First Ino Chicks!

[SunshineE 0]

We finally have an Ino family! Having thought for years how amazing it would be to have lutino or albino baby budgies, imagine my excitement when our Albino hen, Bubble, and Lutino cock, Barty (Bartlett) started getting friendly!

 

Bubble seems to have a talent for annoying the other hens in the aviary however and managed to lose about a third of her upper beak in an argument with another hen about four months ago. Luckily it grew back with no trouble after I took her and Barty out of the aviary and into a separate cage. Barty was very good at feeding her when she was having some difficulty doing so and they bonded even more!

 

Once Bubble was all better I gave them a nesting box and, after a while, Bubble laid her first egg. Sadly, she and Barty decided it looked very tasty and ate it. This was fixed that very day with a mustard egg and she laid the rest of her clutch without eating any more eggs. She laid five unseated eggs.

 

The waiting game was very exciting, I always get very excited when there are clutches but I was super excited about the prospect of Ino babies!

 

The eggs hatched as follows:

 

12/9 (laid 24/8): first baby hatched very late at night. Could tell straight away it was an Ino baby from its eyes (knowing it would have to be an Ino I was interested to see what Ino babies' eyes look like as chicks)

13/9 Friday the 13th (laid 26/8): second baby, already called Lucky due to its birthday

15/9 (laid 28/9): healthy baby

17/9 (laid 30/8): healthy baby

20/9 (laid 1/9): could hear pecking through egg when they were closed up on the night of the 18th. Could hear strong chirping and pecking all day on the 19th. Expected it to have hatched by late 19th at latest. Very concerned when it hadn't. Checked often all day yesterday (20th) and could hear chirping and pecking each time but could not see where it had pecked through the egg at all. I asked my brother to keep me updated as I was away last night. Was very relieved to hear it had hatched, although judging from the looks of the egg compared to all the other shells, Bubble or Barty seem to have helped it out of the egg.

 

 

All the babies are very healthy at the moment and Bubble and Barty are keeping them very clean (at their own expense I might add, I have never seen them so messy!) and look to be some of the best parents we have ever had.

 

All five chicks, L-R oldest to youngest

 

Oldest chicky

 

Barty and Bubble

 

Very caring parents

 

More news and photos soon ask the chicks grow up!

 

[maz7 0]

Hi sunshine E congrats! I also have an Albino+ Lutino but both r hens! They r my top breeding hens! I've bred them with English show budgie and a Rainbow Male. I have gorgeous chicks! The Albino hen Lille I rested for 2 months but she's back in the box with PoffPoff the show budgie (Photo on my profile here). I don't let them in Aviary anymore as the fights broke his leg off which I successfully splinted+plaster of Paris. It healed perfectly! He's bn back 2 normal few months.you r going to hav great chicks! One of their chicks from previous clutch was attacked by other younsters+ maybe a love bird?? Half of her beak broke off! She can't de-husk seeds so I do it with a mortar+pestle and put it down in cage. She picks it up with her little tongue. The beak seems like its growing back allthough guy at bird shop told me it won't grow back! But it seems like its growing back. I find the pegs on the doors interesting! Ha ha ha. Do yours also lift it up and drop it when they bored? Mine do! Even breeding box lid! Until they lay eggs or sit on eggs! The Lutinos+Albinos r super clever budgies! I taught one chick from my Lutino+rainbow clutch how to do a twirl in 1 day .Peanut is not even 6 months old + he twirls for me everyday!cutest! Lots of Luck!

[robyn 0]

Hi SunshineE, It is very exciting to finally get what you have aiming for. I also have 1 Ino chick from an Albino hen (I bred her somehow) & violet pird Cock, they have 5 chicks. One has the red eye's rest dark as far as I can tell. Congrats on your Ino's, add some more pics when you can.

Edited September 21, 2013 by robyn

[SunshineE 0]

Thanks maz7 and robyn, they are so gorgeous! The pegs on the doors are so they can't escape as a team by lifting the doors up, we've had that happen before (while they were inside thankfully!) and Barty is named after the lead mastermind in The Great Escape because when we first got him he kept slipping through the bars of our bigger cage, the true escape artist!

