# 13 Babies!!



## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Hello all!

First off, I am happy to report that the little early hatch which you all sent good thoughts too and especially with the help of Susanne's amazing information - our little white face is doing very well. He or she is a lovely white faced light pied and we have named him/her Csoda which is Hungarian for Miracle. 

Now for the other news. I had 4 pairs set up originally. Csoda's parents had 3 eggs that all hatched into beautiful babies, two WF Pied and one WF Cinnamon Pied. Buttercup and Ollie had 6 eggs, Minuet and Cinna had 5 eggs, and Sunni and Mojito had 3 eggs. Minuet and Cinna and Sunni and Mojito were all first time parents. All the eggs were fertile. 

Well, we had coyotes move into the greenbelt behind my house and two weeks ago they began to run the deer and howl all night. Unfortunately, the inexperienced birds got spooked off their nests. The first pair had their babies all hatched and we had three more hatchlings until another pair. We realized we would lose all the babies if we didn't act fast. So, I began to shuffle babies and eggs. Of the 16 babies we managed to save 14 as of Saturday then the coyotes returned and spooked Csoda's parents leaving only Buttercup and Ollie to foster.

Buttercup and Ollie were the last and most experienced pair, they would foster the youngest and I pulled the oldest. Yesterday I pulled all but 3 babies under BC and Ollie. Between the 4 pairs, the babies ranged from 24 days down to 6 days old which I placed in the brooder. The last three babies were 6, 4 and 3 days old and I didn't feel comfortable pulling them at that age and BC and Ollie appeared to be managing them well. 

Poor BC and Ollie did their very best and dropped significant amounts of weight and this morning we lost another baby and nearly lost a second because of chilling. BC and Ollie unfortunately did not sit tight all night and so the middle one and the oldest one apparently got chilled because they wandered away from each other. The middle one was already gone when I checked them and the older one was cold and gasping. I quickly took it and put it on the heating pad and fed it some warm formula. I made the decision to risk the youngest baby even though it is only 4 days and released BC and Ollie into the recovery flight much to their relief. I swear I heard them both audibly sigh in relief. They are currently both napping under the sun having ate and bathed and they already look better. It took about an hour for the cold baby to revive but I am happy to report he/she is also doing well.

So far, ALL remaining 13 babies are alive and well! They are thriving and eating like little machines. I am not getting much sleep, the youngest ones must be fed every 2 to 3 hours but I have the week off and I am hopeful. Photos will come soon, I promise!


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## JaimeS (Nov 28, 2011)

Oh my goodness! What an amazing story. I am happy to hear so many babies made it through. And I will be looking forward to pictures


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

I bet things are hectic over there! I wish you the best!


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Here they are. Csoda is the WF farthest to the right. Csoda's siblings are to his/her left. The youngest baby is down front on the right in the mosh pit of little ones.


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## meaggiedear (Nov 20, 2011)

what cuties! you are workin' hard over there. keep up the good work. sending goods thoughts your way and hope all the babies continue to thrive.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

O wow....that's a lot of work! They look great!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Whew! It sounds like you have overcome some major setbacks. As to your resting parents Brewers Yeast top dressed on anything that they will eat for several days will do them a world of good.

It looks like you are going to have a beautiful group of babies  I'm glad little Csoda is doing well.


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Thanks all. I really appreciate the information and support from the group. This is my first year going all out to get some babies banded with my band to show so I set up more pairs than I usually would. Never anticipated this kind of madness. LOL.

Susanne -  Thank you SO much for sharing your experience! I did add brewers yeast on their food first thing, as well as a little ACV to their water just to make sure they don't develop anything now that they are not scrambling to feed a ton of babies.


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## JaimeS (Nov 28, 2011)

Oh how sweet! They are adorable


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## delawaregirl (Dec 2, 2011)

Wow how amazing. Good luck and hopefully everything will continue to do better.


