# Baby cockatiels



## sueann (Jul 20, 2008)

All right I have a couple of questions, new to breeding I was having no luck with cabinet breeding so I set up my 3 pair in an open aviary and set up several nestboxes. The first round babies I pulled for handfeeding and still have 2 of them in the house as pets. But this round I got three pearls and want to let the parents feed them out, my question is when will the babies come out of the nest? what age? They are 3 1/2 weeks now and such big beautiful babies. Second question, when they venture from their nest, as I said I have a set up with 3 pair in an open aviary, will the babies be ok or should I take them when they come out and put them in a nursery cage? I raise Budgies too, but I cabinet breed with them so they naturally, go from parents cage to the nursery then the junior flight before ever venturing in with the adults in the adult flight. Should I do the same with the tiels? As soon as these babies are out of the nest I plan to take all boxes out, as I only want to allow 2 rounds of clutches. Also, can I introduce the 1 of the birds I have in the house into the aviary with the other tiels? As I would like to use her for a breeder as well? This would put 10 cockatiels total in a 12 x 12 outdoor aviary. Hope I didnt confuse anyone with all that babbling. LOL Thanks in advance for any advice. Sueann


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## Bea (Jul 26, 2007)

I've never bred cockatiels in an aviary, but my understanding is that they are much more peaceful than budgies.  The chicks should fledge at about 4-5 weeks old, but they'll be quite reliant on their parents for food for at least 2-3 weeks after that. I would leave the chicks in the aviary with the parents providing there's no fighting.  

I would see if you can find some fake eggs too. It will be hard to get three pairs to finish breeding all in sync, and if one pair loses their nest box i would expect them to try to steal anothers. It would be easier to just replace any new eggs with fakes and then let all the pairs get bored of their plastic eggs before taking the nests down. 

You should be able to introduce your pet tiel to the aviary, but whether or not she'll make a good breeder will be shown when you actually try her. I've heard that hand reared birds do not make good parents, because they didn't spend enough time with their own parents to know what to do. Having said that i bred successfully with my handreared male. Not sure if it's different for a female.

Hope this helped!


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## Sophia (Aug 11, 2007)

We got Earl from a breeder and the first time we saw him, he was in the aviary with his parents, other tiels, baby tiels (maybe from his parents or other parents.)
He was about 5 weeks old, so he had come out of the nest box and he was with all the other birds. 
You could introduce your other pet tiel back into the aviary, but keep your eye on them just incase there is some fighting, but that is unlikely. But just be prepared!  Good Luck!


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## Carrie~Anne (Apr 19, 2008)

I've never used an open aviary for breeding, so I'm not sure what happens once the babies are capable of producing offspring of their own. How do you prevent siblings from mating with one another and parents mating with offspring?


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## sueann (Jul 20, 2008)

Thankyou all for your help. I am very sad to say that my morning feeding today I discovered one of the young out of the nest but the other 2 were dead in the nestbox. I am not certain what happened as I still have 5 nestboxes up in place so I have learned the hard way and I will not be colony breeding EVER AGAIN. I brought the one that was out home with me, it was perched by its parents, but I was afraid for its safety so I brought it inside. Now if I understood correctly after all nestboxes are removed I can safely let all the tiels, breeders and babies I have kept from clutches, live in the aviary??
But I promise when it is time for breeding again I will MOST DEFINITELY be cabinet breeding. I only wish I would of pulled these for handfeeding like I did the first clutches. But I was wanting the parents to rear as I wanted these 3 for breeding they were all 3 whiteface pearls. I still have one but I am really nervous to introduce the young into the flight now. I have thought possibly taking the parents out this afternoon and putting them in a smaller cage with the baby, would this be safe? Thanks for all the help.


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

For future reference handfeeding doesn't make 'tiels bad parents. If anything I find them easier to deal with when I check on them in the box. What were the parents' mutations?. I have a male Whiteface Pearl and a female Cinnamon Whiteface Pearl. They seem to be hanging out together in the aviary lately. The only problem with pairing them is I won't know 'till they mature what they are (male or female) They will all be visual Whiteface Pearls with the males split to Cinnamon. I do have a plain Cinnamon Whiteface hen and at lease that way I would know that all the pearls that were hatched were girls all the regular Whiteface would be boys!
Did you have yours set up so you would know or would you have to wait?


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