Hand reared baby still *mostly* featherless at 15 days old?

[laura96]

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster here! I've put a TLDR; at the bottom in case I ramble a little

I've kept budgies for approx the past 4-5 years and first started breeding sometime during 2019 so I like to think I'm not completely clueless when it comes to taking care of these little guys... however this latest incident has shaken my confidence a bit! Hoping you guys can help me out

I recently separated an established pair from my aviary into their own private love-shack for breeding. Everything was going great, Dad was very attentive as always, and Mum is experienced and an appropriate age (2 years old last month!) and has had plenty of calcium provided in her diet (I also provide liquid calcium in their water periodically). I mention this because from what I've read here these are some of the most common reasons for poor breeding outcomes.

Mum laid 6 eggs, all fertile. I candled them only twice (weekly-ish) and "checked on" the eggs daily when I changed their food and water, tapping on the outside of the nesting box first to alert mum who would calmly vacate and watch me open the door and peek at her eggs. I've done this with her previously with her first batch and with other budgie pairs to get them used to me before the chicks hatch and I've never had a problem, so I really don't think this was the cause for my recent issues either.

The day the oldest egg was due, mum left the nest and never came back. I was home all day that day and I was waiting very intently for those telltale cheeps of a newborn chick, so I first noticed her out of the nest pretty early on. I thought she may have just left to feed or give Dad a piece of her mind (she's very bossy sometimes) but as the time she spent out of the nest box grew I started to panic. It wasn't very warm that day and I'd read that budgie eggs shouldn't be away from Mum for more than twenty minutes. However, I didn't want to jump to panic stations too quickly and thought I may have missed her going back inside so I gave her another chance and waited a further 30mins, watching intently through the kitchen window. She didn't acknowledge the nesting box once.

Finally deciding to intervene, I went out to the cage and checked the eggs to be sure. They were all cold. I'd heard one chirping the night before but it was quiet now, and there was no sign of hatching. Beside myself, I set up my emergency brooder and confiscated the eggs.

(I realize more experienced breeders might be rolling their eyes at this and that I may have acted prematurely, but I really was concerned for the eggs' welfare at the time and it seemed like a better option than forcing mum back into the box and taping it shut XD)

The first egg hatched the next day. I suddenly had a tiny, helpless baby that was entirely dependent on me. I'd had all the necessary supplies ready from when I first started breeding; the heat source, the formula, the thermostat, the syringe. I'd hand fed babies before, but never one this young. It seemed impossible. My syringe was too big. The formula kept cooling too quick. I had to feed him with the blunt end of a toothpick, and I couldn't stop making a mess of him. I felt like the worst foster mum ever.

Another egg hatched two days later. Sadly, this one didn't make it past two days old. He died warm and with a full tummy, and it wasn't in the aftermath of feeding so I'm positive I didn't aspirate him, but nonetheless I felt awful. I remember thinking it was weird that my first born wasn't much bigger than the newborn, but I wasn't underfeeding, and I didn't know what else to do about it so I just kept making sure he was otherwise healthy. (Again, just for context- I had time off work so I was always on time with feeds around the clock, his crop was emptying fine, and he was pooping normally. I'm also using a good quality hand rearing formula.)

Fast forward to today. None of the other four eggs hatched. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if they just got too cold too early in their development to survive it. Either way, I was left with a single baby. He reached the two week milestone yesterday, so he's now 15 days old.

 

Meet Quentin <3

As you can see in the pictures, he has very little down and pin feathers for his age. He has the feathers of a 10 day old bird rather than a 15 day old. He's hitting all his other milestones mostly on time, though. His eyes opened at about 7 days old, and he's now grabbing at my finger and perching (he's wobbly but he's getting the hang of it!)

He's also very curious, active, and likes to yell at me when I wake him up from his naps for food. I think he gets it from his mum I want to think Quentin is out of the woods now, but I can't help but worry that I'm doing something wrong and that the delay in growth is a bigger deal than it seems. Does anyone else have experience raising chicks from hatching? Do they tend to lag behind chicks that are raised by their mothers? As a side note, does anyone know why mum might have abandoned ship in the first place?

TLDR; Abandoned Budgie (hand-raised from day 1) seems to be lagging behind in growth compared to other budgie chicks. Pics included.

Thanks in advance for any advice! I want Quentin to have the best start I can give him and any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[Marianne Marlow]

Hezz skysmum clt80

Can anyone help with this?

[Hezz]

Not sure I can help much, but I’m of the opinion that nature usually knows best. If there wasn’t an incident that caused the hen to abandon sitting, loud noises, intrusion of some sort, some external influence that spooked the hen, and you wouldn’t necessarily know I don’t think, then I do believe that they have the instinct to know when things aren’t going right, or perhaps this time she really didn’t have that same drive to raise a clutch. Was this second clutch back-to-back with her first? perhaps she just didn’t have the stamina to go through that all over again.

Any new-born, or induced birth (I’ll use the incorrect term of birth rather than hatch to cover the majority of animals, not only birds) that needs the intervention of more than nature, in my opinion, does not have the resilience of one who comes into the world naturally. No human-made formula is going to be able to replicate the goodness of mother’s milk and this applies to birds as well. The initial feeds from the hen to a newly hatched chick basically does the same as for the chick as mother’s milk does for mammals. Not only nutritional value is passed from parent to off-spring but also the beginning of a healthy immune system. You don’t get that through formula feeding. I haven’t had to hand raise an abandoned bird but I have done so with puppies, lambs and calves and all of these start from behind the starting line in development if they haven’t received the benefit of the mother’s feeding. Those initial feeds are the ones that pass on so much more than just the essential nutrients, crop milk for a baby bird is specific for that bird in that particular situation. That hasn’t happened in this case and this is what I see as the reason for this chick to not be hitting the same developmental milestones.

[clt80]

I can only add that I had 4 chick's hatch years back, and the youngest was behind in development from the other 3. No particular reason, she got fed by her siblings and her mother. She just took longer to grow and get her feathers.