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Post by avinet on Oct 10, 2011 12:04:15 GMT 10
In my previous post introducing Sasha and Jello I talked about them being good parents with a strong urge to breed, and this year the strength of that urge has been well demonstrated. We weren't that keen on them breeding, they are getting old, having them breeding in the house is a bit disruptive when other birds get curious, Sasha is a real pain when he goes into full foraging mode to feed his babies, and the thought of hand rearing babies doesn't thrill like it used to - once you get to over a thousand the novelty wears off a bit! However Jello and Sasha had different ideas. We didn't give them a nest box, hoping that would deter them - didn't work. Jello started laying on the floor of the cage, so to stop them rolling around and to make cage cleaning easier for me I put them into a plant pot base. Jello decided that was good enough and continued to lay. Then she decided she needed a bit of privacy so she would pull a sheet of newspaper over to cover her and the eggs. Eventually she ended up with eight eggs - but one I broke while cleaning so that reduced it to seven. I thought that with all the rolling around that they wouldn't be fertile, but no - Jello is an experienced Mommy and it became obvious that they were stubbornly remaining fertile. So I finally relented and put the eggs on wood shaving in a tub so that she could properly incubate them but still with a sheet of newspaper over the top for privacy. And 3 days ago we heard the little cheep cheep of a baby. So far 3 have hatched, with the remaining 4 eggs looking fertile as well. Hand rearing mix has been ordered  Photos follow, and demonstrate that it doesn't matter what you provide as a nest box, if they want to breed they will breed! If anyone wants a lovely, guaranteed nice nature, yellow ringneck in time for Christmas let me know - has to be picked up in person though, I don't ship birds. cheers, Mike  Jello keeping an eye on me from under her newspaper Sasha an Jello with the newspaper removed  Two of the babies - three have hatched by this morning Ernie and Jamila have been watching from the next cage - hopefully they are getting some ideas! |
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Post by naughtyneophema on Oct 10, 2011 14:56:02 GMT 10
That is a glorious sight to behold!
I find there is nothing better when companion birds feel so comfortable with their human carers and their home that they are happy to breed in full view.
Just wonderful, it's a credit to your relationship with your birds!
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Post by avinet on Oct 17, 2011 13:09:36 GMT 10
Well we ended up with two babies - the remaining 4 didn't hatch - for reasons unknown but probably too much rolling around - and one died very early. That was a surprise - it is I think the first baby they have ever had die on them, and they have probably had around 60 babies over the years, but always in a nest box before. Anyway the two babies are doing great - being stuffed with food by both parents. I took a couple of photos last night while changing the paper on the bottom of the cage. Sasha came along and gave the babies a feed when the tub was sitting on the table while I cleaned the cage. We will start hand feeding probably next weekend. Time to get the brooder out and check it is working OK, and find all the hand feeding gear. cheers, Mike   |
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Post by mumto4birdies on Oct 17, 2011 15:52:24 GMT 10
Ww, arent they the cutest little nude-nuts. Congrats! Have fun hand-feeding for the next few weeks and weeks and weeks.
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loxo
Newbie
Posts: 22
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Post by loxo on Oct 19, 2011 19:12:41 GMT 10
Great photo of the bubs being fed! Your house must be a mad house Mike? How many birds do you have inside just out of curiosity?
