Posted October 3, 201113 yr hello everyone, my name is Kirby and I am relatively new to owning and breeding budgies. I have a aviary with 6 burdgies (increasing by the day at the moment) and 3 weiros. I have 2 pairs of budgies breeding at the moment, one pair is currently hatching 8 eggs!!! and the other is current laying (at last count today there have been 4 eggs in the box and one casualty). My father used to breed budgies when I was a young girl so I have a few memories of baby care but he mostly left them to raise themselves where I would like to handraise/tame my babies if possible. I have a quick question, I checked the 3 chicks that have hatched so far and all seem to have a plug of poop stuck to their bottoms or near them. Is this normal or should the mum be cleaning them up? She has been doing a good job so far, they all have food in their crops when I have checked on them and she is constantly in with them sitting.
October 3, 201113 yr I have a quick question, I checked the 3 chicks that have hatched so far and all seem to have a plug of poop stuck to their bottoms or near them. Is this normal or should the mum be cleaning them up? She has been doing a good job so far, they all have food in their crops when I have checked on them and she is constantly in with them sitting. Welcome to the forum Pooey bottoms is very normal in young chickies. I do clean them, in my experience the hen never does. This is another reason I put Fussy Cat Litter in my nest box because it keeps the chickies so much cleaner as the poo sticks to it and not the chicks.
October 3, 201113 yr Author I have a quick question, I checked the 3 chicks that have hatched so far and all seem to have a plug of poop stuck to their bottoms or near them. Is this normal or should the mum be cleaning them up? She has been doing a good job so far, they all have food in their crops when I have checked on them and she is constantly in with them sitting. Welcome to the forum Pooey bottoms is very normal in young chickies. I do clean them, in my experience the hen never does. This is another reason I put Fussy Cat Litter in my nest box because it keeps the chickies so much cleaner as the poo sticks to it and not the chicks. Thanks for the quick reply and warm welcome, as far as I know the chicks have only been hatching since Friday so I am a little uncertain about how much to handle them. I will probably be poring over the breeding forums for most of the night
October 3, 201113 yr Hi and welcome. Please check out an article I did in the FAQ section called Care of Baby Budgies in the Nest....... http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/index.php?sid=89407&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=8&id=125&artlang=en it will help. Once you have chicks arriving you need to check morning and night and do all the things to help them that the mothers dont do like cleaning their butts, their feet and legs and getting stuck food out of their beaks etc. Edited October 3, 201113 yr by **KAZ**
October 3, 201113 yr Author thanks for the link Kaz, should I start cleaning their bottoms now and how do I go about it? They are so tiny and I am petrified I might hurt one or do something that the mother will abandon them. I didn't see anything on the subject in the article.
October 3, 201113 yr Author Thanks Kaz, I went in there this morning to check and do it and found one more chick hatched overnight. Most were easy to get done, one had a little bit of food stuck on top of the beak, one had some nesting material stuck to his leg, the newest was fine but one poor little one had so much poop stuck on there the tissue wasn't softening it. In the end I had to try and gently as I could just peel it off his bottom, I am glad I did though because as soon as it came off he did a big poo, the dried stuff had covered his vent so he couldn't poop. Hopefully it doesnt happen again and he is healthy from here on.
