# Egg hatching advice



## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

Hello. My cockatiel has laid 5 eggs and they have begun to hatch today. One is currently out of its egg. I have read multiple websites on how to prepare and care for my cockatiels and their new babies but I still have a lot of questiosn and concerns. I am seeking any helpful advice and suggestions on how to care for them. My main concern is the male bird. He gets aggressive at times and attacks the female for going into the nest. She then paces inside of the cage and crys while looking down at the nest. Also I am concerned for the babies getting enough food and hydration. Do I need to do anything to help the parents raise the babies? I plan to hand feed them but I was advised to let the parents care for the babies for 2 weeks before I put them in a brooder. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The parents usually won't feed the babies for up to 12 hours after hatching but they should begin feeding after that. The babies make a soft cheeping sound while they're being fed, so if you hear that sound it's a good sign. If the parents get off the babies long enough for you to look at them, a baby with food in its crop will have a small bulge at the base of the throat. The bulge will be small for the first few days, but when the babies get a little bigger the parents will stuff them so full that their crops will be bigger than their heads.

If the parents are feeding the babies normally, you don't need to do anything but supply them with soft, high-nutrition foods - if you have any questions about what that means, please ask. If the parents are NOT feeding the babies well, you will have to intervene.

Where is the male when he's attacking the female - is he inside the nest and doesn't want her in there, or is he outside the nest? Are there times when he lets her go in the nest without any trouble? Any details on the circumstances would be helpful.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

Thank you for replying. 

I have been hearing the one baby that has hatched. Still waiting on the other 4 eggs. 

What do you mean by soft, high nutrition foods? I have put apples, whole wheat macaroni noodles, and green veggies outside of the nest box for them. They haven't touched them though and its about time to throw them out. They dont usually eat food like that in the cage. They like to eat out of our hands or off our plates. Is it okay to feed them like that if they are feeding babies? 

As for the male cockatiel he gets upset and attacks her when he is already on the eggs and she tries to enter the nest. If he comes completely out of the cage he calms down and she is able to go onto the eggs and he leaves her alone. Once she is on the eggs he stays out of the nest for a while. He will go in and sit inside the nest with her as well and he is calm and fine. But as soon as she leaves and tries to re-enter while he is on the eggs/baby he becomes aggressive and chases her out and bites her.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Do they get pellets? These can also be a good source of baby food. I would continue to offer them food out of your hands but not off your plate only because that would involve taking the parents away from the babies.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

No I dont feed them pellets but I am willing to get some if it will be good for them and the babies.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Pellets are nutritionally complete, meaning that they have properly-balanced amounts of every nutrient that pet birds are known to need. They also soften up into mush when the parents eat them and then drink water, so they're an excellent baby food. But unfortunately it can take a long time (weeks/months) to teach an adult bird to start eating them, so you might not be able to do it in time to benefit this clutch. You can at least offer the pellets though - if either of your parent birds learned to eat pellets before they came to live with you, they might recognize them and start eating them right away.

You can offer your parent birds soaked or sprouted seeds and grains, including their regular seed mix. There's a sticky on how to do this at http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=9019 Be very very careful about spoilage. Soaked/sprouted seeds will be softer and easier for the babies to digest, but if your parent birds aren't accustomed to moist food they might not be willing to eat them. 

Organic whole-grain bread is a good baby food, and most cockatiels adapt to eating bread fairly easily. Do NOT use white bread, it's low in nutrition.

Small amounts of cooked egg are beneficial. Other nutritious cooked foods can be offered too, just make sure that any flour or grains are whole-grain, not white flour or white rice. 

It's OK to feed your birds the apples, noodles, and veggies in the way that they're used to eating it. Just be sure that your hands are clean if you feed them from your hands.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

I have had these two birds since they were babies and they are used to eating seeds and millets. They like to eat anything they see me eating as well so I may be able to get them to eat pellets or other things. 

Thank you for all of this great information!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You might be interested in these threads on diet:
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27479
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27549

The second one is about vitamin D, which is essential for calcium absorption. Your hen and the babies have very high calcium needs right now. Sources of vitamin D include pellets, cooked egg, and direct sunlight (not through a glass) or a well-made full spectrum light.