Brett
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Post by avinet on Oct 19, 2011 20:56:18 GMT 10
Great photo of the bubs being fed! Your house must be a mad house Mike? How many birds do you have inside just out of curiosity? Brett 25 permanent residents - 11 Alexes, 2 Plumheads, 2 ringnecks (Sasha and Jello), 2 Princesses, 6 cockatiels and 2 African Greys. Many of them are teenagers, the oldest cockatiel is 20, all are over 14, the Plumheads are around 12 or 13, the Princesses are 15, most of the Alexes are over 10 and range up to 16, but the Greys are the youngsters - 6 and 5 year sold. They share the house with one dog - 12 year old Irish Setter, and 3 cats, plus some goldfish. Two of the cats are quite young - 3 years old, but the third cat is around 10 or 12. He adopted us 2 years ago, and subsequently was discovered to be diabetic and need twice daily insulin injections. He sure picked the right house  Not a madhouse but certainly not the quietist house on the street! cheers, Mike |
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loxo
Newbie
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Post by loxo on Oct 20, 2011 15:42:38 GMT 10
11 Alexe's? Wow, i'm guessing you have a little soft spot for them then, lol. |
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Post by avinet on Oct 20, 2011 16:11:17 GMT 10
11 Alexe's? Wow, i'm guessing you have a little soft spot for them then, lol. They in theory belong to our older daughter - she hand raised the oldest one around 1994, then she got a mate for Alex, and birds being birds they ended up breeding. Only problem there was she found it very hard to part with the babies, so we now have Mum and Dad and 7 of their offspring, plus 2 outsiders that we hand raised and because of disabilities ended up keeping. That was fine until around a year ago when she decided trying to rent a house with 11 Alexes, a dog and a cat was getting too hard and moved back home into our house, bringing all the animals with her. So given we had a pile of our own we ended up with 25 birds. That was fine until she found herself a SERIOUS boyfriend, and moved out again about 3 months ago, leaving the birds, dog and cat behind  Fortunately being retired now we have the time to look after them all, and she does call in every day for an hour or two to clean cages and socialize with he birds. cheers, Mike  The Alexandrine cages. Someof the Alexes to be seen including the two lutino (yellow) girls. |
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Post by janene on Oct 21, 2011 10:34:35 GMT 10
Awww I guess I can relate to your daughter, I was the same myself back in the day lol - my parents inherited all my "babies". They really are beautiful birds, and I love the big cages you have for them all. Wonderful set up. |
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Post by avinet on Oct 27, 2011 0:06:21 GMT 10
The two Sasha/Jello babies have now been removed for hand rearing as of yesterday, and of course being Sasha and Jello they haven't missed a beat and are happily still feeding their babies whenever I get them out of the brooder, supposedly for me to feed. Actually I do manage to get some food into them, but no more than half of what they are eating each feed. Anyway photos follow cheers, Mike Sasha feeding one of the babies, Jello was on my shoulder keeping an eye on things after having her go. Sasha and Jello know that the best food for hand rearing babies is hand rearing mix - so they come to get the food off the spoon before feeding the babies.
The other birds also like hand rearing mix - Frodo the Princess male is catching a feed here while Sasha is otherwise engaged.  |
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mango
Addicted Member
Posts: 56
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Post by mango on Oct 27, 2011 8:25:57 GMT 10
Mike,
These pictures and stories are absolutely awesome - please keep it up!
Cheers
Mango
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Post by avinet on Oct 29, 2011 14:10:12 GMT 10
We are settling into a routine now with the babies - Sasha and Jello let me share the feeding with them for the first feed of the day and the last feed - mostly I give the rearing food to them off the spoon and they feed the babies. However for the two feeds during the middle of the day I am allowed to feed them all by myself without any help  Once the babies are back in the brooder Sasha will often fly into the room they are in and sit on top of the brooder keeping guard until it is time for him to return to his cage. Seems to be working pretty well, the babies get the benefit of their parents still looking after them and they also get used to me and get to enjoy a cuddle and a scratch - they are getting the best of both worlds. cheers, Mike
Last night's photo |
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blinkybill
Newbie
My babies - Gucci the Ringneck and Blinky Bill my budgie <3
Posts: 37
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Post by blinkybill on Nov 4, 2011 10:34:24 GMT 10
Thats so awesome, and they are soo cute!! so you seem to be very knowledgeable about all sorts of birds, and i therefore need ur advise. i have an 11 month old ringneck at the moment and i spend almost all of my spare time with him but i also have a part time job and work three afternoons a week. would he be lonely and would it be necessary for me to buy him a friend? and if i did would he remain tame?
