# Some breeding statistics



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Hi everyone,
How many clutches a year do your breeding pairs have? 
What was the biggest size of the hatched clutch and how parents handle it if the size was big?


----------



## SilverSage (Oct 19, 2014)

I do not permit more than two clutches per year, no matter what. The biggest clutch I have had is six, and the parents handled it fine, but my clutches tend to be around 4.


----------



## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

My birds have 2 clutches in one year. They only breed when I let them but it's nearly impossible to stop the second clutch. Don't let the hen have more than 2 clutches a year. It's very stressing for their bodies and we would hate for something bad to happen to them. So far from the birds I bred, the most they laid was 4. Cockatiels generally lay 4-6 eggs but some can go higher and some can go lower. It depends on the bird.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I have 4 older babies (all weaned), 4 babies who just hatched, and 4 more eggs in the box. I hope that every single egg won't hatch. I only candled once this clutch, to see that there is plenty of fertile eggs. Some were too early to say.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

whats your opinion: 
having 4 newborn babies (4 days old, 3 days old, 2 days old, 1 day old) - is hen able to feed them alone thru the whole night? She never eats in the cage where the nextbox is (well I guess she would have to if she needs but normally she doesn't - just sitting in the box). During the day they both take turns feeding the babies, so I can't say she is resting all day. The cock is spending night with older babies in another cage. Does the cock need to be with her in the cage for the night?


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

One of my pairs is too young to be raising chicks. The other has three clutches a year with four eggs after hatching about three chicks each.

Your male needs to be with the hen through the night. I don't think its a good idea to separate the two and make your hen feed alone, especially if the older birds are already weaned.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Darkel777 said:


> four eggs after hatching about three chicks each.


how do you control this number?
Thank you!


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Manipulation of the photo-period is supposed to help control it to some extent, reducing daylight hours in the cage lowers the number and increasing the photo-period should raise it. However, getting a hen to lay a certain number of eggs is near impossible. Except by fostering extras to another hen or incubating the eggs and feeding some chicks yourself (not a good idea on day 1). Co-parenting is often recommended for larger clutches where there are too many to handle.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thanks. What would be the maximum number of chicks that 2 parents are able to feed themselves up to a certain point? I don't mind feeding some, but not at the very early age. 2-3 weeks old sounds good to me (I had only one clutch before this and fed chicks after 4 weeks of age, some responded well, some didn't)

Also, if there is no cry from the box, is this an indicator everybody is fed? I can't see them very well, and when I can, they are so tiny.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

None of my hens have laid over 4 eggs at a time (so far).

We've been at this for only about 6 months but we'll probably aim for 2-3 clutches a year as well. I've had no problem so far rehoming babies, but I don't want to end up with too many either. :lol:

I'm actually rehoming two pairs this weekend to make room for a pair of love birds because everyone keeps asking me if we have those too!


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

that's good. I am postponing rehoming my older chicks, because I am afraid that they won't end up in a good home (plus I love them already). They are 3 month old today. Is it getting more difficult to rehome chicks when they get older? 

4 eggs is cool. Our first clutch was 7 eggs, the next was 6 eggs (all infertile) and the last one is 8 eggs.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> thanks. What would be the maximum number of chicks that 2 parents are able to feed themselves up to a certain point? I don't mind feeding some, but not at the very early age. 2-3 weeks old sounds good to me (I had only one clutch before this and fed chicks after 4 weeks of age, some responded well, some didn't)
> 
> Also, if there is no cry from the box, is this an indicator everybody is fed? I can't see them very well, and when I can, they are so tiny.


Its the youngest ones that need extra handfeeding when co-parenting (unfortunately). The parents tend to focus on the larger chicks and the younger ones get lost in the shuffle. If none are crying for food, it either means some of them are too weak to beg, or are well-fed; probably a combination of both. Handfeeding is just something that takes practice: the more you do it, the more you know what to look out for, the easier it becomes.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

would someone please give me any tips on rehoming? What questions to ask, how much to ask, where to post my ad, and so on? 
I had a bad experience rehoming baby rabbits. I had 4 of them, and I wanted people to adopt them in pairs, not individually. Also, I wanted them to have a lot of outdoor time because this is what they were used to (and this is what I believe in). Anyway, one lady wanted 2 boys, she lived on the farm. I was in doubt because the hutch was literally in the middle of nowhere - open to all winds and next to the dog kennel. Then she said she could get rabbits from somebody else if I am in doubt. I rushed to sell her 2 of my babies, and in a few months she e-mailed me that somebody's hunting dogs ran loose and destroyed the hutch, killing one of them, while another one ran away (she managed to catch him later). There was no her fault in this, the hutch looked pretty sturdy. But there were much more things in her place that made me regret about selling her the bunnies. I realized I was wrong having so many restrictions to the buyers.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Darkel777 said:


