Earlier today, I noticed Kevin and Teagan looking like they wanted to start a second round. Since Teagan is in no shape for that, I decided to get the "spa" ready for her, so I could take her out at the first sign of an egg.

I was hoping I could leave her in as long as possible, though, until her two chicks are older.

 

Well, no sooner than I had the spa set up this evening, and I went down to see how they were doing, and I saw Teagan with blood all over her! There was blood all over the perches, and some inside the nest box. (Both chicks are fine, though.) Kevin only had a little blood on one wing and on his cere. Actually, I think the blood on his wing is Teagan's. Teagan also had a very bald back of the head, but no blood there.

 

I immediately took Teagan out to the hospital cage, and went back to see if Kevin was being nice to the chicks, and he was in the nest box pecking at them! So I took him out and put him in one of the other empty breeding cages, for now. He really doesn't seem in need of a hospital, I just want to isolate him for a while.

 

So now the chicks, ages 26 and 23 days, are in the nest box, with no parent.

 

So I have taken "Uncle" Patrick away from his duties with Donovan and Finnie's chicks, and put him in the breeding cage with the "orphan" chicks. I really hope he steps up to the plate and starts feeding these two little ones. They have food in their crops for now, so I have left them for the night, and I guess I will start hand feeding them in the morning, like I did when Finnie had to leave her chicks.

 

I'm hoping that Finnie's chicks don't need Patrick anymore. They are all out of the nest box, and I'm planning to put them in a kindy cage soon. (I was going to put Patrick in there with them, to show them the ropes, but now I guess they will be on their own.) Thankfully, within 5 minutes of removing Patrick, all four were on the floor of the cage pecking at seed!

 

Meanwhile, up in the hospital cage, Teagan's foot was bleeding all over her perch. And there was blood dripping from the perch into a little puddle on the newspaper below her. I washed off her foot and put white pepper on it. I think the wound is a split between two toes. The white pepper helped, but I think putting her back in the cage caused it to bleed again, although only a little bit, now. She also has some blood coming from her beak. Again, only a smal amount. Her body got a little bit wet from the foot wash, and with her bald head, she is sitting there looking really pitiful. She has 3 sides of her cage covered, and a lamp near her perch, and other than that, there's not much else I can do without stressing her more. I guess I'll just have to see if she makes it until morning.

 

The poor thing. If only I had taken her out earlier in the evening! But to be honest, I saw her bowing down for Kevin earlier, so I thought they were getting along a little too well. And my goal was to let her raise her chicks as long as possible, before taking her away.

I had also planned to let the two of them have a good long rest, build them back up into better condition, and let them breed again, later on.

Now I don't know if I can even ever use Kevin again. I'm afraid he's going to be a killer cock.

What do the rest of you do with a cock that attacks his hen?

 

As for using Teagan again in the future, (if she lives) I guess it would depend on whether she gains back good condition. Her injuries don't seem crippling, just a lot of blood loss. So it's likely she may bounce back fine, I guess. I was hoping she would be a better mother the next time around.

 

This seems to be just one more pitfall from having put down hens that weren't in good enough condition. I'm guessing that she just wasn't in any shape to breed with Kevin again, and that's probably what caused the fight. Plus she's been under a lot of stress.

Another thing, I'm blaming myself for, is that I caused a bit of a ruckus downstairs today, by catching up all the birds in the main cage to put Ivermectin on them. (That's a whole other story, which I'm planning to update in my "Is this French Moult" topic.)

Maybe all the commotion just caused Kevin to freak out, even though it was in other cages.

Whatever the cause, I just have more dramas with these birds than I need right now.

I dont think you can blame yourself for any of this. It isnt very common, I dont believe, for cocks to attack hens, in fact, I think its more common the other way around. I had a hen and cock get into a fight when the chicks were about the age your chicks are now and I dont know who was at fault. I let the hen raise the chicks and she was fine with it. I think I put the cock in the baby cage (this was a couple of years ago, I'm trying to remember) and then, when the chicks were old enough I put the hen and chicks in there too. Once again, these two fought and I put him out in the nursery aviary, and a few weeks later, put her out there too. They fought yet AGAIN in the aviary! I found this very odd, so I put him in a totally separate aviary. Some months down the track, they ended up in the same aviary again and there were no more dramas, but I wouldnt risk pairing them again. They have both since that time had other partners and been fine in breeding and raising chicks. I sometimes like to look at how unpredictable people can be, both emotionally and physically and compare budgies the same, so I dont over analyse behaviour. My favourite saying is "The only thing predictable about budgies is, that they are unpredictable". Sorry to hear of your bad news

Edited October 17, 201014 yr by KAZ

I hope your hen recovers and your chicks get fed okay Finnie. All the best.

