Hi I'm Megan, I'm 12 years old turning 13 and the proud owner of 6 adult budgies and 4 chicks. Up to about a month ago me and my sister thought that our budgie Peebo was a male and our other budgie Sweat Pea was a female. But we bought a breeding box, and Peebo spent almost all his time in the box just sitting in there. One day i took out the breeding box to clean out all the seed inside, and i found an egg nestled among the seed. We found some information on the internet and started to candle the egg, by the way only one was layed. After a few days we still couldn't see anything in the egg and a couple of days later we found the egg smashed on the bottom of the cage. We figured it was infertile anyway. But about a week or so later we found another egg in the box, that Peebo the newly found girl layed. We found that the father is Sweat Pea the newly found male. The eggs were layed every 2 days until there were 5 eggs. We candled them several times and found that 4 out of 5 were fertile. a few weeks later the eggs started to hatch and now we have 3 chicks, and the next one will hatch soon.

 

Peebo the mother has what looks like birthing fluid all over her face and i was wondering if there was anything i should do to help clean that off her?

 

Also i was wondering if i should feed them anything different to help with the chicks and the parents. At the moment we are just feeding them normal budgie seed from the supermarket.

 

Sorry for the extremely long post but i thought it would be best to tell you everything. Any advice would be most appreciated.

THANKS!!! :yes:

hi darl

im interseted to know if the birds are in a cage alone or in with your other adults

i only ask as you may want to remove the nest box and mum and dad to a cage of their own so that the chicks dont get hurt by any other adult birds

 

you dont have to but i would look into the colleny breeding threads so as you can see why i say this

 

as for your question

i would feed mum and dad a peaice of carrot freash every day just a few round slices and mabe buy some spinich leaves from the supper market and put one leaf in per day

i prefer to buy the baged spinich as its just a small leaf and keeps in frige longer than a big bunch

 

mabe a slither of apple a slice of orange and a little spoon full of frozen peas and corn thored out

i always like to add a slice of white bread to this

remember to take it all out at night and give freash each morning

the chicks will thrive as will mum and dad

as for the dirty face i wouldnt worry to much about it

if you really want you could clean it off but feeding these extra veg should see a change in her milk and she should feed cleanner as more variarty

dont forget freash water daily morning and night

also the rashio for seed to chicks per day for healthy well feed not undernorished chicks is one cup per chick

good luck and enjoy the eventure

hi darl

im interseted to know if the birds are in a cage alone or in with your other adults

i only ask as you may want to remove the nest box and mum and dad to a cage of their own so that the chicks dont get hurt by any other adult birds

 

you dont have to but i would look into the colleny breeding threads so as you can see why i say this

 

as for your question

i would feed mum and dad a peaice of carrot freash every day just a few round slices and mabe buy some spinich leaves from the supper market and put one leaf in per day

i prefer to buy the baged spinich as its just a small leaf and keeps in frige longer than a big bunch

 

mabe a slither of apple a slice of orange and a little spoon full of frozen peas and corn thored out

i always like to add a slice of white bread to this

remember to take it all out at night and give freash each morning

the chicks will thrive as will mum and dad

as for the dirty face i wouldnt worry to much about it

if you really want you could clean it off but feeding these extra veg should see a change in her milk and she should feed cleanner as more variarty

dont forget freash water daily morning and night

also the rashio for seed to chicks per day for healthy well feed not undernorished chicks is one cup per chick

good luck and enjoy the eventure

 

Hi, thankyou so much for your reply! We do have the babies in with the other adults in a big cage inside, so we think that we will move them into a small cage that we used to have a cockatiel in. Will moving them bother them at all do you think? Also how exactly should i feed them the fresh fruit and veg because they are about 1 and a half to 2 years old and i'm not sure how well they will take to having new food. We are also going to feed them a mix of a boiled egg and a arrowroot buiscuit mixed together to help with the babies growth. Also what if the adults get distressed from being away from the others since they have been with them their whole life?

you just put it in

in small quantitys

the birds will be fine being moved but i would wait for last chick to hatch first

just set the new cage up with freash food water and seed

and place the cock in the new cage then when the hens in the nest with the chicks cover the entry hole and carefully transfer the nest box to the new cage and hang as close as possable to where it was in other cage

so what i mean by that is if it was on left hand side up top cornner place on left hand side in top cornner of new cage

 

make sure the cockatail cage wire is not the big bars as your birds may get out

and keep them next to the cage they were in on a small table off the ground if you can this way the will still have the company of the other birds chatter

 

 

the new food should be exepted by the mum and dad and they will feed it to the growing chicks

it may take a few days or weeks for them to try it so mabe great it all up the carrot and apple and feed this way at first

the egg and biscit also will be new but im sure they will love it

 

good luck if i didnt make sence just underline where and i will try again or mabe some one can explain for me i have trobble explaining stuff at times

Edited April 2, 201015 yr by KAZ

i understand you gb . seems like your doing a fine job Megan keep up the good work :yes:

Great advice again GB........

