How's Everyones Breeding Season Going

[madaussie]

OK here here is a quick list

red wings laid 5 hatched 5 4 passed 1 h/r 1 pair has laided 4
more eggs but not sitting hmm both pair first season with me

love laid 6 hatched 4 3 passed 1 h/r

Zeb's laid and hatched at last try to count 36

canary hatch 1 1 passed

grass parrots laid 7 2 pair 4 hatched going well

irn laid heaps 8 pair 25 young so far all fledged sum going down again

galhas laid 4 times and broken eggs every time sad as she has been a great breeder till now

tooes first season with me laid 3 broke 2 not game to look again last time was fun he gets very protective of her

kings laid 2 hatched 2

conurs laid twice broken both times two young

ekkies nope to young

quakers 2 young fledged now sold all to noisy for me

quails to many to bother to count

teils laid hatch passed sum clear sum no sit all to young

budgies laid sat hatch a few fledged a few and one she eats the heads of the young anyone

Alex laid 3 hatched 3 started to pluck so had to h/r

1 baby Major Mitch brought h/r mum wouldn't feed

6 irn babies brought mum would not feed 3 blue 3 blue split to Violet 3 green breed here mum would not feed. h/r

thats all so far but eggs everywhere.
j

[Laraine]

Your birds sound a bit like mine John, lay sit for a while then go off, eggs disappear or lay, hatch, dead. However some successes - 2 tiels almost fledged, started with 6. Eastern Rosella sitting on 5 eggs. Peachface sitting on 5 eggs (Aussie John - if they hatch they are Dutch Blue and will be for sale) first time mum though. First tiel hatched today from a younger pair - sitting on 4 eggs fingers crossed. Quail sitting on a whole bunch of eggs. Show budgie sitting on 3 (first time mum). Unfortunately no luck with more expensive birds - Suberbs, Princesses, Crimsons. Turks & Scarlets - zilch. Early days yet.

[vankarhi]

Well my alex bubs are fledging but I have noticed one little one has scissor beak. She is off to the vet tomorrow to see what can be done. I already know what can be done...........I just want her to see the vet. I am hoping I can find her a good forever home (free) to someone who knows what she will need........probably continual trimming of the beak until it grows in the correct direction as I do believe it is a nest injury not genetic. They both hatched and looked quite normal until they started to feather and by then it was too hard to get a close up look at them as they freaked out so much with me trying to pick them up.

Ekkies are doing well. Going through that horrible stage of refusing to eat (the older two are anyway)....so have swapped them to syringe feeding (as opposed to the spoon) and managed to get some food into them tonight. They are eating solids .......... but not anywhere near enough to sustain themselves.

That's it for me ;D

Glad every one else has been busy. John (ma) I had a lot of trouble with my canaries ..... they only ever hatched and reared the first one. After that it was a lot of hatchings but they always died.

[megzly]

well not from my breeding but i have 3 baby galahs that came in as rescues, a couple have problems with their legs but are off to the vet tomorrow to see what can be done. Ones fighting fit and it the most gorgeous little thing climbing out of his crate and all over us after only 4 hours of being rescued

i have some more rescue galahs being delivered on wednesday not sure on how many i just got a phone call telling me that they were getting dropped of he... ohwell lots more fun at my house..

Silly birds for nesting in dead trees that are so rotted out they fall over... *rolls eyes*

[courtzrocks]

My pale headed rosellas and a pair of bourkes are in the nestbox...conures wont go down this year so maybe nest year...hoping for baby bourkes though

[sypher]

Tracey, We have always used a syringe to feed chicks for a number of reasons. I havent had a problem as yet and find it much easier than other methods. Hope you go well with it. I thought I was the only syringe feeder here, so I had never said anything about it

Shaun

[sypher]

Oh, thought Id add to the topic...

Sunnies and quakers have finally decided to lay

Shaun

[Robyn]

Gee some of you are having some great success. A few set backs but that is to be expected from time to time.

Baby suns & quakers Shaun fingers crossed. I also use a syringe sometimes. Mostly a spoon & crop feed with a problem chick.

My eckies have eggs again. 4 fertile eggs. From 2 pair that is. And that's it for me unless the GCC have laid haven't checked.

Robyn.

[Robyn]

Tracey, knew i read something about scissor beak. Only just found it. How did you go at the Vets. I am sure it can be corrected with not to much trouble. I couldn't even see any sign in the pic's so it can't be that bad.

I had a lady visit me Sunday with the worst case of malnutrition i have ever seen in a baby eckie. It also had a scissor beak, among other problems. The breeder offered it to this lady for $400. She had no idea the bird was so bad until she got it home as the guy put it in a carry case before she had a chance to check it out. This bird was 12 weeks old & weighted 250grams. The poor thing was skin & bones. It couldn't stand up its legs were all crippled. I recommended she take the bird back & get the breeder to phone me, which he did. He fed his birds well but only gave them Calcivet in water twice a week. Also he dosed his birds on psittavet every year for 45 days so they wouldn't get psittacosis. I can't believe people are still doing that. The babies are parent reared but they give up at about 8 weeks. Never have had their babies taken for hand rearing so out of 4 nests of babies he has only had 1 survive with slight bent legs. He has kept that one. He told me they all have died.
What made me really cranky was he put the baby back in with the parents where it will surely die with no mention of taking it to the Vet. The kindest thing would be to put her to sleep.

Robyn.

[vankarhi]

Robyn the scissor beak was in one of the alex bubs so that is why you probably didn't notice it, plus I have not been posting much this time around......unlike with Erik. The vet trimmed her beak for a total of $30. As I have said before he is not an avian vet.....but OMG I am so lucky to have him near me.

