# Colony Breeding Journal



## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

I figured it would be easier to do it this way than to post them individually. lol

Anyways, I have 3 breeding pairs going at it in the flight. First is Duke and Daisy who currently have just one baby, but we are waiting on a few more hopefully. They had 7 eggs total, but at least 3 are infertile, probably due to the stress from the move. Their lone chick is fat as a little pig, and is going on a week old tomorrow. Duke is a normal gray and Daisy is a normal gray split to pied.

Next is Blitz and Peanut. This is Blitz's first breeding attempt ever, but he is doing so well. Peanut has nested and laid eggs before, but her eggs have always been infertile because the male my grandma had her caged with was too young. This is her first time nesting in an actual nest box. They currently have 5 eggs together and at least 3 are fertile. Blitz is a normal gray, but I'm thinking he is split to pied and/or lutino because he is a very light gray compared to my other grays. Peanut is a lutino pearl pied. I can't wait to see what their babies are going to look like!!

And last but not least, I know I said I wasn't going to let Coby and Angel breed anymore because of her slight bald spot, but they are doing it with or without my consent. Angel began laying in the feed cup, so I put her a nest box in the flight as well to make her happy. Her bald spot has actually filled in a great deal so I'm thinking that maybe she was just being picked on by the other birds in her cage before I purchased the pair. I have been looking at the whiteface lutino babies the pair produced out of their last clutch and if they are going to have bald spots, they are going to be very small. They still have pin feathers on their heads still yet so it is hard to tell. I'm hoping to get another whiteface pied out of this clutch so we'll see. They currently have 4 eggs together. Coby is a whiteface split to lutino and pied, and Angel is a whiteface lutino split to pied.


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## elenafan23 (Aug 16, 2009)

Sounds like your gonna have your hands really full  can't wait to see pics of the lil fluffies. =]


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I can't wait to see how this all goes...good luck!!!


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Good luck with all the breeding pairs, would love to see some recent pictures of your babies.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Jenny10 said:


> Good luck with all the breeding pairs, would love to see some recent pictures of your babies.


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Yes...also one of your grey babies had a white ring around the cheek patch area. This could be an indication of split to WF.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

I noticed that too and was wondering if that's what it was an indicator of. I will more than likely keep a hen from this clutch or their next clutch for breeding to put over a whiteface, so we'll see. That would be wonderful, because I was actually getting ready to start looking for a gray or pied split to whiteface for breeding and I may not have to. 

Oh and I'm going to try to take some pics of my flight today. And I'll take some updated baby pics this evening when I get home. The whiteface pied and the whiteface split to pied have both fledged. They are growing up so fast!! lol


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Okay so I checked on my birds again yesterday and I figured I'd give a brief update. All of the remaining 6 eggs that Daisy and Duke are sitting on are infertile, and upon closer inspection I noticed that the eggs are two different shapes! There are 3 round eggs with hardly any elongation at all, then there are 3 football shaped ones! I'm thinking that Peanut began laying in that nestbox with Daisy and Duke first before discovering a nestbox of her own. Peanut lays a rounder egg, so that is pretty much my guess on what happened. Anyways yeah, I will probably take the duds out on my next nestbox inspection. Their lone chick looks like a little butterball turkey!! lol

All of Blitz and Peanut's eggs are fertile, but one looks DIS. There are 5 total, so I'd be satisfied with 3-4 chicks from them considering this is their first breeding attempt together. I'm hoping they start hatching soon!! *And hopefully they will make good parents and will feed their babies!* If not I will foster the chicks to Duke and Daisy, or Coby and Angel depending on when the eggs start hatching. 

One of Coby and Angel's eggs is MIA! I went to check their nestbox and only came up with 3 eggs. I searched under the bedding and under Angel (to her annoyance), and couldn't find it anywhere. Oh well. Maybe it accidently got broken or something. Their remaining 3 eggs are all fertile. 

BABIES, BABIES, and more BABIES!!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

OK...what I do whenever I have a pair on infertile eggs is to give them a fertile egg or two. This lessend the load in the nestboxes that have plenty of fertile eggs. 

