INTRUDING BULLY

[Marianne Marlow]

You should remove the male that is intruding on mum and dad when they are raising babies.

In my opinion, colony breeding does not go well. Mum and dad should be the only ones around their babies.

[Hezz]

Are you honestly saying that you allowed the father and daughter to breed?? I know it happens in breeding circles and while some show breeders will inbreed to strengthen genetic traits, it is usually then well monitored. This is not something to be encouraged.

[Deleted]

The general rule in nature, as far as animal behaviourists have been able to study, is that an animal looks for an individual similar to their family but unrelated.

In captivity they don't have the same amount of choice so...

Should probably try to discourage them from another clutch and remove the nest site. Mum'a going to need a long rest and lots of nutrition during and after caring for so many little ones.

[Hezz]

You are encouraging these birds to breed by providing them with a place to nest. A nest box or nesting site should only be in the cage if you intend for the pair to breed.

[Marianne Marlow]

By the way Hezz is a woman and not a man, I don't know why you'd assume she's male.

May 7, 2021 12:10:36 GMT @indrajitbudgielover said:

Dear mr Hazz
I want my budgies to lead as normal a life as in nature. I dont want them to be deprived of the right to breed and rear their young. Its bad enough to be in captivity. The cage is also a large one in the garden some 7 feet length by 5 feet depth by 7 feet height.

[mona]

Would just say that a female budgie needs a lot of calcium to lay eggs. As a free bird, they take care of their needs themselves. In captivity, there are many things to be taken care of, apart from adding nest boxes They need special diet.. You need an avian vet nearby to deal with the cases of egg binding or anything else (which is difficult to find at your location). In case the parents neglect their babies, you need to know well how to hand raise a baby, how and what to feed it, when to turn the eggs and availability of an incubator.

Others are also discouraging another clutch from same pair, since it's heavy on the female budgie, just like there should be a duration gap between two deliveries for humans...to keep the babies & mom strong and to avoid malnutrition.

Letting nature do its work, when in nature is good. But when in captivity, the responsibility lies on the caretaker.



Also, while getting a new bird, it's better to quarantine the new bird away from the flock for at least a month. I wouldn't get a new bird just after bird flu outbreak had been there.. It presents health risk to the entire flock. With birdies outdoors, there are lot more precautions to take with the new born babies too.



With the number of budgies you have been planning to take care of and with the upcoming clutch for blondie pair, I think the cage would be a bit crowded and small.
Budgies are supposed to live a long life. On this forum and other places, I have seen budgies living upto 12 and 24 years.. I would always want mine to live like that.. For that, you need different kind of care

Won't say anything further. Take care of your flock well 😊

[Marianne Marlow]

Males feeding eachother is common and is not always a show of dominance, most of the time it is friendly. It's really obvious when it's agressive.

[Marianne Marlow]

Thank you, it's Hezz and not Hazz though

May 9, 2021 15:25:02 GMT @indrajitbudgielover said:

sorry about calling Hazz MR.

[Hezz]

It doesn’t matter at all; not one little bit.

[ron]

Hi indrajit, some good advice/info given and you seem to have dismissed it so i'll just say this ,I dont have 72yrs? experience but after breeding hundreds of birds over nearly 20yrs in my opinion your actions and lack of basic knowledge of how to keep, condition and breed budgies properly could and probably will put them at serious risk.

[ron]

Hi Indrajit, I can see you have a keen interest in your budgies by the way you talk about them and I wouldnt want to deprive anyone from the immense pleasure of watching them breed and take care of their young but I can not stress enough how important it is that the proper preparation is put in beforehand. As I often say the world would be a dull and boring place if we were all the same so yes its good we agree to disagree..

[ron]

Hi Indrajit, although not unknown for parents or parent to act like this its a more common occurence in colony breeding.

[ron]

Now thats not what I said Indrajit, yes you'll find plenty of instances where parents have hurt chicks but from my own experience its usually just as they are about to fledge and dad/mum in a hurry to breed again. Again in my experience mom wont mutilate an ailing or dead in nest chick she would simply push it out. You may well be right but I would caution you to keep an eye on any others in the flight, oh and Indrajit did you mean directly under the nestbox when mentioned the seed bowl

[mona]

I think there's a lot of presumptions you have about anything that happens with your birdies. Birds are not human - they can't be compared with humans. We can correlate and understand them better when we humanize their behavior. I have not bred budgies, but there are a lot of threads where you can read about budgie mums abandoning their healthy babies to have another clutch & avoid the responsibility of raising children at that point of time. There are many things that happen, that doesn't go well with any theory.

So, instead of forming theories, you should be on alert on their behavior and actions to know what to do next.

I would have been so sad at loosing a chick. Every single life is precious.. You have to be vigilant & observe better than relating it to mother nature & anything else. For an analogy, no one blames or appreciates mother nature, when a delivery doesn't go well for a human baby due to the doctor's negligence. It might have fallen down from the nest or mom could have pushed it down.. Could you also make sure to secure anything below the nest to avoid injuries? Are you using the round mud nests that can be hung inside the cage? Normally the rectangular wooden nest boxes are better - those have more space for the parents and babies, which also should have some bedding to avoid injuries to the babies due to over pressure.

Read about hand raising and feeding them, if the mom doesn't want to care for it. And separate the parents, if they want to have another clutch.

The way you write everything somehow gives the impression that you glorify every action & don't face the reality with respect to birds.

Request you to read the pinned threads in each section of the forum, to help educate yourself about how to care properly for your birdies. You can have pets for your entire life, without knowing the right way to care for. I have seen many people do that, without being willing to accept that it's incorrect. I won't respond further to this thread to keep my mind sane. Please listen to what everyone else is advising 🙏

[Hezz]

ron mentioned colony breeding, where more than one breeding pair live in the same space. This practise if fraught with danger to the new chicks as other pairs can be jealous of the breeding pair, if there are not enough breeding boxes for all the birds to have their own plus a few extras, and the confines of a cage or aviary mean that pairs do not get their own safe space to raise their chicks in peace. This can lead to the other hens in the cage killing another hen’s chicks. A breeding pair should, for their safety, and the safety of their chicks, have their own cage away from the other birds. Correct me if I’m wrong, ron, please.