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## mishkaroni (Jan 6, 2012)

Wowza!!! Best of luck to you during this time of little sleep! But I'm sure it'll all be worth it when you show us updates of 13 birds!!!


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

So far, so good. A successful night with all 13 babies. The littlest are feeding every three hours and gaining weight nicely. Just finished everyone's 8am feeding, now to nap till 11am till its time to feed the little ones again.


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## bjknight93 (Nov 13, 2011)

Are you getting any help this time?


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Help? LOL - well, a little. My best friend has offered but the littlest ones are so tiny and delicate that I am the only one feeding them until they get a little bigger. She's helping feed the bigger ones though. Which means she gets to sleep where as I get to get up all night. LOL


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

Sounds like me last year, I had about 15 at one time from every 2 hours to 3 times a day. I was exhausted after a week. This year looks to be just as busy as I have three babies, and 4 eggs, and 4 pairs (so far) breeding. Some are slower than others, so I'll have about 6 pairs going in less than a month. Don't get too wore out!


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Mentha -  LOL when it rains it pours right? I normally only set up two pairs at a time. I have one more pair on eggs but they are in the house not the aviary. I had set them up the first night the coyotes came and did not expect them to do anything, especially after the other pairs had spooked. I was surprised when I checked a few days later to find an egg. I moved them into the house with the one pair who were such good fosters. Sianya and Cinna are sitting on 4 eggs now but completely soundproofed in the front room of the house. I didn't want to take a chance with this clutch as it is my first possible dominant silver clutch. They are also the last pair I will have set up until fall now though. I really feel it is too hot in Texas summertime to try to have babies during June - August, too hard on the parents and the chicks with the dry heat. Not to mention, I wilt in this heat too. LOL


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## Mentha (Jul 11, 2010)

I have mine going until October or November. Once the normal grey hen gets going, I have about two months before I see eggs from the other pairs. Then it's chaos. I can't limit my breedings to two pairs at a time since they are usually in the aviary by now and the boxes tend to be first come first served.


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## JennyLynn (Feb 13, 2012)

that's alot of babies at once, you sure do have your work cut out for you


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Well, so far so good. All 13 babies doing well. Youngest was only nine grams on Friday with an empty crop and is now 21 grams. The oldest are feathering out, 2 white face pied split lutino and cinnamon males and a white face cinnamon pied female - the parents are WF Cinn Pied male and WF Lutino female. The next oldest group has pins, two are going to be pearled and looks like the other two are going to be normals but I can't tell if any are DYC yet - mom is normal pearl split pied and dad is DYC split pearl and wf. The last group is going to be a surprise for a week or so yet.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*are going to be normals but I can't tell if any are DYC yet -*
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I'm putting together a collage of babies head in pinfeathers so that you have it for a reference to look at to see if the baby will be DYC. I'll post it in a little bit


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Here is the collage. In going back thru saved pix's I noticed that with the DYC in the pinfeather stage any yellow plumage (crest and body) is a soft pale yellow, so that may help Identify them before you can see cheek color...


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## angelmommy24 (Nov 20, 2011)

Susanne you are amazing! Always so helpful!


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Susanne, those are VERY helpful. Thank you! I am pretty sure the one baby who is REALLY pearl is going to have normal cheeks because I see an orange cast to them. But the other three are still almost colorless at this time. I also know that the male must be split WF because his cheeks have a more orangish wash to them. Next to the rest of my flock, it is obvious that he is a YC but by himself, his cheeks look tangerine. Also, the normal pearl mother has heavy yellow wash to her pearling and throws babies who have yellow suffusion even though they are normals. One normal chick from a previous clutch from her and a normal split pied male had a yellow wash to his wings where they are supposed to be white. I will take a couple pics of the the four right now in pins and you can tell me what you think.


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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

This is the really pearl baby. As you can see, there is an orange cast to the cheeks but the forehead is really yellow. My guess is this baby is a normal pearl pied.


















The next pictures are the three babies with no color so far.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

It's too early to tell yet. The pinfeathers half to be out more.


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