As to fostering babies, if the current baby is too big when you put smaller hatchlings in they will be fed, but they be fed a denser consistency of food which can lead to slower growth and/or death if it is to hard to digest. Another alternative is to put fertile eggs in that are close to hatch. The movement and the sounds are a signal to the sitting pair to start to eat and hold some food in their crop to feed a thinner consistency the first day.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Would you let Blitz and Peanut attempt to raise that babies as they hatch? I figured if they don't do well with the first baby or two, I will take the other eggs that are going to be hatching and give them to Duke and Daisy. I don't know how they are going to do as parents. I know that they are doing really well incubating the eggs and protecting the nest box, but how do I know if they are going to do well feeding and taking care of the babies? I worry about them all the time. I am going to candle Coby and Angel's eggs and see how close they are to Blitz and Peanut's eggs, so maybe that would be a better alternative. The babies would be closer in age. 

I kind of had an idea... since Blitz and Peanut are so new to the whole parenting thing, I could let them keep a fertile egg or two, and just swap the other fertile eggs in their nestbox with Duke and Daisy's infertile ones. That way the foster parents would be able to hear the chick vocalizing inside the egg and prepare their crops for feeding the newly hatched babies. The newbie parents would get experience raising a baby or two, without the load of 4 or so chicks, and I would be confident that the others would be well taken care of with more experienced parents. What do you think?


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Yes...your idea sounds very practical and good. This way you can see how they do. Another thing I have done successfully in the past is to learn which pairs were the best feeders. Once their oldest chicks were 2 to 2.5 weeks old I would pull the oldest, and replace them with some younger ones, but in simliar size from another nest, if you had other nest with poor feeders or large clutches.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Awesome. I think that is what I'm going to do. There is no reason to let an entire clutch fail if it can be prevented, and I'm worried the pair won't know what to do. I'll let them keep one baby and foster the other eggs. Thanks Susanne!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

OK...with the new parents you can assist feed for a few day until they get the hang of it. Just feed the chicks a little bit, and make sure when you put back in the nest they are still hungry and crying so that they stimulate the feeding responce from the parents.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Well I looked in on my flight today and I have exciting news! One of Blitz and Peanut's eggs is pipping. I kind of knew something was up by the way he acted when I walked into the flight. He is normally extremely tame, and will fly on top of my head or on my shoulder and sing to me. Today he rushed out of the nest box with his mouth open and wings spread and that is really out of character for him. It ususally tickles him to death when I check the nest box because he makes a high pitched "squeaking" noise and watches as I peer inside. He is so proud. lol Anyways, immediately when he acted aggressive towards me I knew he either had a chick in the nest or one was on the way and I was right. One of the eggs had a slight pip mark, so it is still early and the other eggs' air cells are tilting. I removed the other two and swapped them for two of Duke and Daisy's infertile eggs, and left the one that is pipping in the nest box for Blitz and Peanut to take care of. Hopefully they will know what to do. 

OH!! And the rest of Duke and Daisy's eggs weren't all infertile! There is one that is developing so I'm happy! Duke and Daisy are very experienced parents, so I am confident that they will take very good care of the two fosters along with their current chick and their chick to come. 

Coby and Angel's eggs are all developing and doing well. I'll be checking on the pipping egg again tomorrow to see how things are coming along. I'll try to remember my camera so I can snap some pics! I'm hoping for at least some pied babies from Blitz and Peanut, but a lutino or a pearl would be excellent. I'm hoping Blitz has some hidden splits that I don't know about. *fingers crossed*


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

It sounds like things are going well. keep us posted, and hopefully tomorrow they will be a little fluffball.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Blitz and Peanut's first egg hatched today. It is a lutino (pink eyes, yellow down) so apparantly Blitz is split to lutino after all. =] One of the two eggs from Blitz and Peanut that I fostered to Duke and Daisy is pipping as well, so I can't wait to see what it turns out to be! lol I think one chick will be enough for Blitz and Peanut to raise since it is their first time. We'll see how they do! =D


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Congratulations on the new baby  If Peanut is not a lutino, then the baby is a female.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

congratulations on the babies, it sounds like things are going really well.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Thanks! Yeah I just hope they take care of the baby. I would really hate to lose it. I'm going to check on it tomorrow and if it hasn't been fed I am going to foster it to Duke and Daisy. 

