Michelle

My hen laid her last egg june 7th and it still hasn't hatched... can I remove it now? If it ever hatches right now anyway, I'm pretty sure it will live through the horrible fate of its two sibblings... :\ But I don,t want Bud to be upset, though somehow I wonder if she remembers there is an egg in there. She doesn't incubate it.

Something just struck me as I was looking at #1 who was peeking at me from the hole of the nestbox... My nestbox is 55 cm above the cage's floor... When they will try to go out, won't they go splat down there? X_o Suddenly I think I should've put it lower down... Eep eep eep. What do you guys think?

Yoghurt? Like what I had for dessert? O_o Like Activia? Flavored with fruits? ...that should be worth a try...

Well Bud too doesn't seem to mind me handling the chicks, that's great! Just yesterday I had one in my hands, she jumped on me and preened her bub for a while. Then she jumped up in my face and attacked my eyebrows, like usual <_< She should at least give me a warning... I'm having lots of scratches in my glasses...

I thought birds were lactose intolerant...

One of my chicks is dying... It looks horribly frail and I don't think it will live through the night. I think Bud and Pat too gave up on it. We tried feeding it but no avail. We can't open the tiny tiny frail beak. It's a couple days old and looks as if it was a newborn. It's undergrown, and well, I can't help but feel awful about it. I wonder, should I leave it in the nest? In case it's sick or anything...

They're such beautiful birdies. The cock's such a pretty. Welcome :budgiedance:

I'm pretty sure it varies... I think it took mine about three weeks. I think I put the box in May 4th and she laid her first egg on the 24th. Then she lays a new one every 2 days until she gets bored. Hatching takes 18 days.

I take them out pretty regularly now. Once Pat even came over and started cleaning it (removing caked poop and everything, scratching the baby). Then he went back to eating some apples. That was adorable. I don't knock on the box though. I tried a few times, she doesn't even budge. So I just wait for her to get out whenever she wants before I go in there. She comes out pretty often to eat and bug Pat with her squeaking anyway. She doesn't seem to mind me taking them out either. She goes back into the nest sometimes though... Should I put the baby back when she's in the nest?

I'm a bit worried about the newborns... The three first babies are getting pretty big, and as I took a look inside the nest this morning, I noticed that the seventh baby which was born two days ago is getting thrown around pretty wildly by its older sibblings (And the first one is getting more and more aware that legs are made for running). I'm not even sure it's being fed properly, the parents must have a hard time reaching it with the godzillas running after mama and dadda all the time! And somehow I have the feeling it isn't growing very fast. I tried looking if the new baby was fed quickly this morning, but it's hard to do it. The nest's door is on the side and when I open it I have to be careful the three fatsos don't fall out... I didn't have time to take them out so I could access the tiny brats... So my question is, should I be worried about the tiny ones in there? X_o is there something I can do for them? I can't feed them myself that's for sure, I can't bring them at work...

It is so adorable. Lovely name, I think it fits well.

New video! . It's starting to be so cute.

Ack, and you tell me all the babies will make the same soun? I won't have enough oil!

I believe she just wants me to go insane. AND SHE KNOWS IT WORKS! She's evil like that. <_<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdJvm-HxVr4 Well, I made a quick video... well, there's nothing to see cuz it's too dark... And it's really not dark in here for real! It's the camera. But you can hear the sound in there. It's exactly what I say... She needs oiling! But wow, she only started doing that a couple days ago, she took so long to beg? Guess she has a lot of pride.

Wow, I have no idea where she got that sound, but since a few days she's making that REALLY annoying sound. It's a short loud squeak, and it sounds like an hinge that needs serious oiling. She seems to do that a lot when she wants food from Pat. I thought it was my chair. <_<; Do you guys have any idea why she started doing that?

ooh, I didn't see the picture of the baby with splayed legs in there. I missed the post. Thanks! Do they ALL have redness like that when it's splayed?

I'm wondering, what does splayed legs look like on chicks? I never seen any picture of it... And is it common?

Well when I knock Bud stays right there. She's not impressed by noise. And you see, I'm worried because I've always been told that I have to stay out of the nest. And they're pets. My aunt raised some pet budgies and she keeps telling me that I have to leave them alone or else they will get abandoned or something... So I usually wait until Bud is out of the cage and I hurry up to check in the nest to see if the babies are okay. The only time I touched them is yesterday to clean the EWWWWWWWW nest (ewww.) And I put Bud and Pat into another cage during that time, and put a blanket over it so they wouldn't see me mess with their nest... Maybe I take too many paranoid mesures.

Now today isn't that hot, but she keeps her wings open and shaky. Is it because I make her nervous? Cuz she's scared? It's weird...

Wha, you mean I should actually go grab the baby while the mom's in there? X_o I thought I should put her in another cage or something so she wouldn't see. S'what I did when I cleaned the nest...

Gotcha! And what about the parents? What do I do when I want to handle the babies??

The first baby is a bit more than a week old now, and I was wondering, when can I start handling them? I want them to get used to humans... I know it's about 10 minutes each day, but I'm sorta worried about the details. I also wonder, should I lock the parents in another cage and hide the nest from their view when I do that?? I don't want 'em to get worried...

(Laughing out loud)! Bud never was a beauty queen. I mean, she's adorable because she's a tiny bird but she's also a snarling monster! S'why I like her so much! She's adorable in her "I'll destroy the world! And your eyebrows too!" way. She reminds me of myself! (And she reminds me of Stewie in Family Guy.) Pat is the pretty one. He's all cuddly and pretty, but he's still not the caliber of the pretty folks here. (Yes. Bud eats my eyebrows... She still does that nowadays. I wonder what's so attractive in my bushy eyebrows.)

righto, I'll try that tomorrow. Hopefully she'll gain back some weight fast... There's just four babies in right now, with a 5th due RIGHT NOW, it'll be horrible by the 8th if she gets 'em all.... I'm so worried :\ I want the babies to be okay but I want Bud to be even more okay!