 

I was so relieved when her beak turned out okay, I was so worried about her. Barty was very cute feeding her though

 

Can't wait to see how many of each yellow and white we get!!

[robyn 0]

If Barty is split to something else, you may get some little surprises as well. Makes it more exciting. Also lets you know what his splits may be ( I think, not good on the genetics side of it)

 

 

Just checking your picture of chicks how many are red eyed?

Edited September 22, 2013 by robyn

[Nadene 0]

They are soooo cute. I've never seen a clutch full of little ino's

[SunshineE 0]

They are all red eyed. The oldest will be albino and next one (Lucky) is lutino. Can't tell for the others yet

[Birdlove 0]

What a beautiful and adorable little family!

[maz7 0]

Ain't they just! I love Budgies, my hubby moans @me. He says I can't keep them all (sigh)! I have a Lutino male chic at last! Blue beak appeared within 2 months, and a brown Splash marking on his back. I've named him SpLash! It was fr Lutino female+Rainbow Male! Yiepee! You r so fortunate to have an Ino family!

[robyn 0]

Fantastic to get a whole clutch of red eyes. Lucky you. Good luck with them, don't forget the pics as they feather up.

[SunshineE 0]

More photos coming soon, I'm having some difficulty resizing images :/

 

The chickies are getting their pin feathers now and we can tell the colour of the first three chicks:

Chick 1: albino (thinking of calling it Silas after the albino assassin in The Da Vinci Code)

Chick 2: lutino (called Lucky thanks to Friday the thirteenth birthday)

Chick 3: lutino (not named yet)

Chicks 4&5 can't tell yet but tentatively suspect chick 4 is albino...

 

They are so gorgeous and Barty and Bubble are amazing parents. Still a bit messy feeding but I think that is just Bubble's style... Both are loving the veggies available and have orange stains around their beaks from the carrot (definitely their favourite!)

 

As I say, photos soon

[maz7 0]

Oh you are so lucky Sunshine E; Aren't they just the cutest when they get so busy feeding the babies! I have 3 at the moment, It's my Rainbow Male and a female crossed from the English show budgie and his Albino female-so they r a real mix now. The mom came out Royal blue with black/grey markings on wings- the 3 chicks are so beautiful- they have dad and mom's markings i will try to upload photo's again- i also battle quite a bit with it- they said we must use Photobucket!

[Pandapaws23 0]

I read the worst thing to do is pair two inos together as they produce weaker and smaller chicks.

[SunshineE 0]

Sorry for the lack of photos, I have only just returned from a trip and was greeted when I got home by all five chicks having grown an enormous amount in a week. I have some photos from the day or two before I left and then yesterday after I got home.

 

They all seem very happy and healthy so far! We have four lutinos and just the one albino of the five chicks and have decided to keep the first two (albino Silas and lutino Lucky). Lucky is certainly an adventurer, I put him/her on the table for two seconds while I put Silas back into the nesting box this morning and he/she took a running jump off the table into my lap. After I had put the cage back outside could see both Lucky and Silas putting their heads out of the nesting box. I actually found Silas on the floor of the cage when I got home yesterday so they are obviously explorers!

 

Here are some photos, the first few are from just before I went away, and the last few are from yesterday afternoon. It is amazing to see how much they have grown!

 

 

 

 

 

[maz7 0]

They r gorgeous! My Lutino is being rested but Lilly my Albino is a mother again!she has hatched 4 so far of 7 eggs(I put 3 dudds in else she keeps laying) they r sOooh cute! Aren't Lutinos super clever birds!? Mine are great escape artists. Out of cage through food bowl that was loose, bent bars, too wide bars! But I always have them either in courtyard or Avery. Good luck with yor flock! Precious little things! What do u feed yor budgies by the way? Mine don't seem to eat Saffron I added.

 

I read the worst thing to do is pair two inos together as they produce weaker and smaller chicks.