> If none are crying for food, it either means some of them are too weak to beg, or are well-fed; probably a combination of both.


how do I assess if they are well fed? One parent stays in the box all the time and they are being very protective. I tried to remove broken egg shell and he attacked me (I was afraid he could hurt chicks when he threw himself towards me). Last clutch got fed well, but we had 3 chicks born on the same day, and the 4th was born 2 days later. Now they are getting born every day a chick. I am suspecting there are 5 of them already. Couldn't see any better because of the parents.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

If the parents are very protective and attacking involving yourself may do more harm than good. What you might consider doing is removing the older chicks for handfeeding a few days early instead which is always an option. That would lighten the load and ensure some of the remaining younger chicks survive.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

actually I was wrong saying that the parents are always present in the box. Right now both of them are out eating, I will make sure one of them soon returns to the babies to keep them warm. Its OK for both to be absent for a short time, correct? The temperature is 75F. I didn't pick them up, I am afraid to handle such tiny babies. I only removed whatever egg shells I saw. 
There are 5 chicks, and they were not looking up to show me their crops but they were moving and cuddling all together. I didn't see anybody being considerably smaller, so maybe the 5th one hatched yesterday, not today.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Five doesn't sound like much to worry about. The common wisdom says: if the oldest is a week in age, they don't need to be brooded. The clutch together can keep itself warm.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thank you. We have 3 more eggs that can hatch. 
Is it a good idea to combine everybody in a large cage - nestbox, the parents, and older chicks? the cock is used to be spending nights with older chicks in a new large cage. Yesterday it seemed to me that he got stuck in the kitchen at bedtime just because he was afraid I would take him to the breeding cage. But hen alone overnight is too much, I agree.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I have had instances where older chicks got jealous over attention hatchlings got from the parents and attacked them. I have also had instances where the chicks helped feed their younger brethren. It has a degree of unpredictability to it. So I tend to avoid mixing older and younger chicks, your own results could also vary.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I got it, looks like the male doesn't mind feeding the chicks, but he minds keeping them warm in the box during the day while hen takes a break. He is not very tame. I can't easily pick him up and take him in. The older chick is 5th day old.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> would someone please give me any tips on rehoming? What questions to ask, how much to ask, where to post my ad, and so on?
> I had a bad experience rehoming baby rabbits. I had 4 of them, and I wanted people to adopt them in pairs, not individually. Also, I wanted them to have a lot of outdoor time because this is what they were used to (and this is what I believe in). Anyway, one lady wanted 2 boys, she lived on the farm. I was in doubt because the hutch was literally in the middle of nowhere - open to all winds and next to the dog kennel. Then she said she could get rabbits from somebody else if I am in doubt. I rushed to sell her 2 of my babies, and in a few months she e-mailed me that somebody's hunting dogs ran loose and destroyed the hutch, killing one of them, while another one ran away (she managed to catch him later). There was no her fault in this, the hutch looked pretty sturdy. But there were much more things in her place that made me regret about selling her the bunnies. I realized I was wrong having so many restrictions to the buyers.


I post ads on my local Craigslist, Hoobly, and I have a FB page.

I charge just a bit under what my local pet shops charge. Not necessarily to get the most money out of them I can, but because I've found this weeds out the people who are just looking for a throw-away pet as well as pet flippers. I don't sell to anyone who tries to talk me down from my asking price because odds are, they are planning to resell. (Besides, no one walks into a pet store and offers to pay half price for a pet, so why let anyone do it to me?) And since serious buyers genuinely looking for a pet are willing to pay what I ask, I know the right home will come along. I don't breed them to get rich, but it has brought in some extra income for us and I enjoy seeing babies I raised go to homes where they'll be loved.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you.
The situation is pretty bad here. 
One more chick hatched today, 6 total now/ the older chick is a week old today, and the second youngest is 4 days old. The newborn chick is under the siblings. Can it be a problem? I removed bigger chicks off him but it was the same some time later.
The father is very distracted by the older chicks from the first clutch. They fly all day long back and forth (they go inside the cage for a night only), scream and fly again. Maybe its wind outside that scares them or they just enjoying themselves. Anyway, even though he eats all the food he normally eats when he is feeding the babies, I can see that he is not very helpful. 
I took young birds to the basement. It took me a long time to catch them. PArents got spooked by my unusual actions too. 

