Posted March 28, 200817 yr Hi all, I am new here, I just joined up. My name is Kylie and I absoluteley love my budgies. I have been breeding them for about a year now and still have a lot to learn. I have just had my third lot of babies hatch. My female hatched five this time, where she usually only hatches two out of five eggs. The last baby to hatch was so tiny, and it died the next day. There are four left, two are large healthy looking but the other two are quite tiny, one of the smaller ones seems to be huddled with the two larger babies but the other tiny one is always on the side by itself. I have pushed it over with the others a couple of times but I am unsure if the mother is pushing it aside for a reason and if there is anything I can do. I am worried it is going to die aswell as the first one. It seems like the mother is not feeding it because it hasnt grown yet. It would only be a few days old. Help, I dont know if I should interviene or just let nature take its course. I hate seeing my babies die. But I know that mother knows best and maybee she knows something is wrong with it. Please any advice would be good asap. Kylie
March 28, 200817 yr Hi Kylie, good to see you here where you can get some great advice It sounds to me like you have let your hen breed three times in a row, which is not recommended. You may just find that this time the hen is tired of all this and not being the best mother she can be and the chicks arent as healthy as they should be all due to being a third round of breeding. Two rounds of chicks is more than enough for a hen at which poiint you remove the nestbox forcing her to have a good long rest from breeding and build up her energy reserves. I trult think you are expereincing a tired hen who isnt trying as hard to look after her babies as she does need that rest. As far as what to do with the chicks, its hard for someone who is new to breeding to take a chick of that age and try and rear it. You can try and offer some food off a syringe ( warm baby cereal if you have nothing else ) put near the beak of a tiny baby.....the baby will suck it in. Do this in or near the nest and put it back. This might give it enough of a boost to keep it going until the Mum decides to try and feed it. Edited March 29, 200817 yr by KAZ
March 29, 200817 yr Hello and welcome. I'm sure you'll learn a lot here and enjoy yourself. Kaz has given some great advice as usual...
March 29, 200817 yr Hello and welcome. You have got some great advice from Kaz. I hope your little babies are going to be okay. Kaz, 10,000 Posts - WOO HOO!!!
March 29, 200817 yr Author Hi all, Thankyou KAZ for your great advice. I was thinking that the female has bred too many times for this season and I have been reading heaps on the net about breeding budgies. The male budgie never seems to leave the poor female alone, (Laughing out loud) he is really a randy bugger. I have ended up taking the small baby out of the nest and made my own nest with a warm wheat bag under neath, and made sure its not too hot. I got a syringe and mixed a little watered down cereal and fed it a couple of drops and it seemd to take to this quite well. I did find a whole page of really good information on hand feeding newly hatched baby budgies and this has helped heaps so I will follow theese instructions and hope for the best. Atleast the mumonly has the remaining three to care for, she seems to be managing those okay, with the help of the male. Unfortunateley I cant post any pics at the moment because I am waiting for a new charger but when I get it I will post some pictures. Thankyou to all who welcomed me and I hope to become a regular here as it seems like a great forum to get good answers. We are about to build a new home for our budgies, a much bigger one. I cant wait for that. Anyway thanks again for the advice and I will be busy feeding my new baby and hopefully it wont die. Kylie Hi Kylie, good to see you here where you can get some great advice It sounds to me like you have let your hen breed three times in a row, which is not recommended. You may just find that this time the hen is tired of all this and not being the best mother she can be and the chicks arent as healthy as they should be all due to being a third round of breeding. Two rounds of chicks is more than enough for a hen at which poiint you remove the nestbox forcing her to have a good long rest from breeding and build up her energy reserves. I trult think you are expereincing a tired hen who isnt trying as hard to look after her babies as she does need that rest. As far as what to do with the chicks, its hard for someone who is new to breeding to take a chick of that age and try and rear it. You can try and offer some food off a syringe ( warm baby cereal if you have nothing else ) put near the beak of a tiny baby.....the baby will suck it in. Do this in or near the nest and put it back. This might give it enough of a boost to keep it going until the Mum decides to try and feed it.
March 29, 200817 yr Good luck with your hand rearing - It's something i haven't tried yet ( a bit scared I'd stuff it up to be honest). We have had a member on here recently who lost a 4 week old chick to sour crop, which can be caused by incorrect feeding. Ensure everything is sterile at each feed and make sure the food is at the right temperature. Good luck and i hope the little chick makes it You will need to find another heat source as the wheat bag will cool off fairly quickly (especially at night) There are some very talented hand feeders here that i am sure would be more than happy to help you out Would be great to see some pics when you get your new charger.
March 29, 200817 yr Hello and welcome to BBC, as I am NOT a breeder will leave the experts to answer your questions!
March 29, 200817 yr Hi and welcome. I hope all goes well with the little one and the ones still with Mum and Dad. We have a few really good hand rearers here and I'm sure they'll help you out if they can. Maesie
March 29, 200817 yr Welcome aboard! Glad you have come to be apart of our wonderful online budgie forum. Everyone here is a wealth of information... except maybe me... I just tow along. I'm not a breeder, thus I don't have any help... but KAz and others are a wealth of information. I sap them of it every chance I get.
March 29, 200817 yr Hi there, Do you have any other mothers with babies in your aviary at all that you could foster the baby out to? I am the member that lost the 4 week old bubs to sour crop and i would not recomend hand feeding as it is alot harder than i thought and very upsetting i only had the baby for a week and i got very emotionally attached.With using the formula it cant be too cold too hot too much or too little the little buggers can get very sick very easily im just trying to save you the heartache just look up sour crop and read about it so you know what causes it and you know what to avoid. Good luck with it please keep us updated in how the little man goes
March 29, 200817 yr I would do all I could, if I was you, to have the baby fed by its mother with you just topping it up from the nest a couple of times a day or fostering......raising a baby from that age is full of danger...too much can go wrong. If you leave it in the nest and go feed it just as you have done a couple of times or more a day...you may well find the Mum takes over after a couple of days or so and all will be well. Make sure Mum and Dad have some easy soft food so they can quickly feed babies easier and its less of a toll on them...even some soaked wholegrain bread with grated carrot and finesliced greens in it or mix through some handrearing formula...or just feed them some sloppy egg and biscuit mix often. Failing this...fostering into another nest with similar aged babies would also work. Edited March 29, 200817 yr by KAZ
