surviving. We may have another pair getting ready to nest,she is spending more and more time in the nesting box. We have plenty of Budgie Starter and egg and biscuit and hand rearing stuff in stock. I know of three places where I can get silverbeet, although we will have our own "budgie" garden starting soon. We rearranged the other cage and the male got out and I eventually got him after several passes over my head, I managed to corner him on a bookshelf,lol. So now it's watching the three grow up. Sometimes it looks like a rugby scrum in the nesting box lol. To be continued.............

[tomlou670 0]

I peeked in the nesting box a little while ago. The oldest chick looks like the skin is purplish, the other two are still pink. Just wondering if violet factor ones have purple skin, lol, don't know from Kramer, we got him feathered lol. It is warm to the touch, will try and get a picture next time hen is out feeding her face or stretching.

[tomlou670 0]

The oldest Chick is 10 days old and the other two are 8 and six day olds. The nesting box is in dire need of cleaning out. When the hen goes out of the box, will we be able to remove the chicks to a container while we clean the cage or do we just switch nesting boxes really quick. There are little white feces everywhere, it reminds me of pebbles,as I first thought they were and wondered how the hen came up with all those pebbles lol. We were leaning to switching nesting boxes and then cleaning out that one. Or will any kind of cleaning and the like cause her to abandon the Chicks.

[**KAZ** 0]

What kind of access do you have to the nesting box, as you say nestbox one minute and cage the next so I was wondering.

If the nestbox gets grotty, I get the parents out of it into the breeding cage, put the chicks into a container with bedding....clean the nestbox, add new bedding and put chicks back....all while the nestbox stays where it is.....and fairly fast so there is little disruption.

Edited August 23, 2010 by KAZ

[tomlou670 0]

We have it sticking into one of the three doors. It is resting on a stack of sturdy books. Kramer is out in the cage area. The Cage is pretty big. We have Two Budgies to a cage and no more. We have four nesting boxes, three at the moment are not being used, hence why I had asked if we could switch the boxes. I agree with the fairly fast bit, as I had read that one post. We just took a picture of the box to show the progress of the chicks. I usually gently tap on the box and she leaves the nest and returns when I am done checking the chicks.

[**KAZ** 0]

If the boxes are exactly the same .......yes you can just change the box.

[tomlou670 0]

 

The oldest is Ten days old, the other two are 8 & 7 days old. This was before we changed the nesting boxes.

[tomlou670 0]

 

 

:rip: Here is the oldest one at 13 days. The tail is just starting to appear.

[GenericBlue 0]

 

 

:rip: Here is the oldest one at 13 days. The tail is just starting to appear.

nice healthy chick good work

[tomlou670 0]

Well this is our very first time,lol. Alot of the credit goes to Kaz and you all on here for all the helpful advice. :rip: . Kramer keeps watching the nesting box entrance lol, I don't think he will try to go back in it again, the hen screeched at him, the last time he tried.

[Finnie 0]

 

 

:kiss: Here is the oldest one at 13 days. The tail is just starting to appear.

 

Now for the fun of watching them feather up!! :thumbs_up:

[tomlou670 0]

 

The last budgie hatched

 

 

 

The Second hatched

 

 

The Oldest Chick

 

 

We also are not sure, so far the wings look either grey or cinnamon. We know these are not the best pics to see. They would not sit still for anything. I do know the first two are definitely Spangle the youngest we are not sure on the spangle,doesn't look like it. We are very pleased with the results of our first time. We were nervous wrecks going in and came out more confident for lessons learned and all of your helpful advice that was given. Will update when they start getting more of their feathers. As of Today the ages are: 19,17,and 16 days old.

[Squeak_Crumble 0]

Youngest looks normal.... other two birds are spangle blues.