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... :)

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!)

My first baby budgie!

Today my first baby budgie was hatched!  I really had no idea that it would be there today.  For some reason I expected the baby to be bigger in the shell when I candled it last, but maybe it was so big that I couldn't even tell it was a chick, and the chic I saw moving was actually the youngest of the four rather than the oldest like I thought!  I just have so much to learn it seems like I'll never get a handle on it.

I'm not sure what exactly I should be looking for as far as keeping an eye on the baby goes.  Fortunately the hen is an experienced mom so I'm not too worried, I'm sure she'll take care of everything and I'll just learn from her.  :)  I looked at the baby's crop while peeking in and it appeared to be full so I'm confident that it's being fed, at least for now.  The momma bird has gotten pretty used to me peeking in on her a couple of times each day and has even let me start petting her on her head, so I don't think that I'll be causing her any undue stress by continuing to do what I've been doing.

It's my understanding that I should expect a hatchling every other day until all of the eggs are hatched.  I know there are five eggs with one of them being infertile and since I'm not sure where in the series the infertile egg came in, I'll expect that all of the eggs should be hatched by New Year's Day.  Wouldn't it be kind-of fun to have the first baby budgie of 2012? LOL!

I'll keep posting pictures as I get them!