Posted March 20, 201312 yr Hello everyone! I am a new member to the forum although I've been reading posts for the past month. It seems all the answers to my questions can be found on this site. Thanks to all the contributors who graciously share their knowledge so greenhorns like myself can learn. A little about me - I was given a bonded pair about 5 years ago. They lived happily together, no interest in breeding on either of our parts. Then about 8 months ago I saw an advertisement for two keets on Petfinder.com at our local rescue and fell in love. Those two rescues turned into 5! I slowly integrated them into a large flight cage and immediately my original bonded pair split up - the female decided she wanted to be with the new dominant male. THEN she decided she was going to make up for lost breeding time and mated like crazy. (I ended up removing the original male and pairing him with another, docile female and placing them in their own cage). Another female was very aggressive so I also put her in her own cage. Due to the constant mating we put a breeding box on the cage for privacy. However, the other pair, which up to that point showed no interest in mating, immediately went into the box and laid 4 eggs over the course of 2 weeks. She sat on them for about 3 weeks and then one day the eggs disappeared. No sign of them anywhere so I believe she ate them. Based on the posts here, I added calcium to the water supply and she laid 4 more eggs over the course of a week, 10 days. Apparently this time things worked properly because 2 of them hatched! So, my apologies that I have turned into one of those [insert proper noun here] that people shake their head at and think "what did she think would happen when she put a nestbox in there?" I am doing my best to learn everything and make sure these babies get taken care of properly. Please feel free to share anything you think i need to know, I am more than happy to learn. Again, thanks for this forum! ~Amy Marie P.S. the violet budgie in the forum's banner is gorgeous! I've never seen one with that coloring. Then again I am partial to purple...
March 20, 201312 yr Author Thanks Prince_Charming! She photographs vivid green but in natural light she's more turquoise. The father is also a turquoise color. Forgive me because I don't know the 'proper' descriptions of my babies. Up until a few days ago I was just an oblivious pet owner & lover. This is papa (Cole). Mommy is Dory. ~Amy Marie
March 20, 201312 yr Sounds like you are picking things up well. Mum is doing great by the look of it, parents will look after chicks with no need for outside help, apart from their daily food/water /veg. needs. Only thing is your nesting material, is it a wooly type material? chicks may get their feet etc caught up in it and could "strangle" their toes etc. I would remove it and just add wood shavings or even rolled oats, no cotton waste or fluffy material. Some breeders don't add any nest material. Good luck with them both and keep adding pics as you go.
March 21, 201312 yr Author Thank you both for the welcome! To answer your question Robyn, the nesting material on the box is pink fluffy stuff. It is what my local bird store sold me. I actually spent some time today looking over the topics for nesting materials as last night the older baby got a toenail stuck on that stuff and I spent quite a bit of time untangling it. Are the wood shavings like the ones you use in gerbil cages? Dory won't go near the pink stuff, she pushes it over to the side.
March 21, 201312 yr Addorable budgiesyou have there i am just like you our babies are the sameage andi only have two, however yours arent the same clourmine are creamino and purple!!
March 21, 201312 yr Hi and welcome to the forum With nesting material I use oats (like you would have for breakfast) when the babies arrive because it is soft, absorbent, easy to clean out and it's cheap. Then when the babies are about 3 weeks old I start to add some seed and they start learning to eat it while they are in the nest which makes it easier when they leave the nest.
March 21, 201312 yr Hello and Welcome to the forum Those are very beautiful birds and babies you have; good luck with the breeding! We always love pictures, so feel free to post more lol
March 21, 201312 yr HI, the wood shavings I get are from the nearby sawmill. Do not use any treated wood shavings though. I suppose the shavings from pet shops for Gerbil's? Guinea pigs here I think, would be okay but expensive over a breeding season. Some use clay based kitty litter. I think Finnie's oatmeal would work out the best if you can't get shaving's, some don't add anything but I wouldn't like to lie on hard board all day l.o.l
March 22, 201312 yr Author Thank you everyone for the tips. I did like Nadene's oatmeal suggestion and I went to the store last night and bought them. I went with the thought that they're all natural and food grade so they shouldn't hurt, right? Dory won't come out of the box when I open it, no matter what I do, so I took out the pink fluff when I got home and poured the oats into a corner of the box that was open. An hour later I looked in again and Dory had spread out those oats all over the bottom of the box. Everyone seems to be doing good. I check them every morning by peeking in the box, and every evening I take them out to make sure their crops are full, the beak isn't stuck shut and the toes don't have any poopie on them. I can't believe today my first baby is already a week old! She still has two other eggs in the nest, she laid them about a week, 10 days after the other two so I still have some incubating time. Here's the happy nest this morning: Again, thanks for all the help to make sure these babies have a great chance! Edited March 22, 201312 yr by edwardsy0rkies
March 22, 201312 yr Hi and welcome to the forum With nesting material I use oats (like you would have for breakfast) when the babies arrive because it is soft, absorbent, easy to clean out and it's cheap. Then when the babies are about 3 weeks old I start to add some seed and they start learning to eat it while they are in the nest which makes it easier when they leave the nest. Yes, this is exactly what I do, too. (Probably why Robyn said Finnie instead of Nadene. ) On a different bird forum, someone scoffed at this idea, because they said it would breed bacteria. But I have never found that to be a problem. They will soak up moisture, and then turn a little bit like granola. I don't usually clean them out until after all the eggs are hatched. Then I scrape them all out and replace them with new ones, and like Nadene said, a couple of handfuls of seeds. For anyone going with the wood shavings, make sure you don't use cedar. I think that puts off an odor, or fumes, that aren't a good idea. Pine shavings are good. And so is "Carefresh" bedding, which is made from recycled paper. But I am partial to the edible bedding so that chicks come out of the box already partially weaned, knowing how to husk their own seed.
March 22, 201312 yr Hi , sorry Nadene I didn't scroll back to check post. Mum already looks more at home with the oats. Looking very good so far., good luck with other eggs.
March 26, 201312 yr Author Quick update: I think the other two eggs are duds, as they don't show any sign of hatching and Mom really isn't interested in sitting on them; however the two babies are doing well! I can't wait to see their coloring.
March 26, 201312 yr They look really good. If youngest is 7days old your other eggs may be duds, if they were laid within the 2 days apart egg laying cycle. I'd leave them a while longer just in case. Lovely clean chicks, keep us updated with pics.