About the male attacking the female: he's being overly protective, but there isn't a convenient way to make him stop doing it. The parents will stop brooding the babies when the oldest is about a week old, so the problem isn't going to have a very long duration. In the meantime, maybe he will learn to let her in the nest or maybe she will learn not to bother him when he's in there. He is allowing her some access to the nest, so she's getting to exercise her maternal instincts. It's usually the male's job to incubate in the daytime and the hen's job to incubate at night, but there are many pairs who do it differently.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some additional thoughts:

It's not uncommon for parent birds to become sodium deficient when they're breeding, and they frequently try to correct the situation by plucking the babies. This is obviously undesirable, so it's helpful to to provide some extra sodium. You can do this by providing (1) sodium-rich vegetables like celery and chard, (2) whole-grain bread spread with a little bit of salted butter, or (3) one of those salt wheels made for rodents.

Nutriberries are a useful alternative to pellets. They're nutritionally equivalent to pellets but they look like seed balls so it's much easier to convince a cockatiel to eat them (some birds like them in ball form and others prefer them crumbled up). They are NOT a soft food so they're not as desirable for baby food as pellets are, but they're a good source of nutrients. 

Lots of first-time breeders don't know about the importance of good bedding in the nestbox. So just in case you need the information, here's an article on the subject: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27688


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

For the nesting in their box I have layered paper towels. When I first made their nest box I put in wood chips but the female was pushing them all out of the front of the nest box. So far they only accept this and pieces of cardboard box that they chew up. Should I try to put some wood chips in now? 
Here is a photo of how the nest box is setup.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Yes you need wood chips in there...if she pushes them out you need to add more. Paper towel will not be sufficient for the eggs to develop properly. It wont help them keep moisture and the eggs will be able to roll around on them. When you put the chips in there make an indent in the middle with your fist and this may help her to accept it easier. Every time she kicks it out add more.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

Should I take out the baby and eggs that are in with her and then put in chips?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Now that the babies are starting to hatch, they need something that's either well-cushioned or "grippy" underneath them to help prevent splay leg. It looks like the paper towel is textured but I'm not sure whether that will be enough to give the babies a good grip.

2 to 3 inches of wood shavings in the box is most desirable, but it looks to me like the current door is too low to allow that - you also need 2 or 3 inches of empty space between the top of the litter and the bottom of the door hole, so the babies won't fall out accidentally as they get bigger and more mobile. A commercial nestbox has the bottom of the doorway about 5 inches above the surface of the bare floor.

If you could cover up the current doorway and cut a new one higher up without upsetting the parents too much, you could put wood shavings in there. In order to do this, you would need to (1) temporarily put the parents in another location where they won't see you messing with the nest, (2) temporarily put the babies and eggs in a safe warm place (not with the parents, that will just confuse the adults), (3) do what you need to do with the box, (4) install some kind of perch close to the new, higher doorway so the parents can get in easily; they won't need any help getting out, (5) put the eggs and babies back in the nest, and (6) put the parents back in the breeding cage. Most parent birds are highly motivated so they quickly adjust to changes in the nesting area, and they should be taking care of their clutch again within 30 minutes. If they aren't, you may need to switch everything back to the way it was before and consider other options. However those other options might not be any less disruptive to the parents.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

I added Aspen chips and blocked off the entrance and cut one higher up. They seem to have settled back in.
Here it what the nest box currently looks like:


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

That's much better! The aspen chips will keep the babies and any unhatched eggs safer and warmer than the paper towels would have done.

BTW there will be a lot of baby poop accumulating in the nestbox. You don't have to clean it out if you don't want to (the parents certainly won't bother, and it's natural for tiel chicks to grow up in a pile of poop). But it's OK to change it if you don't like the mess. You would follow a similar procedure, removing the parents and the babies then changing at least the top layer of the wood chips and then putting everyone back. I don't change the bedding until the first chick is about a week old because the mess isn't too bad before that point, then change it every other day.


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## c.b (Aug 9, 2012)

Thank you for your help. The second baby has hatched and they seem to be doing okay!


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