# Double Clutching Madness!



## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

My breeding pair - Marshmallow and Bio and trying to double clutch! I don't mind boiling the eggs but it's leading to plucking the babies and not feeding them enough. They want their babies to leave the nest.

What can I do to stop this? I saw Marshmallow trying to mate, I removed her before Bio mounted her.

My limit with birds is 10. I don't want to go higher than. Any ideas?


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I would remove the chicks for handfeeding and reduce daylight hours to calm hormones. Provide the parents with celery for its salt content if you want to continue supervised feedings from the parents. When the chicks get old enough decide which ones you want to keep or sell.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

I will keep all of them


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Fair enough, it's your cockatiel not mine.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

*Fair enough, it's your cockatiel not mine.*

What do you mean? Why do you feel that I need to sell them?!? These babies mean a lot to me, they were my first baby (Marshmallow's) babies. I can't possibly just give these little angles which I was with from day 0.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

It was intended to be a pun on the common saying "that's your chicken not mine". Didn't work out as well as I hoped.

Anyway, I know you have a lot of cockatiels. If they end up breeding again at some point you will likely have to make peace with the fact that you're going to have to sell some of them. I mean, you really don't want to end up like a bird version of the crazy cat lady on hoarders. This is just something you want to start thinking about now before the birds decide to breed again. Or start a very effective form of hormone control so that this isn't something to worry about.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

They tried mating again! I stopped them again, I'm worried that they are going to mate behind my back. 

When I took the babies out to hand feed, the parents seemed VERY interested in the empty nest box! Bio even went it! When I saw this, I immediately blocked it off. They were trying look in the nest box through the cage bars.

I put them to bed at 7:00pm and I'm waking them up at 7:00am is that good enough?


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Haimovfids said:


> They tried mating again! I stopped them again, I'm worried that they are going to mate behind my back.
> 
> When I took the babies out to hand feed, the parents seemed VERY interested in the empty nest box! Bio even went it! When I saw this, I immediately blocked it off. They were trying look in the nest box through the cage bars.
> 
> I put them to bed at 7:00pm and I'm waking them up at 7:00am is that good enough?


Shorten daylight to at least the recommended 10 hours; I do 9 in my aviary. Then watch over the nest week and see if they become less nesty.


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## blueybluesky (Jul 9, 2013)

Hope you can get it worked out  Randy and Swinger just triple clutched and I definately understand wanting to keep the babies, I've kept their first two but I know that I'll have to rehome any others.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

> Shorten daylight to at least the recommended 10 hours; I do 9 in my aviary. Then watch over the nest week and see if they become less nesty.


I definitely will! This morning I uncovered them at 7:00 to change their foods, and when I came back they were in the middle of a mate. I stopped them. I don't want them to have more babies. They have to stop being hormonal, but it shouldn't be too low since I still want them to take care of their babies.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

Hormones don't change overnight, we're talking days or weeks of a schedule like that...


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