Blogging the Breeding Progress

[drcodfish]

Not a formal journal as such, but I have been blogging the progress of our parakeets' first brood here: 

drcodfish.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-politics-of-keet-nutrition.html

Because I have not quiite gotten the hang of how to post pictures here, you'll have to look at the blog for pictures of our parakeets and chicks.  The link above is for my my most recent post (1/4/14).  You can scroll back through the blog to look at previous posts which will take you back a couple weeks to when Billie Holiday layed her first egg.

Being a new member here I'm not up on all the rules so hope this is OK. 

Also just want to say that I lurked here for a few weeks when we realized that our birds were determined to have chicks and I leared a lot from all of you, thanks for that.

[mizloco]

Welcome to the forum and I hope you settle in with us.
Oh and I loved the blog...the pictures are great.

[skysmum]

I really enjoyed reading that drcodfish, made me smile .

Lovely looking little family you have there, please keep us updated with their progress.

[BudgiesBuddy]

Hi and welcome to forum

[BudgiesBuddy]

Check these links

How to post videos



How to upload your

pictures and clips

Upload the pictures on external websites like Photobucket, [a

href="http://imageshack.us/"]ImageShack[/a] or TinyPic and paste the link here, which will

show your pictures in the posts.


Post the picture link with Image Codes on both sides of the link. i.e. [/IMG]. The first one should be without forward

slash.

OR

You can also do it by copying and pasting the below link and replacing the red dotted line with your picture link.

[img src="----------------------------" alt=" "] .

OR

Click the button circled in red and insert the picture link without Image Codes.

[drcodfish]

Well, no luck with inserting pics, I have tried everything except, ... that one illusive right thing. My pics are placed on Flickr which is not particulalry intuitive for us 97 pound tech weaklings. But I have a couple quetions which I need some help with. First a little background:

Our cage is 4'6" high X 2'6" wide, X 1'6" deep. The nest box is mounted on the outside of the cage 3'6" above the floor of the cage. Our chicks are starting to get a little rambunctious inside the nest box. They were hatched on:
1. 12/21
2. 12/24
3. 12/26, and
4. 12/28

I have peeked in the nest box and noticed chicks 1 and 2 pecking at the pine shavings. I assume they are hungry when mom is out.

So here are my questions:

1. Should I worry about one of the chicks having a bad fall from the nest box to the floor of the cage anytime soon?

2. Should I build some sort of platform or landing to mount just outside of the nestbox entry for when the adventurous chick first attempts to explore the world outside the nest box?

3. Should I lower the netbox closer to the floor to address this problem of a long fall?

4. Should I begin putting some food inside the nest box for the chicks to get at? If so how would that be done, would I put a small food tray in there? Shavings are pretty deep.

5. Am I Should I overthinking this buisiness?

6. Do I need to call in a psychologist to talk me in off the ledge 



Forgot to add, here is my latest blog post

drcodfish.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-next-stage.html

[BudgiesBuddy]

drcodfish, You should only be worried about chicks fall if the nest box hole in low, near to nest box floor. If it is high, chicks will only be able to come up to the hole when they have enough feathers to fly, hence avoiding the fall.

Put a millet spray in the nest box.

You just sounds like a caring first time breeder, nothing to worry about

[drcodfish]

YOU*ARE*THE*BEST!!

Isn't it funny how the obvoious, simple solutions often go overlooked in the frantic search for some complicated, technical and 'modern' solution? The millet spary is perfect, (and obvious) yet I am sure I never would have thought of it.

And the nest box is a designed affair for parkeets so looking at it with your insight they obviously took this concern into conisdieration during the development.

Great, I feel like I can take a breath and relax, at least for a couple more days any way.

Thanks again for the supiport, so glad I found this place.


PS: My wife is the tech support person here so I will have her take a look at trying to get photos up on the posts here.

Best,

Paul

[BudgiesBuddy]

Hope everything goes fine with the chicks, and they turn out to be beautiful little birdies

[stace]

Enjoyed reading your blog.

Would it work if you turned the cage around so the long side forms the floor? It would give them more useable space.

[drcodfish]

OK, I think we have a problem, I don't know how serious this is but I am pretty sure we need some help/advice and pretty soon.

When I came home from work this afternoon, I cleaned out the nest box. Our biggest chick (hatched 12/21) has some bloody spots in his back. On closer inpection I can see where it looks like some of his feathers have been pulled out of his right wing. Looking at the mom, she had blood on the feathers below her beak and some up on here cere. I'm fearful that she is attacking the chick and pulling out his feathers, I have read about this somewhere but did not get the details. Please help me, any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

[img src="//http://www.flickr.com/photos/34372195@N02/11829536154/" alt=" ."]

Here is a link to my flicker page, Jhope yopu can see these pictures

www.flickr.com/photos/34372195@N02/

this is really distressing.

[BudgiesBuddy]

Remove the hen immediately. The cock will feed the chicks

[BudgiesBuddy]

If I was you, I would be happily hand-raising these chicks at this time.

But I won't advise you this as it requires experience, and more importantly a lot of gear, time and dedication

[BudgiesBuddy]

Anyhow, check this to be ready, just in case the cock needs some help.

Lovie

Hand Feeding Budgie Chicks

[phoebe]

Very interesting read. Sounds like we have a writer in the group now.