jenene283

I have just stumbled across a bird name website that might help with naming your budgies!! http://www.loveofbirds.com/name.htm#S

Karen Your Princesses are beautiful, I'm sure you will enjoy having them in your aviary. You might have babies next year!!

Hi, welcome back! Gorgeous birds!!!

After losing all but two of my budgies a few months ago, (to some creep letting them out) I set the pair up in a breeding cage to build up my stock. Well they laid 5 eggs - but all of them were empty. I couldnt believe my bad luck so, I let them try again. This time she has laid 7 eggs. I candled some of them and so far there are 3 fertile eggs!!! This is them -

I'm on the look out for some more breeding pairs after having lost all of mine. So hopefully will find some good quality birds in my area. I still want Bubblegum!!!!

I WANT BUBBLEGUM!!!!! He is most beautiful bird I have ever seen!! Thats it, I'm coming over................ Hey, I've got an idea Karen, how about I swap you a hand reared Princess for him???

Not sure about budgies but I know that Major Mitchells can "store" the sperm in the females reproductive tract for up to a month till they are ready to produce an egg.I found this out by talking on a cockatoo forum. I witnessed my pair mating every single morning for a month and laid no eggs. Then all of a sudden she laid 3 eggs. (2 were fertile, 1 not). Just goes to show you learn something every day!!

So sorry Karen you lost him. He was gorgeous. Life just isnt fair sometimes, actually sometimes it sucks!! I lost my gorgeous little King Parrot at 4 days old. Your little fella had a great home for the time he was with you and you did all you could for him.

Good luck with your bubs Karen, I'm sure with the amount of love and devotion that you give your birds, that they will pull through

Sarem, One of the reasons you are not having a lot of success with handrearing is because Egg and Biscuit mix doesnt contain all the nutrients that baby budgies need. Thats like humans living on bread and butter all our lives. You need to buy a special Handrearing Mix. Passwells is good, the one I am using at the moment is Kaytee Exact. It contains all the necessary vitamins and minerals the chicks need. I'm sure you will have better success if you take them off the Egg and Biscuit mix.

Oh no, that's not fair!! Hope you can convince her to let you keep one! :glare:

Have just been out and got these few pics for you. The hen was in no mood to show off her babies, so I could only manage to get a couple of the chicks in the photo. http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/jen...incesses002.jpg http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/jen...incesses001.jpg

Kirby, how are your chicks going? It's been a few days and havent heard anything from you! Hope everythings okay..... :budgiedance:

After checking the nest today and expecting to see the 5th or 6th egg hatched, I was surprised to see I still only had 4 chicks. So while the hen was out eating I took the eggs up to the house and candled them to find they were no good. But at least I have 4 cute little fuzzy chicks! Their crops were VERY full and they have almost doubled in size since last week. I will probably pull them out of the next week before their eyes open and will handrear them. Will post some pics tomorrow!!! Sorry, meant to post this in Off Topic, oops!!

Although I havent tried it I have read that you can use in an emergency Farex Baby Cereal until you are able to buy some handrearing mix. It should help to sustain him till then. Mix with boiled water and make it quite runny and feed with a syringe or eyedropper. Make sure its nice and warm (not too hot or too cold) otherwise he will refuse to eat it. Good luck!

I think it's great Kirby! Wish I lived over near you, I would buy one myself!! I love the yellow-faces, they are my favourite!! Good luck selling them, I'm sure you wont have any trouble finding good homes for them.

Oh, that's so sad Karen. He was a real cutie too. :angel1: Some budgies are so good fostering other chicks and some are terrible! And unfortunately it takes for this sort of thing to happen to learn which are the good and which are the bad.

Yes, I would wait and see how he goes for the next couple of days. Is there a foster parent that could adopt it?? As the weather is starting to warm up the mother might not need to sit on the chicks all of the time. As long as she is feeding them I wouldnt worry too much yet. It is very time consuming to hand rear budgies and also a lot of hard work. I handreared all my chicks last year and you have to be prepared to feed them every couple of hours all through the night as well. You would also need a brooder to keep them warm so unless you absolutely have to handrear I would leave it with his mother for the time being. Let us know how you get on.

Glad you're having such good luck with your chicks Kirby. I candled all my eggs today and sadly they are all clear As she's also sitting on 2 King Parrot eggs for me I will leave her be. At least those ones are fertile!Have all your eggs hatched now??

Hi Karen It might be worth investing in an electric fence all the way around your aviaries. Once the cats get zapped a few times they wont come back. I think they cost a few hundred dollars but they are well worth it. I have been thinking about getting one for my aviaries as well. I have seen them advertised in the Bird Keeper magazine.

Hi Cheeta I will be handrearing EIGHT Princess parrot chicks in the very near future .The eggs are due to start hatching any day now and I take them out of the nest at about 2 weeks of age. So if you're coming over to NSW anytime soon be sure to look me up! (They make fantastic pets and are extremely quiet anyway without being handreared).

Hi Kirby, I know this might be a bit "off topic". If you dont mind me asking what do you mean when you say you are going to your cottage? Just curious! Funny how we use different terms depending what country we live in!

If I was you I would take her away from the other pair as they could start to fight. I would let her sit on her eggs and maybe put some seed in the nest box for her.That's maybe a short term solution - I'm sure other breeders will have better ideas. Good luck!!

I have found that with big clutches that by the time the last ones hatch the older ones sometimes squash the tiny little newly hatched ones, as there is quite a big difference in size.

Hi Kirby Sorry to hear about No. 3, that was bad luck. :angel1: Glad your other babies are going so well for you though. I have 7 princess parrot eggs due to hatch this week, so am very excitied about that. I have started incubating 3 King Parrot eggs in my incubator and it is fascinating to see the embryos develop. Even better when they begin to peck at the shell at hatching time!! :dbb1: