trying to teach MY mother

[Karen]

LOL
so my mother gives her lovebirds a breeding box - against my advice mind you!
First clutch last year hatched 2 babies.
one baby thrown out of nest and dies.
Second baby is plucked bald by mother so after this continues I remove from parents and take away box.
Handraise a beautiful (ugly) little guy named Bubba.
Awhile ago mother again gives a nest box (grrr!!)
3 babies hatch and grow well.
Last weekend check and all 3 plucked bald except for heads.
Remove them and trying to handraise - they are much older and more difficult at around 4 weeks old.

2 of the 3 after 3 days feeding well. The third - youngest - is finicky and very toey still hard to feed but do get some in.

Have FINALLY gotten mother to promise not to put a box in with these 2 again.

Problem: not only are these 2 handraised (and becoming agro now - losing tameness)
but theypluck the babies bald
& - now this is MAJOR issue - father is american peachface and mother is a fischer!!!
Why do old people refuse to listen to us? I have been breeding birds for a number of years now and this is the first pair of birds my mother has owned by herself. I have told her it is very bad form to cross breed species but she doesn't care!

Now the problem is 3 more babies that I have to rehome after handraising. A pet store has shown interest, but are they good for a handraised bird?

[vankarhi]

hello Karen.........sometimes even our parents don't know everything ;D

As for the petshop being any good for handraised birds?? Only you can tell because you are down there and you can see what that shop is like. I have seen a lot of shops that have a special area for their handraised birds to be and I have seen some with signs saying please ask for help before handling birds (or something like that). I think it will have to be up to your discretion. I have seen some that I would leave a handraised bird if that is the way I was selling them.........but I have seen some I wont step foot in myself again......let alone put a little birdie in there to try to sell.

Good luck. Have you tried any of the free mini traders. Up here we have about 3 or 4 we can advertise for free in even with a black and white picture.......colour costs. I assume most places have these mini traders now..........and that is how I have sold some of my birds and other things.

[Laraine]

Us mothers are notorious for not doing what we are told. Just ask MY children...... Lol.

[jusdeb]

its all about paybacks lol

[meandem]

It's hard bringing up parents!

[Karen]

LOL
well the smallest died on Saturday morning
Mother was very unhappy. But there are 2 ratbags that are terrorising everyone atm.
I judge one of each going by personality.
One of them is definately the ring leader, always jumping out of the box and running after the spoon even when he is full!
The girl is more subdued but have to watch her as she likes to dart into dark places (behind us when sitting on the couch - the tiny space between hip and side of couch).
Just worried that they are not being made full enough.
Am feeding them on the commercial hand rearing mix.
oh and the girl nibbled on some seed on Saturday but was unable to actually eat it - at least she knows what to do!

[vankarhi]

That is sad about the little one but sometimes these things happen.

With the others just make sure when you do feed them their crops are nice and rounded and don't let them go too long without food in their crops during the day.......but they must empty out overnight and be empty for their first feed in the morning.

[Karen]

We try to ensure that happens. Most time though after they eat about half their crop filled they refuse to eat more.
First feed in the morning they eat much more but during the day they would rather muck around than eat their fill.
They are nice and healthy and look so much better now that their feathers are back in.

[Karen]

OMG so funny!
My mother was fetching their lunch and asked father to watch the "children". He happily did so then looked away for a few seconds. When he looked back they had disappeared! He was in an absolute panic not knowing where they were.
Mother returned with lunch and pulled the cushion away from the couch and yep, there they were!
So funny and I couldn't help laughing at my dad the bad parent who "lost" the children.
They are certainly getting confident!

[vankarhi]

lol poor dad ;D probably almost gave him a heart attack. I can remember when I used to leave my chicks on a lounge chair that I covered in a blanket and towel and had cushions around so they couldn't get out of the "nest" lol (until they learned to climb) ...... anyway I would yell at anyone who so much as even looked like sitting in that chair. Well my son in law knowing how paranoid I was about my chicks....decided to "pretend" to sit in the chair..........OMG did I go off lol and I literally pushed this 100kg guy away from the chair...........with him cracking up laughing saying I was only joking ........... he never did it again though lol

[Karen]

ROTFLMAO that would have been hillarious to see!

[vankarhi]

;D

[Karen]

Sad news, the little girl died yesterday in mothers hands.
Last Friday mum had a huge scare. She came home to find the girl all drenched and almost lifeless on the floor of the cage. Mum thinks she fell in the water bowl and barely managed to get out. She spent the next couple of hours warming her up and she appeared to come good.
She was very active over the weekend. I think it must have been shock still from the near drowning on Friday.
The little one had such a lovely nature too - unlike her brother who is a monster!

[bleedinggreen]

Sorry to thear that karen. Your doing the right thing by insisting that those two particular birds do not breed again as hybridisation with lovebirds in australia is a big problem. While these babys would be infertile it's still not the right thing to do.
On another note, I have a normal peachface that was handraised by my wife. When I put it into the aviary with all the breeding birds it paired up with a hen and they successfully raised chicks. Problem is, the handraised bird is a hen also, so another peachface was servicing the hand raised's partner. The handraised peachy definiatly acted like the male in the relationship so it was an interesting experiment.

[vankarhi]

wow that sounds interesting Bleedingreen ;D

[bleedinggreen]

Yes very odd. She laid some eggs becuase her bones were really wide apart, but everything else was like a male, wouldn't incubate and wouldn't really help with raising the chicks. All chicks were raised successfully though. I guess the female thing explains the biting too.

[Karen]

LOL well the lovebirds we have here are definately odd. The males are all viscous biters and the females do not bite at all.

[Karen]

lmao poor mum. Does not look like the baby is interested in fledging at all.
Will take some seed if you get it out of the bowl and put it on your lap but he loses interest really quickly.
He is also the noisiest bird we have ever handreared! Never shuts up.
This has taught my mother well. After this one she NEVER wants to raise another bird. hehehe

[bleedinggreen]

lol, can you put it in the cage with some other birds to 'teach' it how to be a bird? May help.