ANy advice how to make the father take more care of the babies? I understand the advise will be to start handfeeding, but I am really not sure in success. Last time I fed starting at 4 weeks old, and only half of them accepted it. What should I use to feed the very young babies? I was using medication pipette. 

Is it correct that parents need to undergo as little changes as possible?


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

our youngest baby who hatched yesterday is missing! I have 5 babies, 2 eggs and nothing else in the box! Do cockatiels eat babies???????


----------



## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Check around in the bedding. The chick must of died and the parents squished the chick to remove the fluids and prevent bacteria growth. You will probably find a flat chick.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Yep. I've found dead babies in bedding too.
I had wondered why they squished them though, didn't know that!


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Haimovfids said:


> Check around in the bedding. The chick must of died and the parents squished the chick to remove the fluids and prevent bacteria growth. You will probably find a flat chick.


thanks. I feel horrible. Poor little one...
Is it necessary to find and remove him now or can I do it when I clean the box (I was planning in a few days)? Our parents I think don't like changes, they are feeding the remaining babies but I am always concerned they would stop or something else. There is always a challenge to know if they do the right thing.


----------



## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

> thanks. I feel horrible. Poor little one...


Try not to feel so bad. It isn't your fault. You have a lot of living chicks at the moment which means it wasn't your fault but a natural death. I don't think you'll need to search for the chick now. The parents already drained the fluids and body mass.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I will try not to, thank you.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

urchin_grey said:


> I post ads on my local Craigslist, Hoobly, and I have a FB page.
> 
> I charge just a bit under what my local pet shops charge. Not necessarily to get the most money out of them I can, but because I've found this weeds out the people who are just looking for a throw-away pet as well as pet flippers. I don't sell to anyone who tries to talk me down from my asking price because odds are, they are planning to resell. (Besides, no one walks into a pet store and offers to pay half price for a pet, so why let anyone do it to me?) And since serious buyers genuinely looking for a pet are willing to pay what I ask, I know the right home will come along. I don't breed them to get rich, but it has brought in some extra income for us and I enjoy seeing babies I raised go to homes where they'll be loved.


do you talk about some fancy varieties of tiels or this applies to any?


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> do you talk about some fancy varieties of tiels or this applies to any?


I've noticed some breeders do charge different prices for different mutations, but I haven't felt the need to do that as of yet. I've only had one normal grey baby so far though and he was indeed the last of his clutch to be picked but he did find a home. I just set up the nest box for my one pair that makes normal babies though and I may ask a bit less for them, depending on how many they have.

With that being said, I suppose my flock is indeed "fancier" than what you typically see in the pet shops here. We have a Petco, PetSmart, and two locally owned places. Never seen a tiel in either Petco or PetSmart. The local places occasionally have tiels but the last clutch I saw in either was 2 normals and 1 lutino (which we brought home ourselves lol). So we definitely have a bigger variety than anywhere else in my town, that I know of.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Petco and Petsmart charge $150 for a cockatiel. Its a very common pet bird, a lot of people breed as a hobby and charge less. I would not be surprised if major chains have trouble selling cockatiels especially at that price.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Darkel777 said:


> Petco and Petsmart charge $150 for a cockatiel. Its a very common pet bird, a lot of people breed as a hobby and charge less. I would not be surprised if major chains have trouble selling cockatiels especially at that price.


Oh yeah, that's definitely a bit much. So far though, I've only seen finches and parakeets in our Petco and parakeets and the occasional conure in our Petsmart.

We paid $125 for our first tiel who came from a hobby breeder in Glasgow, KY and $130 for our second who we found at a local pet shop. I've charged $120 for mine (so far).


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Help! 
2 youngest chicks have only 1 eye opened! They are 11 and 10 days old. Looks like something prevents another eye from opening! What could it be???


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Hmm, I don't know what could be preventing them from opening. I haven't run into a problem like that yet...

