# Stirling & Pearl's First Clutch Breeding Journal



## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

I had a stroppy pair of budgies who wouldn't let anyone nest in any of the 9 nestboxes in the aviary so I put them in with Kuto and Tashima but the budgies took over their nestbox. They budgies got a short shift and into the cage inside with Stirling and Pearl who had been mating for months but nothing came of it. They have never had chicks before. The budgies laid more eggs, hatched 2 chicks and they fledged but got stroppy with the cockatiels so got another short shift into a cage of their own with their nestbox.









Saturday 13 November: It was then that we found a possible reason for the sudden arguements:









Stirling the grey male sat on the eggs all day and would hiss at us and wouldn't even move so we didn't know how many eggs he was sitting on. Pearl (the female pearl) sat on the eggs at night. One day we caught them off guard and found four eggs but weren't sure how long the eggs had been there.

On Monday 22 November we were given another chance to peep in the nestbox (very hard as we had read up and tie-wraped the nestbox in the top of the cage, forgetting that it opened by the lid on the top of it and our arms didn't bend in that fashion to reach it!) and found a total of 7 eggs.









By finding these extra eggs we were able to guess at the due dates and thought the first to be 27 November but 5 days later the first chick finally hatched on Thursday 2 December. Surprisingly the next day two more chicks hatched and we found an 8th egg!









By Wednesday 8 December the 5th chick had hatched.









On Saturday 11 December the 6th chick had been hatched. We weren't looking every day as it was such a hassle to look inside the nestbox and didn't want to disturb the chicks and new parents.









Umm now for the bad news - not sure if this was my fault or not. If anyone can guess what might have happened I would love to know.

Sadly when we checked on Saturday 18 December there were only 5 chicks but only 1 egg left, the eldest chick was 2 weeks old on Thursday 16th. Two chicks were unaccounted for and no remains were anywhere to be seen. The parents had been running out of food and water and I had been topping up at night time before I went to bed but this was still obviously not enough. From now on I fed them morning, noon and night. We think we have chicks 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. Maybe someone who knows how old a chick is by looking at it will be able to confirm or deny this.









Monday 20 December - I thought this was so cute - we saw them at night on the way to bed.









Tuesday 21 December - They are getting lots of feathers now but they still look like mini Friar Tuck's with their bald rings on their heads! No more losses and all growing well (so I think!!) They are in an icecream container with paper towels as cleaning their nestbox - it really smells.
http://information.tewhanau.com/images/AusBudgieForum/Box104_20101221_3399.JPG[/IMG

Sunday 26 December - Eldest chick was 3 weeks on Thursday 23rd. Are these all greys?
[IMG]http://information.tewhanau.com/images/AusBudgieForum/Box104_20101226_4thChick_3weeks_3500.JPG

Whilst I was reading the forums today I noticed a lot of people were handling their chicks and it was a good idea!?! So after feeding and cleaning the cages I got my daughters to help me hold the chicks for 15mins this morning.

This is chick 1, 7 and 2 after their handling (2nd photo of chick 7). They didn't really seem to mind and the parents didn't seem too upset that their babies weren't there.

















Chick 4 and 5:

















Not sure if anyone can confirm the chicks ages, but guess it isn't totally important. The birds are being fed budgie seed mixed with pellets and sunflower seeds. Also a soft food mix of softfood, arrowroot biscuits, lori wet mix, kelp mix, dolomite and brewer's yeast plus parsley mixed with hulled oats which were soaked overnight. They have fine oyster grit, cuttlefish. Every few days I give them unfrozen peas & corn, dandelion leaves & flowers, puha and grass which is seeding. I am also putting organic apple cider vinegar into their water once a week. Just made a soup & rice mix, frozen to try them with also as at the beginning I never realised birds ate anything other than seeds and it has been a hard slog trying to change their eating habits. Fortunately they seem to be eating almost anything at the moment whether its because they have to feed them and their chicks, I don't know.