Peanut is a lutino pearl pied. I drew that conclusion from your pictures actually. She has pink eyes, and has a yellow pearling on her back with solid yellow tail feathers and wing flights. No barring.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Ah...then the lutino baby can be either sex.


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## kirbulous (Jul 21, 2010)

I love reading these breeding journals! Hopefully Kirby and Abby will take to each other well enough to have some babies one day. 
Looking forward to photos of baby birds!


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Update: Sorry it has been so long. My computer at home is in the shop so I'm having to use my in-laws' pc. Blitz and Peanut's baby (the little lutino that they are taking care of) is doing extremely well. He/she is fat as a little pig.. lol. My only concern is that she has some scratches on her back that look like are from the parents' claws. Should I be worried or is this normal? I can move her to another nestbox if I have to. Daisy and Duke could handle one more. 

Speaking of Daisy and Duke, the two eggs that I fostered to them from Blitz and Peanut have hatched. One is another lutino and the other is a normal (whether it is pied, pearl, normal, etc I don't know yet). They are being fed by both parents AND the pair's son from last year (how odd!) When I purchased Duke and Daisy the lady included their son in the deal, so I guess they trust him enough with their foster babies. I catch him going in and out of the nest box quite often and the pair doesn't seem to mind. Is this normal? Sorry for all the questions... lol.

Oh and I pulled Daisy and Duke's older chick once their foster chicks started hatching and have started hand feeding it. He is 3 weeks old and weighs a whopping 110 grams (with food in his crop). I'll weigh him empty tonight. He is a normal gray with no pied ticks or markings. He is still hissing at me quite a bit and is taking to the syringe very slow, but hopefully he will warm up to me soon. 

As for Coby and Angel, their 3 eggs have all hatched and are doing really well. They ended up with 2 wf lutinos and 1 normal wf. I'm hoping that the little wf ends up being a wf pied (fingers crossed!) 

I will be posting pics of all the babies soon!! =]


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

It sounds like the colony is doing good. The sratches on the back of the chick are not intentional. What is is, is an indication that something is spooking the parents while in the box and they are panicking, and trying to scramble out of the box. 

Can't wait to see pix's of the babies


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Yes the colony is doing quite well. I don't think I could ever go back to keeping birds in cages again! I love my little colony!! So far I have 12 birds in my flight, but I am looking to sell a few of my boys that are not paired up. My husband has given me another one of his fly pens (flights) so I'm going to get started setting it up and getting it 'tiel ready ASAP! I am going to use the new flight to pair up birds to either test breed, or to breed to a certain mutation. 

Quick question: I know that cold weather is a little far off, but how do you recommend I provide heat for my birds in the winter? I was thinking about covering the wire parts of the flight with plastic to keep the heat in and just using heat lamps. Are heat lamps safe for cockatiels? I am just afraid of them flying into the bulbs because they get pretty hot. What do you think??


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

OK...cockatiels do fine down to 20-30 degrees with no heat. The one thing you do not want to do in the winter time is totally seal up the flight and cut off air flow. When there is no air movement it feels colder to them. During the winter have your perches higher to the ceiling...prefferably a solid ceiling, and you might want to have ccover/plastic going down 2-3 feet from the ceiling. heat rises from their body heat. when tiels are feeling cool they will get active and fly to warm back up.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

So if it does get colder than 20 degrees (which is likely in my area), what should I do? What would be a safe heat source? My flight has only 2 sides that have wire and the open (wire) spaces aren't very big (4 ft by 4 ft). The other two sides and the roof are solid. I was thinking I could put plastic over half or three quarters of the wire areas to allow for ventilation and then add a heat source (to be used only when below 20 degrees).


