Posted March 30, 201411 yr I am currently breeding a pair of green budgies and so far I have two baby budgies in the nesting box. They are around 3-4 weeks in age, and there is a lot of droppings in the nesting box. Sadly, one of the baby budgies have severely splayed legs, and tried using the sponge method. The baby budgie with the splint is occasionally slipping on the droppings and so I need to clean the nesting box. One time I tried cleaning the nesting box but then the budgie parents were terrified and they started flying all over the cage. Is there a way for me to clean the nesting box without scaring the parent budgies as much? I'd appreciate the help, Aquafroste
March 31, 201411 yr cleaning has got to be done no matter what you have to do, depending on how your breeding box is attatched i would just put the babies into a sepreate box or container scoop out the droppings and put new stuff down
March 31, 201411 yr Yes, I agree. If you can leave the box in place, just scoop or scrape out as much of the bad as you can, and then add some new clean materials. No need to take the box down, or use any type of cleaner on it. One suggestion I would add is to use about a cup full of seed with the new bedding. That way the chicks can be learning how to eat seed on their own before they fledge. At 3-4 weeks old, they are about to fledge soon anyway. Good luck with the splay leg chick. Can you post photos of it?
March 31, 201411 yr Author Okay thanks, I will try to put in some seeds! Also... When I tried to post a picture it said that extension could not be used in the community? Did I do something wrong?
April 3, 201411 yr Okay thanks, I will try to put in some seeds! Also... When I tried to post a picture it said that extension could not be used in the community? Did I do something wrong? Photo bucket gives several choices of links to use, but our forum doesn't accept them all. I think I have been having good luck with the one called "direct link". But I know that in the past, I was using a different one, and then all of a sudden I had to change. Try going through them all to see which one works. Sheesh, it would be so much easier if this forum would just let you copy and paste photos, or download them directly from your computer. do budgies clean nest box in wild? They don't have a nest box in the wild, they have a hole in a tree, which is a completely different environment. From what I know about nature, there are microorganisms that break things down organically, and our wooden nest boxes probably don't have too much in the way of those. Now having sounded like I was disagreeing, let me hasten to agree that I don't think excessive cleaning of a nest box is necessary. Whatever microorganisms our captive birds do have, it is important for the immune systems of the chicks that we don't completely wipe those colonies out. That's why I think it's only necessary to once, maybe twice, scoop out the majority of the crud if it seems to be getting too disgusting in there, and not be overly aggressive with nest box cleaning.,
April 4, 201411 yr It did. Just to note, I used a plastic shoe box with wood shavings in it when I cleaned nest box's. I placed all chicks in it while I scraped out nest box (mine had a drop down end so it was simple to scrape straight into an ice cream bucket for disposal. Replaced old bedding with fresh shavings, replaced chicks job done. Mum never worried when I did this about once a week. By doing this you stop "gunk" building up on chicks feet, which can harden like cement if not removed, harming their feet claws etc., if you have wet feeders that get a lot of mush in bottom of nest. As Finnie said when oldest chick was 2 weeks I started adding seed to nest box by 3 weeks I removed old nest bedding and only added seed. Chicks were cracking seed for themselves as soon as they left box.
April 6, 201411 yr Author Okay thank you so much! I will try to change the bedding and layer in some seeds. And when is the usual time for the budgies to come out? One of the budgies are a lot bigger than the other one but it shows no sign of coming out of the nesting box...is this normal?
April 7, 201411 yr Author Okay, um well there seems to be a problem... One of the chicks came out of the nesting box but then it went back in the nesting box... Really why is this happening??? Is this normal? I'm so confused
April 8, 201411 yr They will pop in and out of nest box for a few days, also beg parents to be fed when they can feed themselves. The chicks hatch about every 2 days so their size varies according to this. They usually start leaving nest box about a month after hatching, depends on the chick. Mum will tolerate the chicks in the nest box until she starts to lays a second round, sometimes she will become aggressive to chicks then so be alert for that.
April 8, 201411 yr Hi Aquafroste, You have two separate threads going about how to manage these chicks and parents, and it can get a little confusing for people who are trying to help you, to have to go back and forth between them in order to get the whole story. So, as we seem to be done talking about cleaning nest boxes, I'm going to lock this topic, and we can continue the conversation in the thread titled Puffed Budgie. I hope nobody minds. Cheers, Finnie P.S. Here is the link to that other topic: http://forums.budgie...topic=33062&hl= Edited April 8, 201411 yr by Finnie
