Mother rejected baby

[lewis]

Hi All!
I posted here some time ago about mother cracking her eggs.
Well she finally hatched two eggs successfully and raised them great. Although when they was about to fledge she started trying to attack them, so separated and baby’s are totally fine now and living in aviary doing well.
Mother hen then laid more eggs. 5 in total but cracked one.
3 hatched so far, one due tomorrow but the babies are so much smaller than her first clutch. I have never seen them this small before (size of my baby finger nail)
First hatch is growing away fine and is now looking a good size.
However sadly this morning I found one baby (last hatched) at the bottom of the cage, he was very fragile but still alive empty crop, so I put him back in nest box, mother has been laying on them all day but I just looked to find he sadly died. I’m sure the mother rejected him.
My question is why? Is there any reason? Also I’m worried now as the first hatched baby is about 5 times the size of the second hatched baby and there’s only two days difference in them so I’m afraid that he’ll not make it either, and with another baby due to hatch tomorrow I’m even more anxious now.
I sadly don’t have any other laying birds to foster them into.

[tweetiepiesmom]

I've read elsewhere that people have taken over raising of the chicks themselves but it takes a lot of effort, feeding every two hours, keeping them in an incubator, watching the temperature and humidity. Do you have a breeder nearby who can advise you?

[Morgan]

yellowfacedviolet I think, and wocal definitely has some breeding experience.

Hezz is also a good source for advice.

This clutch could be smaller if it was the second clutch back to back that the hen has laid. She needs lots of extra calcium, not calcium carbonate from cuttlebones or even pellets - calcium citrate or liquid chelates calcium such as CalciBoost by the bird care company should help. Also boiled eggs for vitamins A E and K, as well as extra protein should do her some good. And a quality pellet in a pinch if she does not readily eat a lot of leafy greens and meaty red/orange/yellow veggies.

Once those bases are covered, unfortunate as it may seem, sometimes a baby is just weak. Or perhaps it had some abnormality from it’s development within the egg that cannot be easily recognized by us on the surface. Mom may have realized this baby would not grow up to be “fit” for survival (in the wild) and thus rejected it.

You can either take on the responsibility of raising apparently weak chicks on your own, which will require a bit of research and some extra supplies, or let nature take it’s course. Breeding birds is probably not for everyone. There can (and I would always assume probably will be) some complications to better be prepared for ahead of time.

Cute little birdies aviary has some good articles on the basics of breeding and hand raising babies, but they only give instructions from two to three weeks and older. To fill in the gaps, YouTube may be of some help as well.

In a pinch, if mom is at least keeping them all warm, you could try to co-parent and help her with feeding the babies a few times a day. 10% of their body weight per feeding either by spoon (this would be better for not accidentally aspirating the chick) or syringe (better fo knowing the exact amounts the bird is consuming). There are YouTube videos showing how to feed using both methods.

Definitely use a commercial formula. Kaytee doesn’t have the best reputation as a brand but their baby bird formula is complete and doesn’t contain any sugar, and it mixes well. The only other formula I have heard of being better and not grainy (unfortunately Harrison’s seems to be a pain to work with texture-wise) is Roudybush.

The thickness and temperature is very important. Too hot can burn the baby’s crop and too cold it will either not eat or it will slow down digestion leading to sour crop (a yeast infection). If the solution is too thin the baby won’t be getting enough nutrients, and too thick it may clump and stick in the crop forming a hard ball that needs to be gently massaged after feeding the baby some warm liquid to get it to pass - and can also cause a sour crop. It is also imperative that the baby’s crop is completely empty before giving it more food.l

These are the the main things to be aware of. As for heat - if mom is completely rejecting the baby and not keeping it warm for you, a small container with a safe heat source on one side (heat pad with accurate temp control that doesn’t turn off automatically, or a ceramic reptile heat coil that doesn’t give off light, or a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel inside) and wrapping the container with a thick towel and covering half the top of the container can help keep the baby warm. You want it to stay near 90-95 degrees until baby is at least two weeks old, then reduce to 85-90 gradually and then 80-85 from three weeks and so on. All the exact instructions can be found here in more detail:

www.cutelittlebirdiesaviary.com/budgie-hand-feeding-and-weaning-guide.html

And for more info on breeding: www.cutelittlebirdiesaviary.com/are-you-ready-to-breed-your-budgies.html

[yellowfacedviolet]

Mar 21, 2021 19:54:51 GMT lewis said:

My question is why? Is there any reason?

Yes, the same reasons we provided for the egg-breaking--inexperience or, more likely, ingrained behavior. Which is often erratic. And as we said in that thread, this is why breeders remove egg-breakers from a breeding program.

[wocal]

Hey, sorry lewis I am late to this by like a month, I just haven't been on. Been busy breeding getting more birds. It's definitely the calcium. If they breed back to back and haven't been prepped beforehand and have a steady calcium source like Morgan added the babies come out weak. Especially if this is like the second clutch total.

In my experience with breeding, first time parents are usually bad, especially if they are just reached breeding age. So, before you have the next clutch whenever that is you have to be ready to take over if you don't want "nature to take it's course" as Morgan said. This means in you particular case study online about how to use an incubator, brooder, how to handfeed and dummy eggs. If you care about this birds particular eggs you can get around all of it. Eggs can't be cracked if they are dummy eggs. You take the eggs from her one at a time and out them somewhere room temp (they are good for 2 weeks and I know this because I have hatched an egg 2 weeks old in the incubator) and replace them with a dummy egg each time. When they are all laid then you need you pop them all into the incubator at the same time so they hatch close to the same time(if you have to manually rotate them try to do it 5 times a day). after they hatch you have 2 options. Give them back to the hen and let her take care of the rest or take care of them yourself.

If these are your pets and the babies are sentimental to you it is worth it. yellowfacedviolet is right though if you don't want this to keep happening you have to give up on breeding the hen. Now, if it is for business then I would say keep her and do the dummy egg thing and make sure you always have some other hens ready and split up her eggs. Like add an egg to each pair you have breeding. preferably you are breeding 4 others at a time and then give the eggs back when they are done if she can feed them, but from the sounds of it she can not so then keep them with the other moms. then after she has had like 3 clutches sell her as a pet, but disclose why you are getting rid of her and move the male in with a new female.