 

 

Thank you, Sunnie and Black Doctor.

 

So far I am hand feeding the chicks, but they have yet to learn that the syringe means FOOD. But at least they get some down, and I think they will get the hang of it soon. Patrick has looked in on them, but hasn't fed them yet. I expect that will take a couple of days. They have seed in their nest box, and the oldest is nearly ready to fledge, so hopefully they are learning to eat seed now, too. I did see the younger begging the older to feed him, so that is a good sign, if only the older had any food to give!

 

Teagan is still alive. She doesn't look too happy, but I imagine she is still in some pain. I have millet clipped near her, so hopefully she will feel like taking a nibble soon.

 

It puzzles me that Kevin would be the attacker. I agree, Sunnie, that it's usually the hens. Kevin has probably been wanting to mate, and Teagan was probably getting defensive. But if she attacked Kevin first, he must have retaliated something fierce. And Kevin seems like such a friendly bird. He was bought as a hand raised baby, and he has always like human attention. He actually learned to talk while he was in quarantine, but when he went into the main flock, he lost that. But he still comes to the bars to give kisses.

It has been 10 days since this happened. Teagan is healing well,and the chicks finally learned to eat on their own. Actually, Patrick never fed them, and they really refused any hand feeding formula, so what I fed them was negligable, so I think they must have been eating on their own all along. They did get quite thin at first, but now they are fine. And Kevin is bored and lonely in a spare breeding cage. Serves him right.

 

Here are some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

(They REALLY didn't like the camera!)

 

 

Oh, and it was suggested by my friend, who is a breeder, that maybe Kevin wanted to start a second round, and was trying to get rid of the chicks, but that Teagan was defending them. If I had gotten there sooner, before she was injured, I could have taken only Kevin out, and left Teagan to raise the chicks. Assuming that I didn't just blame Teagan anyway, since we usually suspect it is the hen who is clearing the box for a second round. But this is a scenario I can keep an eye our for in the future. Sometimes it is the cock.

 

Nobody said any of this was easy, did they?

Edited October 27, 201014 yr by Finnie

Glad to hear that all has turned out okay with the chicks.

Its the hen usually who get nasty and gets the chicks out of the way for a second round not the cock. Some cocks arent good feeders though. Some dont do it at all and the second a chick begs them for food they get nasty.

Glad to hear everything turned out okay Finnie, although your hen is still showing the scars on her head. Nicely coloured chicks too by the way!

Whats the coloured stuff in the budgie seed ?

Thank you Jimmy, BD and Kaz.

 

Its the hen usually who get nasty and gets the chicks out of the way for a second round not the cock. Some cocks arent good feeders though. Some dont do it at all and the second a chick begs them for food they get nasty.

Yeah, it just goes to show that we have to keep an eye on both parents, just in case.

 

Glad to hear everything turned out okay Finnie, although your hen is still showing the scars on her head. Nicely coloured chicks too by the way!

 

BD, she will have those scars for a long time. Until she grows new feathers, and even then, if there is follicle damage, she may always have bald spots.

 

 

Whats the coloured stuff in the budgie seed ?

 

That's not seed, it's a dish of pellets. I always offer pellets in a separate dish, but few of my birds eat it. Some just play in it. But Teagan's not in a playing mood right now. Not really in much of an eating mood, either. She eats her seeds fine, but so far in the hospital cage, she hasn't gone near the veggie dish or near her carrot and greens, which are clipped to the bars.

 

In fact, she mostly just sits there on that fat perch, or else on the edge of her seed cup, and doesn't move around much at all. I'm considering moving her whole hospital set-up down to the bird room, to give her the stimulation of hearing the whole flock acting normally. She has been heard to chirp away happily when the shower is running. And when the door is open, she will call out to the other birds. Maybe she will be more active if she is closer to them.