All of the chicks are now eating by themselves and will be ready for new homes over the next couple of weeks.
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The sad news is that the youngest runty chick died and a few days later Chick 4 died, I think that he was aspirated by the parents. The good news is that the other 4 are doing pretty well, Chick 2 got a slight splayed leg, I think from being flattened by the others plus the hen but we've been treating it and she's nearly normal again now. She is the chick in the video, being fed by her elder sister. There are 3 hens and 1 cock in this brood. One of the hens is lightly pied, I'm not certain about the youngest one. I also have a 2011 green cock that I'm looking to sell for £30. He's a nice looking bird, steady but not hand tame. I'll be offering him to people on the waiting list first then to anyone who's interested. On Sunday I collected my first pair of Sierra parakeets. They're a proven pair so I hope that next spring they'll have chicks for me. There's not a lot of information out there about Sierras so I'm going to be interested to find out what their pet potential is like. If all goes as planned I'll be getting some more young Sierras in October. The parrotlet chicks are all still fine and the eldest are now starting to show some feather colour on the wings so it's one cock and one hen so far.
All 6 are doing well. The eldest 2 are being hand fed for a week or so until the smallest is a bit tougher then they're all going to be in the box together. I may have to help the parents to feed the two youngest chicks as there's over a week in age age difference between the youngest and the oldest chick.
So far there are 5 chicks and one egg still to go. My waiting list for this clutch now totals 6 people so I can't guarantee that anyone new wanting to join the list will get one of this clutch but they'll carry over to being high up the list for the next clutch.
Just a quick post to say that the eggs have started hatching. 2 chicks so far a
Tiggy was the first chick to hatch of Squid and Bean's first brood. They didn't know what they were doing and so they fed her big seeds while she was tiny and couldn't move them through her crop. I took her out for hand rearing and eventually got her fixed but when she went back in with the others, she kept on getting left out in the cold and got a slow crop again. I removed her to hand rear (since I'm too soft hearted to let chicks die without trying to save them) and since I had to go back to work after a holiday, my Mum took over. Tiggy stayed at 7g for over 2 weeks and we all thought that she would never start to grow but then she started to gain weight and now at the age of 10 weeks is fully feathered and starting to fly. In the photo she is with her younger brother who helped her out by preening all of the pin feathers she had on her face. You can see a bit of one of her little yellow patches as she has turned out to be a pied green.
Chick 3 has now learnt not only to wave but also to turn around. It goes to show that they're much smarter than they look! The other news is that I was wrong thinking that Squid had finishes laying at 6 eggs (which was her clutch size last time.) I checked the box on Monday and discovered that she's laid another two! Of the 8 eggs, 6 are fertile and developing so hopefully they'll have a nice clutch of healthy chicks. All of the chicks from the first clutch are now rehomed or reserved. Chick 3, hasn't been collected yet so I've started to teach him tricks. It didn't take long for him to get the hang of 'wave' and now we're working on 'turn around.'
My hen, Squid has finished laying her second clutch which now total 6 eggs. They're all a good shape and size so fingers crossed that when i candle them in a few days, I'll see some chicks Of the chicks from the first clutch, one is reserved and one still needs a new home.
I'm glad to say that my Mother is keeping the eldest chick, Tiggy, who had quite the struggle to stay alive because one of the parents fed her some huge seeds while she was tiny and gave her a slow crop. It took some hard work and sleepless nights of handfeeding but she's doing fine now. Yesterday I discovered that Squid had layed her first egg of their second clutch of the year. Hopefully all will go well and there are more babies on the way. |
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October 2018
CategoriesLauren at Premaparrots
Here you can find the latest baby parrotlet news. |