 

Good luck Megan and keep us posted...

I have just transferred the little family into the smaller cage, by the way the bars are the same size as the ones in our budgie cage, i could easily move the breeding box with the hen in it to the cage because the hen is quite tame, but the cock has never been handled and had a bit of trouble, but in the end he was fine besides being a little shaken up. The hen is out of the box at the moment preening with her mate. we have them on a little table in a room with our cockatiels in a cage and right next to the budgies is an Indian Ringneck, so they have heaps of company, also the budgies cage iss only about two meters away in the next room so they can see them and talk to them.

So far there is 3 babies and 2 eggs left but 1 of them is infertile so the last one should hatch tomorrow morning. They seemed to have no trouble moving, and they are all sitting in the box happily. We have put fresh food and water in the cage and cleaned it out and after posting this i will put some fresh apple and carrot grated up in a dish on the bottom of the cage next to the breeding box. The box is about where it was in the other cage so they should be fine.

 

Thanks so much for the advice and i will keep you posted!

so glad i could be of help

if the transfer went good the rest should be fine

just remember that these little chicks will need to start to be getting cleaned feet and beaks in around two weeks of age

this means you will need to take the nest box down and just in front of the cage so mum and dad can see what your doing and not stress you will need to have some where warm to place the babies in

i use a tea shirt or a beanny at times or a nother nest box if i have a available one

and just firstly scrap the nest box with a butter knife so any poo is cleaned out

then place some oats in the bottom just a hand full is fine and a bit of seed is okay at this age also

then one by one get a chick in your hand and turn it so its face is facing you get your finger if you have nails this is easier and just scoop any food that maybe stuck on upper beak inside mouth

as this forms a hard plaster like filler and stops the beak from forming properly which in turn deforms the birds beak and can cause serious issues for chick when out nest possibly even starvation as it may not be able to crack seed properly as the deformed beak is wrong shape

also dont forget to look under tongue see the bottoms not caked up

 

some chicks do not get this

and no cleaning is needed but i find theirs always one day i may need to clean at least one chicks mouth

so best safe than sorry

also if their is droppings on feet you can gently take this off so it does not strangulate the feet and stop the growth causing swelling and foot damage

however if the poos hard be very careful as you can pull toe nails off and cause bleeding which does not stop easily and cause more damage

i suggest you look up care of chicks in this forums faq and look up feet cleaning of chicks and beak cleaning

im sure their will be something on it all

if not maybe i will have to make a thread on these two issues

 

when chicks have been cleaned and looked over for no other problems splayed legs is another thing you need to read up on then

put chicks back with mum and da to be looked after and kept warm and feed

 

 

good luck so far youve done fantastic and been very responsible

 

great job

I have just transferred the little family into the smaller cage, by the way the bars are the same size as the ones in our budgie cage, i could easily move the breeding box with the hen in it to the cage because the hen is quite tame, but the cock has never been handled and had a bit of trouble, but in the end he was fine besides being a little shaken up. The hen is out of the box at the moment preening with her mate. we have them on a little table in a room with our cockatiels in a cage and right next to the budgies is an Indian Ringneck, so they have heaps of company, also the budgies cage is only about two meters away in the next room so they can see them and talk to them.

So far there is 3 babies and 2 eggs left but 1 of them is infertile so the last one should hatch tomorrow morning. They seemed to have no trouble moving, and they are all sitting in the box happily. We have put fresh food and water in the cage and cleaned it out and after posting this i will put some fresh apple and carrot grated up in a dish on the bottom of the cage next to the breeding box. The box is about where it was in the other cage so they should be fine.

 

Thanks so much for the advice and i will keep you posted!

