missing chick

[abel]

my parakeets had babies. "nana", (the mom) laid 6 eggs. the fourth egg had hatched, and a couple days later i checked to see if egg #5 had hatched and i noticed that the youngest chick was gone--just gone, nowhere to be found! do adult budgies eat their babies sometimes? both our budgies are super healthy--we give them good food, vites, fresh fruits and veggies, extra calcium, and even a little pinch of prozyme now and then... i'd appreciate any info anybody can provide! (the daddy bird, by the way, is "pico.") oh, and another small detail is that we have had our birds three and four years together and they. only now. decided to mate--our air conditioner has been not working--think that's what made 'em finally mate? please reply---someone!!

[Budgiekin]

Hmmmm. That is a rather puzzling situation. I have no idea what could be going on there as I have never heard of a budgie eating their young. I can see why you are concerned. :S

[Joey]

Yes it is very unfortunenate but My earlier pair have eaten 6 chicks.....does anyone remeber the thread I made about "handfeeding" a few months ago.That was why I wanted to handfeed I do not want to describe how they did eat the chicks let me put it this way budgies can be creul at times I think mine did it because I disturbed them to much....but I found my babies still alive I know this is very disturbing so if you do not want to listen do not read on....One morning the 6 chicks had been 1 week old and I heard the mother and father cirhping and screeching very loudly I went to go see the mother she was a lutino when she came out of the nest box her chest was covered in blood along with her face...I heard teh babies insid eteh box 2 still chirping faintly I opened teh box to discover the chicks.....very sad a few were missing thier faces but still alive!some had thier backs chewed open and a few others had been dead due to thier wings and legs bitten off!:mad: :( :( :mad: I was so angry with myself and the birds I stopped breeding them after this happened altough they did succefully raise 21 baies before that....:mad: I know it is very greusome but please forgive me...You wouldnt have understood what budgies can do to thier own children!

[Kelly27]

I knew that Hamster's ate their babies but budgies??? :S
Kelly
xXx :)

[Joey]

Yes hamsters do to they also eat each other sometimes....:eek:

[ETAHoffman]

When budgies "savage" their babies, as I've heard it referred to, it is not a pretty sight. I've only had one hen that did that. When I discovered it, I simply took her out of her cage and let her fly free. A bird that does that is useless as a breeder and is obviously so aggressive that she/it is not a good one to keep in your flock. I lost a whole clutch. Fortunately, I only individual cage breed. Had she been in a colony, I hate to think what she would have done to all the other babies too. Her mate did not suffer from whatever caused her to be a killer. He remained a good breeder and I used him for several seasons thereafter.

If she is a good layer, keep her and farm out her eggs. I wouldn't trust her with babies, however. If you have another pair with babies right now, it might be wise to farm out the babies too. I frequently keep several pairs of good American budgies breeding at the same time I breed my English just in case I have to farm out eggs and/or babies.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[abel]

we thought, since the chick that was missing was so tiny, that maybe it just died for some reason, and nana (mom) just threw it out so it wouldn't contaminate the nest. we couldn't find it, but we figured that we'd emptied the tray and hadn't noticed it in there... well, i came home from work to find out that she killed two more babies. i don't understand it. they were getting big and they were doing fine.... she looked tired, but pico (dad) was helping some, and i just thought it was to be expected that she'd be tired... anyway, the one remaining is the oldest chick-- it can stand-- i worry about it, but i don't know what to do, because it's memorial day and i know that baby either needs to get fed by it's mom, or by us, and i don't have a clue what, or how, and without talking to the vet, i just have to leave it with its' mom and hope it's big enough that mom won't kill this one. the last two eggs didn't hatch, incidently, so there won't be any other chicks for the mom to feed, just this one, and we're just going to try to keep a close eye on her.. she was fighting with pico this morning, and that worried me, but so far the last chick seems to be okay. and last, but not least, we only have nana, chico, and the chick, (as far as parakeets go-- though we have other birds of different types), so i can't farm anything out to anywhere.. any thoughts anybody?

[Joey]

Well I have experienced this and I know you get very very angry when you find a chick that has been eatn by the hen.....Just take teh baby away since this is teh last clutch and purchse a small bag of handformula you wont need a large bag if the baby is the oldest?Maybe......Im really not sure I dint get to save my babies but if I could have I would have handfed them!

