| Hi Denise,
Sad news. The chick hatched, healthy and vigorous, on Wednesday
afternoon. Chicks live for a day or two on the egg food that is
in their crops when they hatch, at least that's what it looks like.
That provides them with food for awhile as they transition to being
parent fed. On Thanksgiving morning the chick was still vigorous and
begging for food, loudly. This was about 11 a.m. At 5 p.m. I checked
again and couldn't see the chick in the nest. The lovebirds had their
fourth chick just hatched though....Underneath the other four chicks,
I found the baby cockatiel. No marks on the chick, and some evidence
of a little egg food still in the crop, but no parent-fed food.
So at least the lovebird parents didn't actively harm the chick. I
have heard some ugly stories about parents not being so kind.In
checking with more experienced breeders, some have offered the
following: the chick became too weak because the lovebirds refused to
feed and so the chick suffocated under the weight of the others....the
cockatiel is Australian and the lovebirds are African, so their chicks beg
for food differently and have different shaped beaks, making
cross-feeding difficult....and lovebirds are not known as good foster
parents, in general. One note of consolation from Karen Herman at
Wingsong Aviaries -- one of my favorite bird experts -- "if bird breeding
was easy, everyone would do it." She also recommended reading a
section in Rosemary Lowe's book on handrearing to put things in
perspective. I will stop by their store this week and read it.
It appears I have had unusually trouble-free times so far, and that
this kind of happening is actually fairly normal, so I should be
ready for it again :-(
Postscript: The parents who abandoned the egg when they had an Amazon
move in with them in their former household are now working the nest
and are likely to try again, based on their history as told to me by
the person who used to have them. Ironically, this pair is said to
be good foster parents, but they would have had to hatch out this egg
themselves in order to start feeding (not an option, because once
abandoned, the parents would not resume sitting this egg, or the other
egg that had a chick die inside, according to the former owner), or
would have had to been feeding chicks already of approximately the same
age (this is why I tried this chick with the lovebirds, since they did
have chicks the same age....).
Had to pull two eggs from two other clutches of lovebirds on Friday
that the hens had pushed away once the rest of the chicks hatched.
A gruesome but necessary chore for the breeder is to open the eggs,
once clearly abandoned for several days after the last chick hatched,
to see whether the egg was fertile or not (helps to determine viability
of the breeding pair, among other things). These two were fertile,
unfortunately for me who opened them that day, but good news in that
there was a mating that had occurred, so the pair doesn't have a
problem in that area. (In fairness to these two pairs, one was on its
first clutch, broke their first egg, successfully hatched three chicks
and are feeding them just fine -- the other pair has four fine chicks
doing very well. These two clutches went at the same time, so if
either had needed to be foster parents to lovebird chicks, things would
have been okay........)
In short, I don't recommend trying to foster cockatiels with
lovebirds!!
What I want now is red rump parrakeets, which are famous for their
exceptional abilities and willingess as foster parents to a wide
range of types of birds, but they still do have to be at the same
point in the breeding/hatching/feeding cycle as the chick that
needs rearing. Perhaps a pair or two or three of these would be
an option for you as well?? ;')
Linda
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| Linda,
Thanks for the info. I was afraid that the Lovebirds would do just
that. They can be so unpredictable. I have also opened abandoned
fertile eggs and it is sad, especially if they are almost ready to
hatch. My cockatiels have pulled this on me several times.
I have a clutch of american budgies four of them to be exact. They
are a couple of weeks old and are doing great. Budgies are excellent
parents. Their pin feathers are coming in now and it looks so far
(although still early to tell), like I have one definite lutino
(Mom is lutino, and dad is mostly yellow with black laced wings and
vivid green lower belly) and two look like they are almost albino at
this point, however wing feathers are not in as yet. THe last one is
to small to call. Don't know the sex yet though. They are so ugly
they're cute!
Thanks,
Denise
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