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

You'll laugh at what I have used for emergency heat. I would save all the kitchen scraps, coffee grinds, and grab old grass and leaves and put it in a heavy duty trash bag, and add a little water, and close the bag. it would generate heat and act like a heater during the night. But it did not get hot enough if the birds all got on it for the heat. If you have a heater in the flight it would have to be in a cage so that they can not get to close to it and get burnt.

You can probably start a compost pile so that leter on you can bag it with some fresh cow/horse/chicken poop and also use for heat on the cold nights.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Sounds interesting. We definitely have plenty of horse and chicken poop so maybe I'll give it a try. lol


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Oh...I just thought of another thing. If you use plastic sheeting on the flight as a cover, make sure it is not close to the wire.The tiels will chew on it, and it can get impacted inside them and this can kill them. That happened to a friend of mine. You can get a roll of reed fencing from Home Depot...I think it is 16' for a roll of it and around $20 and wrap it on the side of the flight.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Oh ok... I never even thought of them eating the plastic so I'm glad you mentioned it. Wouldn't want them to get sick from it! Thanks.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Well I guess I'd just bring you all up to speed on the colony breeding thing. All of my babies have died except for Blitz and Peanut's little lutino that they are taking care of. There was a horrible thunderstorm like 2 night in a row and it caused Coby and Angel to abandon their chicks, and Duke and Daisy have abandoned their fosters as well. I guess they just weren't used to the storms and it freaked them out. Anyways, the babies all chilled and died so it has been a very sad day. I am going tomorrow and cleaning out all of the boxes and block the entrances so there is no more breeding this year. As soon as Blitz and Peanut's baby is old enough to pull for hand feeding, I will do the same to their box. I have put tons of cuttlebone in the flight so the hens can replenish their calcium stores. They are all going to get a nice long rest until next spring. I didn't take any pics today because I didn't have time, but I will try to post some pics of the little lutino tomorrow. I'm alittle worried about her because it seems the parents are over-preening her. She has dried blood on the tips of most of her blood feathers and I'm afraid the over preening may lead to picking. I'm going to keep an eye on her and if it gets worse I'm going to go ahead and pull her for hand feeding.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*She has dried blood on the tips of most of her blood feathers and I'm afraid the over preening may lead to picking.*
*--------------------------------------------*
No...that is not from over-preening...that is from a red mite attack. I thought I had a pix saved to post, but I can't find it. Can you post a pix...I'd like to save it for my files. If you have Seven 5% dust you might want to mix a small handfull into the bedding. And lightly dust the baby on the legs, under the wings, and the crest area. 

OK...as far as the other babies you lost was their colors normal or pale? 

Also do you have a light, low wattage (25-40 watt) on for them all during the night? I found this is a neccessity if colony breeding. The baby that had the scratches on it was an indication that something is panicking the birds, so you'll have to find out what that is if it wasn't from the storms.

I would not close up the boxes, but let them go again. Clean out the boxes. Add a handfull of Seven dust to the box of the box...spread all over the bottom, add the bedding and dust the top with Seven dust and mix and fluff the bedding. The mites are most likely a result of if the weather was dry and then the storms. Plus your pairs will be mourning the loss of the chicks and will already be working on another clutch.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

I added sevin dust powder to the bedding when I set up my flight, so it has already been treated. And I have a light on my birds in the flight at all times. Should I add another light fixture to brighten it up a bit more since red mites only come out when it is dark? The babies that were dead had empty crops and were very stunted so I'm assuming the parents just stopped feeding them. I didn't notice any bites on them or anything. Oh and I think I know what is spooking them out of the nest boxes!! RATS!! My husband says he saw a rat up there so I am very concerned about that! He says the rats will be attracted to the bird seed and the young birds. We are going to be putting out poison to control the rat issue immediately! The lutino chick seems very healthy other than a few scratches on her back and the blood-tipped quills (I said feathers, but I ment quills). Do I need to treat my entire flight for the red mites if that is indeed what the problem is? The gray baby that I have been hand feeding wasn't affected, so if it is red mites why wasn't the other babies showing the same signs? I have lice and mite spray, but I also have a concentrated permethrin solution that you mix with water and spray with a pressure sprayer. That is how we treat our chicken pens. I will shovel out the old bedding and add new pine, then sprinkle fresh sevin dust in the boxes. I will also add a brighter bulb and another light fixture today as well just in case it is red mites. Thanks for the heads up! I will take a picture this evening so you can see how the little lutino is doing.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

If you have rats what you might want to do is staple the wire of the flight wall to the front of the nestbox so that the nestbox is flush tight to the wirew. This will prevent a rat/mouse from working it's way between the nestbox and flight wall and getting into and out of the flight. Wire up the top of the flight up to the roof so that they can't walk across the top of the flight. 

