Hi guys,

this afternoon i noticed my 21 day old budgie's feathers ( just a few) on the bottom of the nest box. In the last few days the hen has been spending quite a bit more time in the nest box. i saw her trying to pull out her baby's feathers earlier this afternoon, the baby was screeching loudly, so i immediately looked it up on the internet. the website recommended removing the hen. I have done this to prevent her from attacking her chick and i am hoping the cock will pick up on looking after the baby as the website said he would.

 

could i please have some advice asap?

what do i do?

have i done the right thing?

how can i make sure the male is feeding his baby?

I would suggest to maybe if have time decide to hand feed the baby.

Right away separate the female hen from nest.

I have a baby right now and lucky this is not happening to mine.

 

Hope this helps.

I hope your baby survives.

Thankyou very much. Hand feeding it is what i would have done, but I am at school every day other than Saturday and Sunday and both my parents work so no one would be able to care for it. i watched the father eat and drink and then disappear into the nest box for a minute this morning so i really hope that he is feeding it. If its crop is empty when i go out and check this afternoon then I'm gonna have to hand feed it which i really don't want to have to go through again. We did it last year when one of our chick's had majorly splayed legs and it didn't survive which really really upset me. i didn't even mean for my female to lay eggs again this year as i took the lids off the nest boxes so she wouldn't. But then i guess it didn't matter and it was too far by the time i realised. I really hope my lil baby pulls through no matter how unexpected he was.

hi , the best thing to do is remove the hen and leave ther male to feed the young, i have in the past put one cock bird with 8 young birds he continued to feed whoever wanted a feed

steve

hi , the best thing to do is remove the hen and leave ther male to feed the young, i have in the past put one cock bird with 8 young birds he continued to feed whoever wanted a feed

steve

 

Thanks Steve. thats exactly what i have done and the father definitely has continued to feed the baby.

I see this is a very old post but it's helped me out. I have an aggressive hen she was grooming the chicks harshly and had blood around her beak. You can hear the chicks are not enjoying the treatment. The chicks don't have alot of feathers and seem to be grouping together to keep each other warm. I leave the heating on for them so they don't get too cold.

I removed the hen and the cock bird has continued to feed the five chicks. He was fine the whole day yesterday going in and out the nest box. This morning he was slightly hesitant for a few minutes but with the calls for food he has continued his role.

I can only hope he continues to do his part. It would be long until they start cracking seeds themselves. I've added a picture of one of the chick's. He is still a bit bald but at this stage seems okay without the hen

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