Budgie Baby Help

[twr]

We found an unexpected surprise in the budgie box today. 3 bigger babies, 1 very, very small dead baby and another live baby, very much smaller than the other 3. Will the small one be able to hold its own in the nest box with the bigger 3 babies?

This is the size of 3 of them


This is the much smaller one


One of the bigger one's had his claw around the little one's neck. I think it was accidental and they were just huddling together .... or was something more sinister going on?

Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

[avinet]

Whether the little one survives or not depends on the skills of the parents - especially the mother. A good hen will look after all the babies no matter what size and they will all survive. An inexperienced hen will perhaps tend to feed the closest mouth and a little one can miss out. Check it regularly to make sure there is food in its crop - if the crop is empty when the bigger babies have full crops then it may be time to remove it for hand feeding. It may not even be necessary to remove it completely but instead give it feeds a couple of times a day and see if that is sufficient to get it pushing its way to the top for a parent feed.

The foot around the neck would have been accidental - I have never had any issues with bigger babies picking on smaller babies.

cheers,

Mike

[twr]

Thanks Mike. I think she is feeding the little one ok, as the crop seems full