Place rat bait all over. When I had a rat problem I was worried about rats carrying the bait on top of my flights and the birds chewing on it. My vet assured me that the bait would not harm the birds, just the rats. Birds blood reacts differently to the rat bait and it does not affect them like mamals and rats.

You can take a couple of heapping tablespoons of Seven dust and mix it in water, and put in a spray bottle and spray nestboxes and everything down.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Now that I've re-treated everything with the sevin dust, the chick is looking better. And we haven't seen a rat in a few days, so I'm hoping the poison is killing them out. I will post pics of the chick as soon as I can (hopefully this weekend!) I didn't know how well Peanut would do feeding the chick on her own, but she is keeping its crop full all of the time so that's a relief. They are resilient little guys.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

thats good Peanut is managing.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been able to post a pic of my little lutino chick yet. I have been working really odd hours at work so bear with me. I have been looking at her closely though and she is going to be a lutino pearl (and probably pied) like her mother. Susanne is right, the surprises in the nest never get old. Her head and neck is mainly yellow (as far as I can tell, she is still mainly in the pin feather stage) and her flights are white with yellow bars/dots. She has yellow pearling already visible through the quills on her back and shoulders, but I'm afraid she is going to have a slight bald spot. The pins on the back of her head are somewhat sparse in the area right behind her crest. I'm assuming that the pearl gene combined with the lutino is causing the baldness as her mother has no bald spot. For her to be pearl though Blitz had to have been split to pearl as well, so she could be either male or female. I'm calling her a she for now, but we'll see. I haven't named her yet. I want to give her a good name because she is special to me. Her father was a good friend of mine, and I'd like to keep her as something to remember him by. Any suggestions on names? The girls at work have been calling her Duckie since she is yellow... lol

Anywhoo... Duke and Daisy currently have 3 new eggs in their nest box, and oddly their son Dodge is sharing the protecting duties. He is their offspring from last year. I have noticed him going in and out of the nest box a lot and he runs the other cockatiels away from the nest. I haven't seen him incubating the eggs yet, but the other day he went in there while his mom (Daisy) was in there and she didn't seem to mind. My husband is worried that he may have mated with Daisy, but she is really bonded to Duke so I don't think so. I will definitely know for sure once the chicks begin to feather as both Dodge and Daisy are split to pied and Duke isn't. If they are all grays then all is good. If there is a pied in the bunch, then that isn't so good. I don't want any inbreeding so I am going to be looking for a home for little Dodge just in case. I don't really want to keep him for breeding, but I would hate to put him back in a cage now that he is used to being in an aviary. I may keep him and just put him in the new flight I am working on *shrugs.* 

Peanut seems a little sad and withdrawn. I hope she feels better soon. I know it was hard for her to lose her mate and her baby so close together, but I had to pull it for hand feeding. I don't really want any parent raised offspring, as I would rather them be used to people and friendly. She is still going in and out of the nest box like she is looking for the baby. I feel so sorry for her. I hope she can bond with another male and successfully raise another clutch this year. I was hoping Skeeter and Dodge would step in and try to woo her, but they haven't really showed her any interest. They are all struck on Angel.

Speaking of which, I think Coby and Angel have called it quits for breeding this year THANK GOODNESS!! I don't think I want those two breeding anymore as they produce small offspring. 

