Baby Alex's On The Way.

[Robyn]

Gosh that time of year comes around quickly. In approx 3 weeks it's all hands on rearing baby alex's from hatch. Not looking forward to the week or so of 2 hourly feeds. Grounded again. For the members that don't know & are wondering why i would punish myself this way.

These babies are not mine, they belong to a friend. The hen well we think it's the hen, bites the wings & legs off the babies as soon as they hatch & they die. My friend brings me the eggs a few days before hatch & i hatch them in my incubator. Trouble is we also get a second clutch. But if i didn't do it that would 7 or 8 babies that would perish.

[Jack]

Tough work!! You do a great job though there is a man on one of the bird Facebook sites and he is handrearing several Lineolated Parakeets and they were smaller than a 10c piece!!

[avinet]

You have my sympathy Robyn - I've done the odd Alex from birth - certainly very tiring for a week or two.

I used to feed at 9pm then 11pm 3am and 7am then 2 hourly for the first 7 days then switch to 3 hour feeds with a midnight to 6 am overnight break the second week then by 2 weeks they are on 4 hour feeds with an 8 hour overnight break. At 3 weeks they would go down to 4 feeds a day.

Alex babies are the cutest - so they deserve a photo

cheers,

Mike

[mandzee]

Hey birdy people.
I have an Alex cock and a Lutino irn x Alex hen. She was given to me 2 years ago now. I have had them together inside and outside with our other birds. A month ago or so they started mating in the house. LOL. So I put them alone in an outside cage to do their thing. Long story short, the hen is sitting on 6 eggs! Is that alot?
Anyway, one hatched this morning
How long will the others take to hatch? And I am pretty sure that I want to leave Mum to do her thing. they are both exceptionaly behaved birds and have so far been doing all of the natural things.
And I am aware of peoples concerns about cross breeding. I know she is a cross. And IF I pass any of her babies on I will be sure to give ALL of the information to the new care givers

[avinet]

Six eggs is a good number - pure Alex's tend to have 3 or 4 eggs while Ringnecks 5 or 6.

I have a lutino pair of 20 year old Ringnecks that usually lay 8 eggs, the first of 8 for this year having hatched a couple of days ago. Usually 6 hatch since the last couple tend not to get proper incubation as the hen concentrates on feeding the early babies.

Assuming your male Alex is a normal then all the babies will be green, but the males will be split for lutino. Babies that are 75% Alex, as these will be, will quite possibly have big variation in size, from pretty well normal sized Alex to Ringneck size. Also the size and colour of the red wing patch can vary a lot from barely visible to normal Alex.

cheers,

Mike

[mandzee]

Thanks Mike,

Have pulled all the babies. The 5th hatched and was being squashed. I waited a day to see how she would cope. I left the 2 smallest and after a day of stressing. Mum refused to feed baby.
So I took them all out.
4 are doing great.
The baby born on october 4th is still only 10 grams. I give them all neocare from vetafarm and spark twice a day.
Can you advise me on the best care for the tiny baby. How thin or thick should the mix be? Feeds are at every 2 hours but he had a block of poop that I had to clean up this morning. Cleared now I hope. I read that you should never feed with food still in the crop. But he never empties fully.
I am trying so hard to do my best. And feel like im failing. Please help.

[avinet]

Neocare is fine for the babies, but the Spark is unnecessary - all it does is give some electrolytes and glucose, which is in the Neocare anyway.

The mix for the little baby should be fairly thin - thin cream consistency is probably the best analogy. Once it is eating and pooping well, and the crop is emptying then it can be gradually thickened up over a couple of days to the normal consistency.

With the crop not emptying fully - will it empty if you leave it longer between feeds or isn't it emptying at all. Feeding every two hours is a guide only not a strict rule. Every baby is different and if it will empty after 3 hours then feed it every three hours. In general a little food left in the crop isn't a big issue, but it is important to ensure that at least once a day it empties completely. Once a baby is over 10 grams I will giv eit a bit extra the last feed in the evening, the crop stretching feed, and then leave it go 6 hours overnight without feeding, and that is the time the crop is expected to empty completely. If it doesn't then there is a problem. See my hand feeding articles at scas.org.au/html/articles.html

cheers,

Mike

[mandzee]

Thanks Mike

The crop does empty of the food that I feed most times. And yes it does seem to take 3 hours at this stage.
And even over night there is still a little.
The area between his abdomen and His Bottom does appear to be a little redder and maybe? inflamed.
One more day and I think stress will get the better of me and take it to a vet. Costly but meh. I will take your advice, And thank you whole heartdly for all the work you do
I am on facebook as Funkypets parrot playgyms if you want to check out my babies. I only upload pics from my phone so here is too hard .
Thanks again