 

Pandapaws, cud u pse give me yor source or book u read? I'd like to read it too. Thanks

[SunshineE 0]

They have a seed base diet with native plants from the garden (tree fern and maleleuca aretheir favourites and they also like bottlebrush and kangaroo paw). They also get carrot, corn, apple and oranges. I also have Passwell Budgie Starter in the aviary and cages in breeding season.

 

We have a very large tree fern growing next to the aviary and the fronds push up against the wire and every last millimetre they can reach through the wire gets consumed if I don't replenish the stock in the aviary fast enough. We have had some very interesting looking fronds once i've cut them before, like they have been cut on a diagonal where they met the wire! Even our most un-tame birds fly over and sit on the tree fern and maleleuca when I bring it in and tuck in while I am putting it in the pipes on the wire, such greedy things!

 

One of my very first two birds was a lutino (Sunshine in my picture) and she was incredibly smart, however the worst mother ever! :/ And Barty is easily the cleverest bird we have at the moment, his escapes when he was a baby certainly testify to that. We would be sitting down somewhere in the house and hear this soft 'thunk' noise and go to look what it was and find Barty on the floor under his cage. Luckily his wings were clipped when we first got him or I am sure we would have lost him!

 

Our track record with albinos has not been that great sadly, compared to our lutinos. Our first one was given to me by a friend because she was lonely after her mate escaped. She had unfortunately never learned to fly (not entirely sure it was due to any previous housing arrangements or sizes either...) and she was just a very very stupid bird. Silas (chick 1) seems to be a pretty quiet baby at the moment so hopefully he/she becomes a lovely bird.

[rachelm 0]

Aww, they are all beautiful.

[paulie 0]

I read the worst thing to do is pair two inos together as they produce weaker and smaller chicks.

Pandapaws23 Beware misinformation. The only reason that this would happen is if the the pair are to closely related, as with other mutations. If the gene pool is diverse enough there shouldn't be a problem.

[L__J 0]

Agree with Paulie.

[Nadene 0]

There are certain pairings that can reduce the size if you are breeding for show types but it doesn't affect the health of the chicks.

[SunshineE 0]

Since everything has been going so well there was blind to be a hiccup eventually... nothing too drastic (at least so far it isn't) but none the less, bit scary for me!

 

I have put plastic split rings on the babies so I can tell them apart when they have grown up (having four lutinos might be tricky otherwise!). When I was checking the best this evening I noticed that Chick 3's foot and bottom leg joint were swollen and the ring was very right around it's now swollen leg I cut the ring off very carefully and checked chicky for a cut or irritation which may have caused the swelling. I couldn't see any reason for it.

 

Chicky didn't seem to be able to move that foot, ony the leg as a whole, and I couldn't tell if there was any feeling or not. I left chicky with the other babies and parents in the nesting box to get fed and then came and took it out for a few minutes about half an hour later to give the foot a bit of a gentle massage and move the leg around generally to get the blood flowing. Hopefully I will get up in the morning and the swelling will have gone down and all will be well (fingers crossed!)

[robyn 0]

May seem like a dumb question but did you get the right size rings?

Finch's e.g. have smaller split rings, if the rings are too small you will have further problems as chicks grow. Maybe a bit of flesh got caught in split making it swell. Check that rings stay below knee joint, they can slip up if chicks are tiny. Other than that I'd say it's check for any problem daily. Hope it's all okay for you now.

[SunshineE 0]

Thanks Robyn, it certainly isn't a stupid question, I can see how it would happen! But they are definitely budgie rings. I was thinking I might have got a bit of Chicky's leg caught when I put it on too, so maybe that's it. The poor thing's leg and foot still have not completely unswollen but I think it is getting a bit better. I take chicky out every morning and evening and massage the leg/foot a bit so hopefully that helps! Hopefully I will have some more photos soon

[robyn 0]

They are pretty tough little things, I have fixed a broken leg before so if it's just bruised and swollen it should go down after a few days, if skin is broken i'd maybe treat it with betadine e.g. just in case. Photo's sound good.

[maz7 0]

Beautiful! Hi Nadine. Your budgie is still to me the most beautiful bird!the Inos r so cute!