Se below for videos and photos of them and also a pic of the swing that I made for them. The card and straws eventually get chewed up and so you just replace them and change it up a bit so it never gets boring.
Older girl is looking nearly like a real bird. Poor little girl still looks a bit funny but at least she can fly now. They're both still very tame, enjoy getting scritches and are starting to eat more for themselves. I think they'll be ready to go in a cage without their dad by next weekend. Se below for videos and photos of them and also a pic of the swing that I made for them. The card and straws eventually get chewed up and so you just replace them and change it up a bit so it never gets boring.
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The little girls are growing more and more feathers to replace the pins that got plucked. They're still funny looking little things but they're getting there. The older chick is also starting to fly a bit more and she's already starting to get the idea of 'step up.' She's also discovered the joy of snuggling against the back of my neck, under my ponytail. The younger one is starting to think about coming out of the nest box, as you'll see in the video. I've added some photos. The first few are from a couple of days ago and the last one and the video are from today. The best part of the video is probably the last 10 seconds! I took a video of the chicks today. The older hen has started to come out of her nestbox by herself and to nibble at millet so she's going to be a real bird soon. She climbed up me today and snuggled against my neck. For some reason I can't upload photos at the moment so I'll put that pic up next time. Younger girl is just a little fluffy scruff-bag at the moment, she just likes to snuggle. It's Chick 5! She even climbed out of the box and onto that perch in front of her. Then she took the opportunity to shout at her dad until he fed her! It's been a stressful few weeks with this clutch and unfortunately 3 of the chicks have died, two from crop issues and one, probably from aspiration in the nest box. I really didn't expect to have all of these problems with parent raised chicks that were so old. It's so much worse when they're already starting to show personality and will toddle over to see you. Thankfully, chick 5 and 6 have had no problems at all and are doing really well. They're both little hens. 5 is plain green and 6 looks like she's going to be pied (although she might not have any noticable yellow she'll be a brighter green.) Chick 2 is still being treated for slow crop and although he's not quite right yet, I'm hopefull that he'll recover soon and he'll grow some feathers. I've been treating him through the night so I'd like to be able to sleep again! People still on my list atm are Lizzy, Matt and Gemma, in that order. Here's 2 and 6.I'm so pleased that 6 is thriving now after her difficult start. Here are the oldest three chicks. Chick 1 is 3 weeks old today. Unfortunately Chick 1 and 2 have been plucked by their stupid mother so she's been banished from the cage and Bean is now a single parent. He's doing a good job though and they'll be feathered normally by the time they're old enough for new homes. I'm hoping to be able to keep a chick from this clutch to set up a replacement pair for next year. Chick 1 has a bit of feather showing on her wing pins so I can see that she is a hen. I can't tell the sex of Chick 2 yet but it's definitely a fallow green. I'll have to wait a few weeks to be able to tell if it's a pied fallow. A couple of days ago I started to take out these 3 for cuddle sessions. Even at that young age, at first they would open their beaks and try to look fierce at me but now they're used to is and just snuggle down to go back to sleep. Here are the younger three chicks. Chick 6 is 11 days old today but looks 2-3 days younger due to its rough start. You can see that its eyes are just starting to open. It also has a mucky beak! The other two are doing well, Chick 4 already has a good covering of pin feathers and I actually find it tricky telling 4 from 3 when I look down into the box. Just a quick update on Chick 6. Apparently Squid and Bean didn't approve of me shaming their parenting skills on the internet because they've started to feed Chick 6 again. It's already looking much plumper.
Here are the 6 chicks. Chicks 1, 2 and 3 and all growing in pin feathers now. Chicks 4 and 5 are getting bigger. Chick 6 doesn't seem to be getting fed at all by the parents and is still tiny so I'm going to start to feed it as if I'd pulled it for hand rearing and hopefully that will get it growing. As an experiment I tried taking out the 2 eldest for a couple of hours to see if the parents fed chick 6 then but they still ignored it. If you're on my waiting list, chick 6 is a spare so as long as the other 5 make it (and I think that they will), you're guaranteed a chick. Here's 1 and 2. You can see how well the pin feathers are coming in on 1's wings and that 2's red eyes are opening. You can also see how their beaks are starting to become the correct shape for a parrotlet. Chick 6 has finally hatched. It was a bit dehydrated so I brought it out to give it a drink. Here's a size comparison between Chick 1 and Chick 6. I'll keep a close on them to make sure that the youngest chicks manage to get fed. Chick 5 had a full crop which bodes well for Chick 6 also getting fed. Chick 1's eyes are starting to open and you can see the dark lines along its wings where pin feathers are starting to grow. In a few more days it will be big enough to start coming out for cuddles :) |
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October 2018
CategoriesLauren at Premaparrots
Here you can find the latest baby parrotlet news. |