Dasher moves on!

Dasher has gone off to the great world beyond the nest box!  I took him to the store yesterday to be handfed for the rest of his budgie-childhood and be weaned onto pellets just like the big-birds.  To be sure, he was scared (and MAD!) being taken from his family and thrust into an aquarium with several other little birds, but he's growing into such a pretty bird I'm hoping that someone will snap him up soon.

Dasher shortly before moving to the store.

Ricky and Lucy have now hatched not three, not four, but FIVE babies!  That's quite a clutch for any birdie, much less a first time mom, and she's got one possibly fertile egg that could still hatch.  There's over a weeks difference in age between the oldest and youngest in the clutch which is requiring me to keep a close watch on the chicks.  From what I've read and heard the youngest are subject to several perils which include:  1) Overfeeding which stretches out their crop, causes atonia and results in the baby starving to death with a full crop; and 2) Dehydration from being fed food meant for the older chicks.  (New chicks are fed a more liquid food than older chicks.)  It's amazing how tiny the newest chicks are when they hatch.

                        

            Oldest on left, youngest on bottom.

This is the smallest chick from the photo
to the left. (My hands are the size of the
average 10 year old's.)

And in other news... Mr. and Mrs. Closet Finch (so named because they're living in what used to be a closet) currently have three eggs in one of their three nests.  I hesitate to get too very excited about this because at no time when I've been in the bird room have I seen either Mr. or Mrs. Finch anywhere near said eggs!  But the news is significant because while they have laid single eggs before, they've never laid more than one before they've eaten it.  This is the first time I've seen more than one egg in the nest. I've been feeding them crushed egg shells and egg food so perhaps that is making a difference.  We'll see, wont we?

That's all for tonight!  

Until nest time just do like the birds do - shake your tail feathers and keep on chirpin'!

Hatch Announcement

Ricky and Lucy Budgy 

are pleased to announce the hatching 

of their first two chicks!

Jan 16 and Jan 17

2012

Both babies are bald and beautiful.

Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more proud. 

Lucy is spending most of her time tending to her babies and her remaining eggs, so it's rare that she is seen outside of the nesting box.  When I've peeked in however, I've been able to see the two new chicks as well as the egg that is next to hatch (the chick inside is already pipping).  When I check the box later this evening I'll try and get a picture if I can.

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On another note, when I went in to feed this morning I found young Dasher out of the nestbox strolling around the cage!  That was quite a surprise!  Not sure if that was acceptable behavior, I picked him up and plopped him back in with his sibling.  He seemed happy to be back.

New Year Budgie Update

I've been remiss in keeping this story current but so much has happened in the past couple of weeks that it's been difficult!  I can't say I remember what order everything has happened in, so I'll just try and remember everything so it's all included.

The Babies

The chickies are growing like crazy.  At about a week of age the youngest of the three died for no apparent reason leaving Momma Bird with two loud, rambunctious chicks! They opened their eyes about a week ago, started growing their feathers, received their names, and have started being taken out of the nestbox to be held and played with in an effort to make them sweet, tame, loving little budgies. In  keeping with the Christmas theme I wanted, suggestions made by a reader, and the chicks own personality, the babies ended up with the names of Dasher and Blitzen.  The oldest chick with the yellow on his head is Dasher.  I think he'll end up looking like a normal green bird just like his daddy.  Blitzen looks to be taking on more of a light blue or violet hue right now.  

Dasher, first day with eyes open.

Dasher and Blitzen

So far my attempts at letting the parents feed the babies while my husband and I socialize the babies daily seem to be working.  Both babies seem to be quite relaxed around us.  Of course, it's still early in the game so who knows how things will turn out later.  There are proponents for both methods of taming and this seems to be the easiest and safest way to progress at this point.  And if it works?  All the better!

The Bird Room

The bird room is coming along, though right now it's an absolute disaster!  I was finally able to order my cages and stands, though due to unforeseen circumstances I was not able to order from LL Cages for my initial order.  I've spent the last two days putting together cages, rearranging furniture, cleaning, and moving birds all while trying to cause as little stress on my nesting birds as possible.  During the process of moving the birds into their new cages, I was finally able to put together the pairs I've been wanting to put together for a long time.  I have a few birds I'd like to get a DNA confirmation of their sex, and I've got a few birds who are still too young to be breeding.  Those birds are together in larger flight cages, just hanging out.  

Lucy and Ricky

Lucy ended up laying EIGHT EGGS!  As expected not all of them are fertile, but still, eight eggs is a fairly large clutch for a budgie.  I tried taking one of her infertile eggs and fostering it out to Momma Bird to see if she'd brood it, but Lucy turned around and laid another one.  Apparently she thinks she needs eight eggs, no more and certainly no less.  That's something to remember about Lucy.

Lucy and Ricky

It's been 14 days today from the date she laid her very first egg, the one that was infertile.  I expect the rest of her eggs to begin hatching starting in about four days from today.  It'll be fun seeing how many chicks come from that clutch - and if I need to pull and handfeed any of them.