[Mavish]

When budgies "savage" their babies, as I've heard it referred to, it is not a pretty sight. I've only had one hen that did that. When I discovered it, I simply took her out of her cage and let her fly free. A bird that does that is useless as a breeder and is obviously so aggressive that she/it is not a good one to keep in your flock. I lost a whole clutch. Fortunately, I only individual cage breed. Had she been in a colony, I hate to think what she would have done to all the other babies too. Her mate did not suffer from whatever caused her to be a killer. He remained a good breeder and I used him for several seasons thereafter.

If she is a good layer, keep her and farm out her eggs. I wouldn't trust her with babies, however. If you have another pair with babies right now, it might be wise to farm out the babies too. I frequently keep several pairs of good American budgies breeding at the same time I breed my English just in case I have to farm out eggs and/or babies.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

I only have a budgie and i hope she doesn't become that way. Do you think it might be caused by too much stress?

[BUUZBEE]

be very carefull with the other babies, i hope nothing happens to them. will you hand rear them to be on the safe side?

[abel]

well, to update real quick, out of the six eggs in the nest, four had hatched, and we were checking to see if the fifth had hatched, when we noticed the tiniest baby was missing and we didn't know what had become of it. a few days passed and we had just determined that the last two eggs were infertile, when nana killed her two youngest chicks-- this is the first time we were aware that that's what had happened to the first one, however, the only one remaining was the oldest, and big enough so we hoped she wouldn't harm it since it was memorial day and our bird vet's unavailable. we're novices basically, i mean, we've had our 'keets three and four years, but we weren't sure pico was a boy, and since they'd never mated, we sorta thought he wasn't until nanas' first egg hatched. anyway, we were very happy, and this has been such a trauma for us, but the one (and only) chick that remains is pretty big, and seems healthy, and i don't think nana will hurt it at this point. our main objective now, is to figure out the best way to keep nana from laying any more eggs. so, any advice about that? by the way, soon as the baby comes out of the nestbox i'll take its picture and put it on my name thingee, but i'm not going to risk doing anything right now that might upset nana!! oh, and i don't know the first thing about hand feeding. i'm afraid to try that.... so, again, anybody got any suggestions about how i can keep nana from laying any more eggs?

[Joey]

Um you are going to have to seperate teh pair unfortunatly because even if you dont have the nest box they will still try to mate....even females lay eggs by themselves you should know that It is going to be very hard those are just my suggestions

[BUUZBEE]

first off, im sorry about the rest of the babies, i HOPE she doesnt do anything to it, but she still can. as for eggs, she will try to lay more eggs, but just replace them with fake eggs until the baby has fledged, then take away the box. have you been checking on the baby everyday? you need to check his feet & inside beak, they can get stuff stuck in their beak that can deform the beak, and also they get poo stuck to their feet that can cause problems.

[abel]

we are keeping a very close eye on the baby. a couple of days ago, its' little foot was caught in the nesting material, and we had to carefully cut it away. after that i took that stuff out and put fresh, but cut into much smaller pieces. i didn't know about examining the beak. but now i did, and it looks good. i'm going to upload the baby's picture now. :) (let's see can i do this again :o )

[abel]

The babyis soooo cute!! I can see yellow on its' wingtips. It was hatched on May 15th-- when will it be big enough to get out of the nestbox by itself?:)

[abel]

the baby (who we hope to call, "Pippin"-- if it's a boy), is very healthy, and got out of the nestbox by himself today! but there's another problem-- Pico, (the dad), got extremelyaggressive with the hen, and wouldn't let her feed the chick, soi had to take pico out and put him in a small cage nearby. now it's okay, but why did he act like that, and am i going to have to keep him away from them from now on?!

[Budgiekin]

That's so cute that he got out himself! THanks for the update.

As far as what to do about the aggression, I am not sure what to say about that as I don't have experience breeding budgies. Anyone else have some input they could offer?

[abel]

i took pico out of the cage. mom and chick are fine. pico is sort of lonely. i'm kind of considering putting him in with our cockatiel eventually, since our cockatiel seems to be lonely also...

[homebird]

Hi abel - after I read how you got interested in birds I went in search of your intro + pics of your birds. I can't see any photos :S & am very interested.

I'd love to see photos of these new Budgies :D & more updates.
Jac

PS ~ I was impressed with your responce to a non-friendly- to-pets-childhood. You prove that someone who is not nurtured to be loving to pets can be caring. I was/am very impressed.

[Joey]

Yeah I would like to see the babies...?Pleaz:)