Anyway, that's about it for my little cockatiel soap opera. I hope I haven't bored anyone to the point of tears. I just love talking about my birds and this forum seems like the only place I can do that as my husband can only take so much (bless his heart). He knows I love them and tolerates them because of me but that is about the extent of his relationship with my tiels. Blitz was his buddy and I don't see him getting attached to any more. Thanks for listening!! lol


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Honey I will listen any time you want, I love reading about your babies! As to the chicks sparse pin feathers on the head, I have a white faced lutino who only when she is wet can you see how sparse the top of her head is, dry she looks perfectly normal. So it could fill out, maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed!


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi, well things seem to be going well, except the loss of poor Blitz, but just a thought you could try co parent rearing with peanut i have heard others on here talk about it and say the chicks are still freindly with that human interaction, plus it would help peanut a little.

Just a thought anyway


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

I think she is interested in nesting again because Duke has been going in and out of her nest box a lot and she doesn't seem to mind. If any other tiel goes close she runs them off, so maybe Duke is trying to court her while nesting with Daisy at the same time. Can a cock nest with two different hens in two separate nests? Has that ever been done? lol


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Yes...he can fertilze another hen even though he has a mate nesting. Since she las lost her mate and baby she may have solicited him so that she can replace these losses.

You might consider, if she does have any babies to leave one with her to fledge and wean. If you handle the babies from day 1 to fledgling in a colony situation they can become handtame, and used to people. I have done this sevral times,and one time had a group of 18 parent raised babies in a colony flight that were actually tamer than handfed.


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

I was going to post some pics last night but my horse was sick and we were trying to decide if we should wait it out to see if she got better or just put her down. She got bit by a rattle snake and the vet couldn't get there until today (how convenient). She passed away last night. 


I wish I had time to handle my babies in the nest boxes everyday, but unfortunately I am not able to go up and check in on my flight everyday because of the hours I work. I go up there like 3 times a week, but otherwise my husband fills their feeder everyday and makes sure they have clean water for me. When I'm off I go up and clean everything, and freshen up the floor of the flight. If I pull the chicks for hand feeding I can take them to work with me and it works out really good. Plus the babies get handled a lot because everybody loves them and they are really social when they wean. 

Here are the pics of my little lutino pearl baby. I was looking at her flights now that they are grown out some and they have yellow spots/bars on all of the flight feathers so it looks like my baby is a little girl after all. You can't see the pearling in the pics which aggravates me, but hopefully once she gets feathered in completely I will be able to take a nice picture. My camera is like 6 years old so it isn't the best. She is a lot more yellow than it shows in the picture. I weighed her empty this morning and she weighs 68 grams. She is 26 days old and is a lot smaller than my gray babies are at this age. When I pull my grays for hand feeding, they are anywhere from 95 to 110 grams. Blitz wasn't a large bird (around 85-90 grams) and Peanut just weighs around 95 grams so I guess considering her genetics, she will not be a huge cockatiel. But that's okay! I love her anyway.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

What a pretty baby  Iam so sorry to hear about your horse


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## kfelton0002 (Mar 12, 2010)

Thank you. Yeah it was pretty unexpected. One day she was fine and the next she's unable to hardly stand or walk. When we went to feed her she was just kind of stumbling in circles and paid no mind to the feed, which is completely out of character for her. Then all of a sudden she just kind of flopped down and she rarely lays down, only to roll and scratch her back. We went over to her and she was just lethargic. 

After reading some articles on the internet though, I don't think it was a snake bite. I think she had some sort of disease like Eastern Equine Encephalitis b/c of how quickly she died and how she was acting. The disease is transmitted by misquitos. Snake bites rarely kill horses and definitely don't kill them as quickly as a day or so and there is a lot more swelling than we noticed with Beauty. There was some minor swelling to her right back leg and some bleeding, but I think it may have been a result of her stumbling and falling because she had some other minor abraisons/cuts to her belly and chest. 

She was up to date on her vaccinations and things, but I'm sure there are other diseases that a horse can get that cannot be vaccinated against. Oh well. She was a good horse and that's all I can really say. Death is a part of life and it is inevitable. She was a gorgeous chestnut Tennessee Walking Horse and one of the best trail horses I have ever known. I will miss her. 

Sorry for the rambling... just thinking out loud I guess.


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