But I will say, pretty much all of my chicks have opened one eye before they opened the other.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

urchin_grey said:


> But I will say, pretty much all of my chicks have opened one eye before they opened the other.


probably this is the case here, because by coincidence, older babies don't have this problem. I will be watching the youngest.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Does anyone know what the chance to get a pearl baby with pied parents is? last clutch we had one pearl girl. Both parents appear pied. Does it mean one parents is split to pearl? I think she is a cinnamon pearl but I am not sure. 
This clutch I can see that 3 older babies will be pied. They grow dark feathers on the wings. Is getting a pearl baby really rare with pied parents?


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Back to rehoming, has anyone ever refused to sell a baby to a potential buyer, if you don't like something and what reasoning you gave? DO you interview people before inviting them to your place, and what questions you ask? how to protect yourself from a common fraud, like some jerks who may come to your house to observe the situation and then possibly break in to steal the birds (or other stuff)? Or does it sound like absurd?


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> Does anyone know what the chance to get a pearl baby with pied parents is? last clutch we had one pearl girl. Both parents appear pied. Does it mean one parents is split to pearl? I think she is a cinnamon pearl but I am not sure.
> This clutch I can see that 3 older babies will be pied. They grow dark feathers on the wings. Is getting a pearl baby really rare with pied parents?


Yes, that would mean your male is split pearl. Females can't be split to sex-linked mutations.

I don't know what the exact chances are, but it "shouldn't" be super rare. 

What I can tell you is that I have a WF cinn female split pied paired with a WF male split cinn, pied, and lutino. 5 out of the 7 babies they've had so far are WF lutino. You would think I'd get mostly cinnamons and pieds since the male is the only one carrying the lutino gene. Then again, I suppose some/all of my lutinos could be pied as well (and it's just masked obviously). And 7 isn't exactly a huge sample. Still, I hope they have more boys next clutch so we have a chance to get something besides lutino. lol


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> Back to rehoming, has anyone ever refused to sell a baby to a potential buyer, if you don't like something and what reasoning you gave? DO you interview people before inviting them to your place, and what questions you ask? how to protect yourself from a common fraud, like some jerks who may come to your house to observe the situation and then possibly break in to steal the birds (or other stuff)? Or does it sound like absurd?


I've never really had to refuse anyone who was serious about buying. But I have refused to even meet with a few people just because their texts were really strange. :lol: I mean, you can kind of get a vibe from people even over text/email. The people who have ended up actually taking one of my birds home were always thrilled about it. They stay in contact with me until the baby is ready, they send me pics of their baby's new cage, the toys they are making, etc. The person that sends a random text such as "if I come get it right now will you take $xx" clearly hasn't put much thought into owning a bird (never mind referring to "it" when I've made it clear I have 3-4 babies to choose from). So I don't really have much of a screening process beyond my own intuition. I can just kind of tell when someone is serious and actually cares about their potential pet.

Although, now that you've mentioned it, there may be a few questions that would be good to ask. I saw a documentary about parrots the other day which included an African Grey (I think it was) who was addicted to cigarettes because people smoked in the house. :blink: Some people don't even think twice about smoking around their human children, let alone a pet. And obviously that's the type of home you'd like to avoid sending any babies to, human or otherwise.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I need advice. The babies are around 3 weeks old, and mom shows interest in mating. For how many hours should I keep parents in the dark at night not to interfere with their desire to keep feeding babies? Their night is about 10.5 hours long right now.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

IS the chick on the front left cinnamon pied color? There is one more chick of the same color (I think she is the last one on the pic)
Lat clutch we had one pearl girl (I think she is cinnamon pearl) but this are solid light-brown color.


----------



## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Yes cinnamon pied. All appear to be at least split pied if not full.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you. 
2 chicks are cinnamon. Are they necessarily girls? 
The father is pied with a lot of yellow and light-grey feathers, the mother is a regular pied with less yellow and darker grey. In the past they produced one cinnamon pearl chick. What can be concluded about the parents and grand-parents? History of the parents isn't known.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

the mother is sitting on computer chair. The father is sitting on the box in the front row on the left. All others are chicks from the first clutch.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Yes, if the hen is not cinn or pearl then your cinn, pearl, and cinn/pearl babies will all be female.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thanks Urchin grey
I don't quite understand what split means. Is it like this: 
suppose somebody has a red haired father and brunette mother, the child born appears to be brunette but has gene (allele) of red hair that can be passed on to his children? Is he split to red-hair?


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Well, I don't think it works quite the same way in humans. 

