# New Owner, new babies



## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

Hello,

I recently inherited 20 cockatiels and I know nothing about them, so I have been doing a lot of reading. In the 9 months since I got them I have lost 3, by opening the cage incorrectly. 2 died, one of an unknown illness and the other from an injury and I gave one away to a friend. So I have 14. 

Of that they have become very friendly to each other since the start of September and now I have 4 hens on the nest and numerous eggs, of which I have disposed of one lot of eggs because there was lots of sitting but no chicks and after a month I thought that it was appropriate to ditch them. 

But the diligent little things just laid a new lot of eggs. Of that I now have two newly hatched chicks and I haven't a clue of what to do with them. 

So my question is, there seems to be other eggs that have very obviously got chicks in them but I think they are dead. Other eggs that are white, with no obvious signs of chicks and hens that seem to be perpetually sitting on eggs with nothing. Do I take the eggs away from them especially as now we have two chicks, or will the other hens get jealous of the new mums and babies and attack them. 

Regards 

Lee


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## Dylan&Gracie (Nov 21, 2014)

You shouldn't be breeding them if you don't know how to care for them. Parents with chicks needs high-protein fresh foods such as boiled chopped eggs, fruits, and green vegetables every day while feeding chicks. They can do the rest. You may have a hard time selling the babies if they are parent-raised as they won't be very friendly to humans without socialization. I would not recommend hand-feeding to a novice, though, it is not easy.


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## Phoenix2010 (Sep 15, 2014)

With the remaining eggs, I would leave them in the nests for now as they are apparently sterile while whole and provide physical support for the little chicks. You are also at risk of other pairs interfering with the nest with the bubs in if you remove their eggs. While the parents are feeding give them plenty of food. There are lots of stickies in this forum about it but as a guide I feed peas and corn which I buy frozen, I just pour boiling water over to defrost them and let them sit for a short time. I then give them pretty much what they want for the rest of the day, if like me you still have seeding weeds, especially thistles they love them, wholemeal bread, broccoli, egg and biscuit mix, some bird crumble... You get the idea
Their eyes will open at around 7 - 10 days and thats a good time to start handling them for a while each day to get them used to you. I check mine daily from hatched and always have a chat with them so they know my voice so its not such a shock lol
So good luck and enjoy!


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## Colorguarder08 (Sep 13, 2014)

If only you were closer to me I'd be willing to take a few of them off your hands. 14 cockatiels is A LOT especially when you don't have experience with them.


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## john9 (Nov 4, 2013)

Hello Lee one thing that hasn't bee mentioned is interbreeding ie brother with sister etc, so if you don't know the history of your birds don't let these 14 breed with each other.


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

Dylan&Gracie said:


> You shouldn't be breeding them if you don't know how to care for them. Parents with chicks needs high-protein fresh foods such as boiled chopped eggs, fruits, and green vegetables every day while feeding chicks. They can do the rest. You may have a hard time selling the babies if they are parent-raised as they won't be very friendly to humans without socialization. I would not recommend hand-feeding to a novice, though, it is not easy.


Appreciate your advice, however I did not breed them, they did that themselves. It was not my intention to breed them, or to sell or to otherwise profit off them. However, can you tell me how to keep 14 birds which are obviously male and female in an aviary and not have them breed.


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

john9 said:


> Hello Lee one thing that hasn't bee mentioned is interbreeding ie brother with sister etc, so if you don't know the history of your birds don't let these 14 breed with each other.


Appreciate your advice, however as I said, I inherited these birds, I have no idea if they are brother/sister father/daughter mother/son. They were given to me without any information except what to feed them. It's a big learning curve for me. I could I suppose separate the males from the females as I do have two cages joined together to make one big cage.


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

Colorguarder08 said:


> If only you were closer to me I'd be willing to take a few of them off your hands. 14 cockatiels is A LOT especially when you don't have experience with them.


It is a lot but I took them because the person who had them got too old to care for them, he had 40 and split them up. I think splitting them up again might be traumatic for them. I won't give them up, but I might be able to work out how to stop them breeding indiscriminately.


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## tielbob (Mar 25, 2013)

Hi Lee, from me and Percy...
How kind of you to care for all these little birds - you sure have your hands full :yes:
I don't know anything about managing a sizable flock because I never had more than 2 cockatiels at the same time but I'm glad you came here for suggestions. Please be sure to stay and over time lots of people will give their best to try to help


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## john9 (Nov 4, 2013)

Flashfire said:


> Appreciate your advice, however as I said, I inherited these birds, I have no idea if they are brother/sister father/daughter mother/son. They were given to me without any information except what to feed them. It's a big learning curve for me. I could I suppose separate the males from the females as I do have two cages joined together to make one big cage.


Hi Lee, first things first, do your birds have nest boxes.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I had a large flock like that once. When you say aviary, are they outside? If they are inside, you can do hormone control which will help slow down the breeding. Separating them would also help, keeping the cages side by side will help them stay calm by being able to see each other. It's a learning curve for sure but you can do it!


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## Phoenix2010 (Sep 15, 2014)

How are you little chicks doing? They grow so fast!


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

john9 said:


> Hi Lee, first things first, do your birds have nest boxes.


Yes, the person who gave me the birds also gave me nesting boxes for them, I realise that common sense should tell me that bird + nest = eggs and hatchlings, I believed what I was told they were almost impossible to breed in captivity I wasn't worried about it, because not being a "breeder" and having done nothing to actively encourage breeding, I thought they needed the boxes to sleep in. 

I have had them for about 6 months, imagine my surprise when I saw eggs a month ago, and more and more and more eggs and now 5 hatchlings.


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

Phoenix2010 said:


> How are you little chicks doing? They grow so fast!


They are so cute and tiny with fluffy little yellow feathers, their eyes are still closed, but one hissed at me this morning when I checked them. I am little bit scared of them actually, because they are so tiny I don't want to handle them in case I break one. They are not like chicken chicks at all.


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## Flashfire (Sep 16, 2015)

roxy culver said:


> I had a large flock like that once. When you say aviary, are they outside? If they are inside, you can do hormone control which will help slow down the breeding. Separating them would also help, keeping the cages side by side will help them stay calm by being able to see each other. It's a learning curve for sure but you can do it!


Well I call it an aviary, what it actually is; is two chicken pens joined like an L shape with a fly through tunnel between them. And yes it is outside.


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