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Post by avinet on Nov 4, 2011 15:17:06 GMT 10
Thats so awesome, and they are soo cute!! so you seem to be very knowledgeable about all sorts of birds, and i therefore need ur advise. i have an 11 month old ringneck at the moment and i spend almost all of my spare time with him but i also have a part time job and work three afternoons a week. would he be lonely and would it be necessary for me to buy him a friend? and if i did would he remain tame? I wouldn't worry about him being lonely if it is only 3 afternoons a week you are at work - just make sure there are toys and fresh branches to chew on while you are away. We can end up spending too much time with our pet birds, so they can get totally reliant on the human stimulation. It is important that birds get time out to entertain themselves with play and chewing on suitable vegetation so your 3 afternoons a week would be an ideal time to give him that time by himself to keep himself busy. Having said all that I am a big believer in birds having a bird mate if that is possible, I think they tend to be happier if they have a mate and know that they are a bird and not think they are a human. That of course can/will result in potential issues with them wanting to breed - and with a pair of ringnecks that have bonded it is not a question of if but when they will want to breed. So if you did decide to get an opposite sex mate for your bird, have a think about the possible breeding scenario first Do you know for sure the sex of your bird - has it been DNA or surgically sexed? As a general rule two female ringnecks will not get on well together, two males will often get on OK and a male and female will almost always bond OK. That is assuming there are no other birds around - 2 males and one female can result in fights, and vice-versa. cheers, Mike |
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Post by melly78 on Nov 4, 2011 16:35:43 GMT 10
Oh wow, how are the Lil babies doing? I really enjoyed reading through this story not just to hear how the babies where coming along but I learned a lot also. I am truly excited to see some pics of the babies when their feathers have come in (or whatever it's called lol I'm new to the bird world), I can only imagine how gorgeous they will look not that they aren't so darn cute now cause they really are.
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blinkybill
Newbie
My babies - Gucci the Ringneck and Blinky Bill my budgie <3
Posts: 37
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Post by blinkybill on Nov 6, 2011 6:59:32 GMT 10
haha, no.... i just call gucci a "He" until i know it's gender. i dont like to think of him as an "it". thankyou so much for that information Mike. it really helps |
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Post by avinet on Nov 13, 2011 22:15:40 GMT 10
I've been a bit slack about updating the progress with Sasha and Jello's babies, but hopefully I'll keep up-to-date from now. They have progressed at an amazing rate. The last photos I put up here were taken on the 28th October. As you will see below, by the 7th November they were looking pretty well feathers, and it was time to move them into a cage, which happened that day. They loved it! They were just into the curiosity stage and being able to look around and see everything that is happening was just what they wanted. Within a couple of days the older one was perching, and the younger one followed onto the perch a day or two later. Sasha and Jello continue to feed them, in fact I virtually do no feeding now - when it is time for them to have a feed I just let Mum and Dad do the work - I just give the parents the hand rearing mix and they pass it on to the babies. Similarly they have started eating vegies, pellets and seed - when they see their parents eating it they go right ahead and copy. So they are being very precocious and weaning very quickly - by the time they take their first flight, which is probably 5 or 6 days away they look like being already largely eating by themselves. They still like to come for a cuddle though - they will come out of the cage and come over to me and climb up on my chest for a cuddle and a scratch - lovely. Anyway on to the photos, cheers, Mike Taken on the 7th Nov just before moving them to a cage Taken the 13th, Jello feeding one of the babies. You can see how much they have grown in just 6 days. Both babies on perches - the dishes at the back are seed, pellets and water, with the vegie dish just visible in the front. |
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blinkybill
Newbie
My babies - Gucci the Ringneck and Blinky Bill my budgie <3
Posts: 37
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Post by blinkybill on Nov 15, 2011 10:46:30 GMT 10
wow! how cute!
did you mention in one of your previous posts that you have/had a shop? what sort of shop was it?
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Post by avinet on Nov 15, 2011 15:04:51 GMT 10
wow! how cute! did you mention in one of your previous posts that you have/had a shop? what sort of shop was it? Yes it was the pet shop on Brisbane Road in Mooloolaba - we had it for 20 years before it closed in 2010. We only sold birds and fish, and towards the end reptiles as well. So I spent all day every day answering the sorts of questions that come up here. cheers, Mike |
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blinkybill
Newbie
My babies - Gucci the Ringneck and Blinky Bill my budgie <3
Posts: 37
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Post by blinkybill on Nov 15, 2011 19:30:42 GMT 10
no way! That was my FAVOURITE store!!!!!!!! i bought my budgie in once to be treated for scaly mite. that was when you had moved to the new location. you might not remember him but for preference sake he was black and white and i was a blonde girl. was so sad to see it close.  |
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Fortunately being retired now we have the time to look after them all, and she does call in every day for an hour or two to clean cages and socialize with he birds.