Please excuse the very long blog but I have only just found the forum and got my photos sorted. Any other help gratefully received.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Im sure others will help you when they come on, all i can really say is awwwww
they look so so cute and adorable


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I think you are about right on the ages and yes they are grey babies...very cute btw. Handling them everyday will help tame them. I can't explain how the babies disappear...when some of mine died I found them buried under all the bedding. But at least you got some of them to make it and they are so cute!!!


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

lperry82 said:


> Im sure others will help you when they come on, all i can really say is awwwww
> they look so so cute and adorable


Thank you. They already have different characters. Will handle them again today too.


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

roxy culver said:


> I think you are about right on the ages and yes they are grey babies...very cute btw. Handling them everyday will help tame them. I can't explain how the babies disappear...when some of mine died I found them buried under all the bedding. But at least you got some of them to make it and they are so cute!!!


Thanks for the confirmation of ages and colouring. When will someone on here be able to tell if males or females - or do I need to wait until they moult around 9 months?

At least it may not have been something I didn't do to lose the babies.

Will handle them again today. Will try the outside two as well but there is a beaut storm raging outside and I don't want them to get a chill.

Their cuteness is growing on me - they are quite different to budgies! But they are already showing different characters.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

They all have their own personalities!!! It depends on what the parents were and whether they had any splits that are sex-linked. If not, there are some signs of difference between boys and girls but a molt will definitely tell what you have unless you want to do a DNA test.


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

I read somewhere, I think it was on this forum that the parents will flatten the babies down with their beaks and smoosh out any bodily fluid, I guess so they don't rot or something... which may account for the missing bodies...


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

_*Two chicks were unaccounted for and no remains were anywhere to be seen.*_
*------------------------*

The pix below (click for a larger veiw) shows what may have happened to the missing little chicks...


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

Belinda said:


> I read somewhere, I think it was on this forum that the parents will flatten the babies down with their beaks and smoosh out any bodily fluid, I guess so they don't rot or something... which may account for the missing bodies...


Now you say that ... a few times I found the mum with her tummy feathers all completely damp about 10am. I just couldn't work out why she was getting so wet. Because it is too difficult to check the nesting box I wasn't checking every day as I didn't want to disturb her - thinking that was more important than having a nosey at the chicks. Now I have read more threads and have more experience, I will be moving the nesting box so I can check it easier and keeping a closer eye on her and the chicks. This is their first time as parents too.

Also I never realised how much food they went through. I was only refreshing the food every morning until one night I noticed the dishes were empty. Then at their peak I was restocking their food morning, noon and night. Wow - they really go through some food. No-one warns you about that! That is something I will also be more aware of.


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

srtiels said:


> _*Two chicks were unaccounted for and no remains were anywhere to be seen.*_
> *------------------------*
> 
> The pix below (click for a larger veiw) shows what may have happened to the missing little chicks...


That's right. I wasn't looking for a missing chick the first time as another one had hatched and as it is my 2nd clutch, first large - I couldn't tell that one of them was missing. It was only when I cleaned out the nesting box again a few days later that I noticed there was only 1 egg left but only 6 chicks - so one gone and one hatched. Then again a few days later only 5 chicks - that I realised something was definitely going on and went back through my photos and diary.

There may have been pieces in the nesting material but I was grabbing it by the handful twisting my arm through a series of turns to collect the dirty nesting material and then to carefully put it into a container to continue. I was looking for pieces of chicks, nor would I recognise any probably.


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

Thought I would update some photos of these guys:

The first one finally fledged:









5 weeks old and baby in the iceceam container:









They enjoy their daily spray bottle shower:









Aren't they so cute! 6 half weeks old.









7 weeks old


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

hehe, I love them all lined up on the perch


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

They are absolutely adorable!


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

Belinda said:


> hehe, I love them all lined up on the perch


And I didn't even have to force them - found them like that! Took about 10 photos though!


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## Kiwigal67 (Nov 21, 2010)

roxy culver said:


> They are absolutely adorable!


Thank you - they are my first so quite pleased with them!


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

They are all gorgeous  Did they eat all the icecream  Love the one where all on a perch


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