The Finches

The Finches continued laying and eating eggs for several days.  I consulted with my bird mentor who advised me that it was likely due to a calcium deficiency.  So I started supplementing their diet with eggs and powdered egg shells which seems to have stopped the egg-eating behavior.  However two days ago I returned home from a trip to find one of my hens on the bottom of the cage unable to fly.  She was puffed up and when she would try to fly she would get about 10 inches off the ground flapping madly then fall back to the ground. I grabbed her and gave her a good once-over and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with her other than a few small areas where it looks like she'd been plucked. Thinking that a period of observation was in order, I placed her (and her mate) in the heated hospital tank where she's done fine for the last two days.  I'll probably be moving her back into a regular cage today or tomorrow and see how she's doing.  I suppose it's time to separate my little finch couples now, it seems that they're not getting along very well. 

Well, I suppose that's it for now.  I'm sure that there's quite a bit I've forgotten, but it must not have been that important!  

Until nest time, keep on chirpin'!

Eggs Hatched and Eggs Laid...

Momma budgie (as she has come to be known) has now hatched all of her eggs.  She started out with five, one was infertile, one was fertile but failed to develop, and the remaining three have hatched into precious little chicks!  It honestly seemed like they would never hatch, but hatch they did and they're now growing like weeds.  I'm noticing that Momma budgie is spending more time out of the nest box now.  When I see her out on the perches with the guys and flapping through the cage I'm keeping an eye on the nest box to see what's happening there, and sure enough - one or the other of the daddies is keeping an eye on the babies.  It seems to be the green daddy that sticks his head in the most.  This comes as a surprise to me really;  I hardly saw him feeding Momma at all while she was brooding but he seems to really be coming through now that the kids have arrived. The babies are starting to get pretty loud now.  As I sit here typing, I can hear the babies upstairs just chirping away!  Granted the rest of the flock has gone quiet, but I doubt that I'd have heard their cries a day or two ago.  I also started handling them today.  I picked them up for about a minute each but none of them actually made it all the way out of the nest box.  I didn't want Momma or either of the daddies to see me holding one of their kids...  I didn't want to cause them any stress or anxiety but I did want to start conditioning the babies to being held and picked up.  They're so tiny it's hard to believe they wont just fall apart while I'm holding them!

But enough about that!  I mentioned earlier that my other couple had laid an egg but I questioned it's viability.  Well, I still question the viability of the initial egg, but the couple has laid a second egg!  I feel fairly confident that it will turn out to be fertile because I've seen mom and dad er... taking the necessary steps to fertilize the egg. *wink*  It's really pretty funny watching the two of them.  Mom is pretty protective of her nest and rarely allows dad in.  Daddy has to go stand at the door of the box and lure her out with his sweet warbles, and she still comes out grousing at him!  Eventually though, they're sitting side by side on the perch, and when something gets too close to the nest, they're both right there together defending it.  It's a beautiful sight to see.

I made some changes with two other pairs that weren't making any progress.  Essentially I switched out the males and am trying different ones.  In one particular case, I think I've made another love match.  :)  (Why is there a part of me that feels like a budgie pimp?)  In the other case, I'll just have to wait and see what happens.  In that paring, I set up my cinnamon female with my new English normal grey cock.  I'd like that to work out, but she's been resistant to all of the males I've tried her with so far, so it may not.  As usual, I'll just wait and see!

Until next time... :)

New Blood

Today I drove up to Ft. Collins and met one of the local budgie breeders I've been exchanging e-mails with.  It was good to meet someone with years of budgie knowledge whom I am able to use as an additional resource for my breeding program!  Originally we had arranged the sale of a single English budgie hen today, but when I arrived she said she had evaluated her flock and in an effort to help other responsible breeders get started, she was willing to sell me additional birds!  So I walked out with two new English hens and a new English cock.

Meet Id, an English, normal grey cock:

Erie (left - normal grey hen) and Electra (right - sky blue cinnamon hen):

That's an American budgie sitting there in between Erie and Electra in the above picture.  It provides a sense of scale to demonstrate the size of the English budgies if you've not seen them in person.  They really are big birds!  And when they fly, you hear this WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP from their wings... it's not a dainty flutter like the little American budgies have! 

This is Electra from the front and the same sky blue American

 

I'm really excited to add these birds to my flock.  I think they'll add a whole new level of quality to the birds I breed.  If they knew how important their roles are, they'd probably look even more proud than they already do!

The Bird Room

The Finches laid another egg this morning, and just ate it.  I watched them this time.  It was the two hens that were digging into it.  I'll have to do some investigating to see what's up with that.

I also finally got all my birds moved into "the bird room."  I don't have my good cages yet, but at least all the birds and their stuff are in one place now.  It will certainly make care-time easier.  There's still work to be done before I start taking pictures and showing them off, but as soon as I'm ready you'll be the first (or second) to see them!  (Parrot Paradise Forum is usually the first.  If you haven't checked it out, you should!)

Baby Number Three, AND...

Baby number three has appeared right on time.  I'm amazed every day at how perfect and tiny these chicks are!  I'm starting to be able to see some pin-feathers under the skin of baby number one who is about twice as big as the new fellow.  Since I've been checking the nest in the evening, its been too dark to take worthwhile photos, but Colorado Budgies has an excellent page with daily photos of a growing budgie so you can follow the progress. Their photos are FAR better than any I could take right now - close up and very detailed.

AND... one of my other pair has laid their first egg! The hen has been sleeping in her nest-box for 2-3 nights now and I've been expecting the egg at any time.  Apparently now's the time!  I'm pretty excited about it!  Something interesting I learned recently is that when a hen is getting ready to lay, the quality of her droppings change.  I'll have to think more about how to describe it, or even get a picture of it, but once you've seen it, it's something that sticks with you.