Cinn and pearl are both sex linked traits that can only be carried on the X chromosome in tiels. Males are XX, females are XY.

If a male has one copy of a sex linked gene, he will be split to it. He needs TWO copies to be visual.

Since a female is XY, she can only have one copy to begin with. So a female with one copy of a sex linked trait will always be visual and can never be split to it.

So in your case, since you have cinn and pearl in the nest but your female is visually neither, it must be the male who is split to both cinn and pearl.

Also, since males need TWO copies of a sex linked gene (an X from mom and an X from dad), you won't see any cinn or pearl males in the nest. The girls, however, just need the one from dad. So that's why any cinn or pearl babies you get will be female.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

What can people do to prevent another clutch when parents already have babies? I am not talking about the second. I am talking about past the second.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I need advise. 
Our babies are between 4 and 5 weeks old. They started to fly, and exploring around. They still have a nest box because the younger ones look tired after being a few hours out. They all sleep in the box. I do plan to take it down really soon though. 
I do not apply much of hormone techniques except for a little bit longer nights, because I want parents to continue to feed babies. They don't do a very excellent job but its still better than nothing. I assist too but only once a day. 

Now there is a problem. Parents are mating with passion. Sometimes hen gets inside the box but I don't hear any feeding sounds. I guess she is thinking about laying an egg. 
What is the right thing for me to do if she lays her egg? of course we don't plan any more chicks. We have more than enough.


----------



## CloudySkies (Jul 11, 2014)

Can you boil the egg or just replace it with a dummy egg?


----------



## vampiric_conure (Jul 8, 2012)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> Hi everyone,
> How many clutches a year do your breeding pairs have?
> What was the biggest size of the hatched clutch and how parents handle it if the size was big?


You probably got the answers you needed with this thread, but I figured I'd answer your original questions anyways, LOL

I generally do one clutch a year. No more than two. The largest clutch laid was 8 eggs and five ended up hatching. I think I had to pull a baby earlier than the others for hand feeding, but otherwise the babies were big and wiggly


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thank you, vampiric_conure. The discussion is still open, its very interesting to learn how people do it. Are your two clutches two in a row or twice a year separately? 
When birds double clutch, do breeders try to rehome babies from the first clutch as soon as possible, to avoid chaos associated with 2 clutches in the same house?


----------



## vampiric_conure (Jul 8, 2012)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> thank you, vampiric_conure. The discussion is still open, its very interesting to learn how people do it. Are your two clutches two in a row or twice a year separately?
> When birds double clutch, do breeders try to rehome babies from the first clutch as soon as possible, to avoid chaos associated with 2 clutches in the same house?


Yer very welcome, Chipper&Trillie  Generally if I do 2 clutches a year it's two in a row. With that said, I generally dislike breeding when there's more than one clutch in the home because there's too many birds to feed and the other birds get stressed with so many new birds in the home. And I don't breed when there's last years chicks hanging around


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Please help me understand. 
Today I lost almost 6 week old baby in my house. They were flying in the morning. Then I saw one of the babies was on his back, on the floor under the cage, flapping his wings and trying to reverse himself. The cage is on the stand with wheels, there is a shelf on the bottom that is 6 inches higher then the floor and he was under this shelf, but its unlikely that he got stuck under that shelf due to narrow clearance. I got him out and reversed him upright but his body looked strange. He died in my hands couple of minutes later. 
He seemed to be perfectly healthy - flying, eating, exploring around. 
I think all birds (and I had 11 total this morning) had some kind of a fright that caused them panic, and he hit into something way too hard, probably getting injuries to his spine, he got thrown to the ground and ended up under that cage shelf. I didn't see the accident. 
He was a good beautiful little guy. RIP Yellowback 

If I want to bury him later (we have snow at this time that will melt soon), how should I keep him until I am able to bury him? He is in the shoe box right now. such a tragic loss.


----------



## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Aw, that's so sad.  I've lost a few shortly after hatching (I have a pair that is a little too helpful) but I can't imagine losing them at that stage. 

I would put him in the freezer. That will preserve him until you're able to bury him.


----------



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thanks Urchin grey. Yes, its painful to realize how much he had ahead of him, he was certainly a guy with a funny personality. He looks peaceful in the box, like he is sleeping, and I keep the box outside because we have had a good freeze. Today I buried him by the front porch. Fly free, little Yellowback! I love you.


----------