Edited April 3, 201015 yr by KAZ

Hey guys another question, the cock of the clutch is what seems to be a pied sky blue because she has patches on her that are just white, and the hen is a grey cinnamon wing. I was wondering what color chicks i would get.Thanks!

okay so should i put anything on the bottom of the nesting box? also when do they start to get feathers? at the moment the oldest has a few tiny little spikes but i was wondering when they will start getting proper feathers?

Edited April 3, 201015 yr by KAZ

okay so should i put anything on the bottom of the nesting box? also when do they start to get feathers? at the moment the oldest has a few tiny little spikes but i was wondering when they will start getting proper feathers?

 

 

it depends does your nest box have a concave

as if no i would add something in now but if it has a concave then i would just leave untill all chicks hatch

 

i would need to see pics of mum and dad as would others here as their are a few variations of pied birds and may also be holding another mutation

or if you cant get pics on mabe go look in budgies members birds pull up a bird exactly the same as yours and post here and i can onlyt try to help

but if you had pics someone could give a defenent answer to you on chick colour and mutation expectations

cheers

 

oh feathers in about two week stage

Edited April 3, 201015 yr by KAZ

i can get some pictures of the dad easily but i might not be able to get some good pics of the mum because she is always in the box but i can try.

The box has a concave.

 

I will upload some pics soon

Hey guys another question, the cock of the clutch is what seems to be a pied sky blue because she has patches on her that are just white, and the hen is a grey cinnamon wing. I was wondering what color chicks i would get.Thanks!

Cocks are males ................can you post a picture as there is different kinds of pieds.

Hey guys another question, the cock of the clutch is what seems to be a pied sky blue because she has patches on her that are just white, and the hen is a grey cinnamon wing. I was wondering what color chicks i would get.Thanks!

Cocks are males ................can you post a picture as there is different kinds of pieds.

 

I'll post a few pics soon, having a bit of trouble putting the pics on.

Hey guys another question, the cock of the clutch is what seems to be a pied sky blue because she has patches on her that are just white, and the hen is a grey cinnamon wing. I was wondering what color chicks i would get.Thanks!

Cocks are males ................can you post a picture as there is different kinds of pieds.

 

I'll post a few pics soon, having a bit of trouble putting the pics on.

 

woops sorry about caling the cock a she, it's kinda confusing because he always used to be a she, also can someone please tell me how to put pics on the post? i have no idea

There is a link in my signature to tell you how to post photos.

There is a link in my signature to tell you how to post photos.

 

 

I can't find it?

There is a link in my signature to tell you how to post photos.

 

 

I can't find it?

 

How to Post Pictures < CLICK ON THE LINK

There is a link in my signature to tell you how to post photos.

 

 

I can't find it?

 

How to Post Pictures < CLICK ON THE LINK

 

 

okay thanks i found out how to do it but i am having troubles with my computer so i will do it soon

Here are some pics of the cock, and you can only half see the hen in the box but i am almost certain that she is a grey cinnamon wing.here is the hen in the box

 

here is the male

 

 

 

you can see here that spots of him are just plain white like a pied

 

 

Here you can also see the mother sitting on an egg and one of the babies

Photo of the hen is too fuzzy.........use macro setting on your camera. In the bottom photo it seems she is cinnamon grey though.

The cock is a recessive pied also known as danish pied.

Edited April 3, 201015 yr by KAZ

Thanks for the answers what kind of colors will i get in the chicks then do you think?

Megan you should get a mixture of blue and grey chicks with perhaps a small white patch on the back of their heads. If you breed with these chicks you may reproduce dad as they carry his genetic make-up. We call them split for Rec. Pied. Cheers Clearwing

Thanks so much, they will be beautiful!

 

Thanks

Megan

How old is the cock? Is the mum mauve or grey?

I have read through your whole topic, and see you had your nest box in with other adults. I'm glad you were able to remove it without loosing any chicks. We have to be so careful moving things around as they are such precious creatures. Where your nest box is situation on the floor of your new cage will make it hard to open and check the chicks. Having it up high would be better, but in your case, can you move it over to the other side, so to check it you only have to lift the door and NOT move it too. If you decide to breed next time around, I'd suggest reading up on our breeding topics and set up's. That way you'll be prepared and have a better set up.

 

I personally always had nesting material in my nest boxes too, espcially once chicks started to hatch, as they poo sooooo much! Having wood shavings made cleaning much easier for me. I also had a sheet of folded newspaper under the shavings, so daily I could pull it out, shavings and all and replace.

 

I'm not good with types and colors, but it looks like you'll get some pretty chicks. Good luck.