# Adoption Age



## mgautreau (Aug 13, 2012)

Hi All. I'm new to the forum and new to Cockatiels. We were recently given two Cockatiels which we love but shortly after we got them and quite unexpectedly they produced a clutch of 5 eggs of which 4 hatched. We were unprepared to say the least and it has been an interesting experience. 

The babies are about 2 months old now and we had to separate them from the parents as they were plucking the head and neck feathers from the babies. We put them back together with the parents twice a day and the male bird will still feed the youngest a little but the older ones seem to be weaned and barely interested in feeding from the parents. The female has just produced another egg and seems to want little or nothing to do with the babies from the first clutch. The babies have all learned to fly and they are all becoming quite social just like the parents.

My two questions are, when is it safe to adopt the baby birds out and how do I stop the parents from laying more eggs?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Its very hard to prevent a second or "double" clutch. You can do hormone reduction techniques found here: http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330

As to the babies, the older ones might be ready the younger ones aren't and its usually a good idea to wait til the babies are about ten weeks old or so so that they don't regress (become unweaned) and need the parents again, because once you fully remove them the parents most likely wont feed them anymore. Males are more maternal than females so by this point the females really don't have a lot to do with the older babies.

Welcome to the forum!


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## JaimeS (Nov 28, 2011)

Welcome to TC!


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## devilangel09 (Feb 5, 2008)

just a question what did they lay the eggs and raise the chicks in?


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