Unfortuneately the bub flew out of the nest again today and climbed up the wire and some how got stuck between the wire and the metal separater between the ekkies and alex's.......I found her dead when I went to give their afternoon food. I yelled at Stephen and he came and got her. She had been attacked by the ekkies.......probably Skye. That is the breeding season for this year for my alex's and next year the ekkies will be moved to an aviary where they can do no damage to other birds.

So I took the other bub out this arvy. Probably not a good time to take her out but I don't want to come home and find another one like that. I am sure she will be fine and feed from the spoon or syringe by the morning. She doesn't seem too upset at the moment.

I cannot believe Skye is on an egg again. I am so glad I spent the entire day yesterday delousing everyone and everything......including the chooks as I went into Skye's nest box and found 1 egg this arvy. At least the nest box is squeeky clean. I thought Skye would lay in about 2 weeks.....she must have layed early this time as B2 was older when I took him out of the nest.

Robyn......I suspect my ekkies were not feeding B2 properly as he felt feather light. He now feels quite heavy....in comparison and has more feathers on him. I can't believe the breeder also asked for money for the chick. I was going to give my female alex away to someone who I thought who look after her the way I think she would have needed. I even thought it was lucky that I had ordered pellets as she probably would have had more luck chewing them than trying to husk seeds. Soaked seeds might have been ok. I had already planned on keeping her a few months and just making sure she was healthy and able to eat and I was going to go to the aviary and handle them as they seem not too bad actually once you get them. They would have been weaned in a couple of weeks as they only just fledged this week and dad was still feeding them. I will say though it has been an experience to be handraising and to see some chicks being parent raised. I think I have learned a few things this time. The parent raised ones seem to be lighter when they fledge than hand raised ones. The alex bubs appear to be "normal" in size, they just feel so light. Like B2 was when I grabbed him 2 weeks ago.

The vet told me "it was just bad luck" that she had scissor beak but would probably need triming regular. It doesn't matter now.

Shaun I have always either spoon fed or syringe fed. I learned how to crop feed last year and did raise 4 this way (Erik was spoon/syringe fed) ....... but had an accident with one and it traumatised me ........ I am not exaggerating.....and even though I am glad I learned how to crop feed, it is not something I will do again unless it is really necessary.

[madaussie]

life with birds can be hard at times poor little girl .
i found a kakariki stuck between wire today as well so far he is okish he will lose a leg.

[vankarhi]

Thanks John. Yes it can be hard at times.

[Laraine]

I use a syringe or an eye dropper. I get food everywhere but in the beak when I try to use the spoon I bought. I bought a crop needle but haven't been game enough to use it yet.

[vankarhi]

Have someone show you how to use it Laraine. I did. But wont do it again unless I have no choice.

It has been really hard here the past week or so as the ekkies are going through the painful stage of refusing to eat formula. I have been lucky sometimes to get 10 ml into them at times. Yesterday the girl decided to eat the syringe and I have been able to get about 30 ml or more...actually more like 45 ml into her at feeds. B1 is starting to eat the syringe now too so I am able to get more food into him. I use the syringe and then the spoon then the syringe. B2 is still eating ok but has started this "refusing" today but I can still get his crop full at the moment.

The alex chick has been harder as she is not used to me but today I actually got food into her and she willingly took it and got her crop full. They are all stepping up for me even the alex bub (but she is much more wary then the ekkie chicks at the moment). They are all flying except B2 but I am sure he will start probably next week.

Has anyone else noticed that handraised chicks are more advanced than parent raised ones??? I have noticed that Girl and B1 seem to be about 2 weeks ahead of B2 and he is only 1 week younger than the girl and 3 days younger than B2. I actually wonder if it is because as handraised chicks they are exposed to things earlier like soft food and light and noises and other sights at a much earlier age than those in the nest box. Just my observations.

[norwichfinchman]

My season is almost over until the spring. So far I have had plenty of Java Sparrows, Gouldian Finches, Parson Finches, Chestnut Breasted mannakins, Bengalese Finches, Zebra Finches, Diamond Doves and Chinese Painted Quails. I think around 200 chicks and I have not sold any of them yet?
I am organising a bird sale in February for my local club and will sell most of them then?
It's been another good season.

[Laraine]

Congratulations on your terrific season, wow 200 chicks.

I lost the tiny cockatiel in the hot day we had this week (37 C) but another one has hatched yesterday. I decided to check some of the eggs and was disappointed to learn that the Peachface eggs are clear. Good news the 5 Eastern Rosella eggs are full as are the quails. Have got tiels and a budgie sitting as well, but haven't checked those yet. It was getting a bit dark will check tomorrow.

[madaussie]

Yes congrats on a good season.

The heat is a pain thats all i can put the death of 5 Alex and 6 grass parrots down to as well i should have pulled them but i don't unless i see problems lessen learned.
j

[norwichfinchman]

Whats is "HEAT". I live in the UK. Extremely cold at the moment. My birds don't get any additional heat, I just make sure that they are all draught free.

[sypher]

Does that mean you have to fully enclose the aviaries at certain times of the year Steve?

Shaun

[sadikilovebirds]

Sounds like everyone has had an interesting breeding season so far. I wonder what next year will bring us? I have 3 babies from an existing pair and 1 baby from a new pair, BJ and Bounty. Hehe i worked out the other day that Sarri became a mother and a grand-mother in the same year. Thats a bit scary... lol...