Helpless 2 Week Old Birds

[BellaGooch]

Hello, everyone!

I'm dedicating this thread to documenting the story of our currently 2-week old parakeets.

We have a bird aviary with (not including these baby birds) 10 birds in it. These three babies have been doing great, until yesterday morning, when I found that one of our parakeets (named Dustin) had blood on his chest and near his beak. it was a very, very tragic attack, one that was nonetheless unavoidable... This bird didn't seem to have any relation to these babies- He is not the mother and is almost certainly not the father, which makes it very unusual for him to attack the chicks.

Upon further investigation, we tragically found that he attacked these three babies for no apparent reason. One of them, very unfortunately, was not moving, while the other two were breathing and alive, but with a little bit of blood surrounding their beaks, and one of their eyes was swollen shut.
We immediately took the out of the cage and put them in a box, where they're currently living in my room. I've put calm music on for them, and, although it does sound silly, it calms them down. We've been feeding these two (one of them is white and the other one is black) a special oatmeal formula out of a syringe, as well as water.

The white one (named Casey, which means "brave in battle") has trouble opening his beak to eat, loves to sleep, and is much quieter than his sibling, Alke (Greek goddess of battle- strength, and courage). Alke is quite the fighter- she loves to chirp at the top of their longs, nibble on fingers, and eat. Her eye is doing better and has since opened, and he's walking about, trying to flap her wings, but not flying anywhere, as her wings will not work for about another 2 weeks.
They made it through the night, and we're praying that they continue to prosper.

Although it might seem counter-intuitive, we do not want to put the mother in the box in there with them, for several reasons, including she could fly out, she could get stressed, and that stress might turn to aggression towards the babies, and it's not worth the risk.

I'm not able to take pictures with this device, but they have grey fuzz on most of their body. Their wings already have feathers, but their stomachs are still a little bit pink and have yet to finish growing feathers.
If anybody has any tips, I'd be very grateful as we are first-time budgie parents, but no worries if you don't! Thank you for reading this long post

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Would you consider setting up a separate cage for the little family, at least temporarily?

 

[BellaGooch]

Hi!
Would you consider setting up a separate cage for the little family, at least temporarily?

Thank you so much for responding!
We've thought about doing this, but the mom has actually been known to be aggressive in the past, and it would be especially difficult to do this because we don't know who the father is. The father will usually support the mom and help feed the chicks, but not having him around could add to the stress, which could prompt aggression even more, unfortunately. Thank you so much for your suggestion, though!!!

 

[Kieka]

Welcome! My family bred parakeets for over 15 years and we had a flock of over 30 at some points. We'd usually have two clutches per year and end up with about 40 babies per year. We sold them to the local bird farm, which would net enough to pay for feed and toys for the adults in the flock. Most of our adults lived to be teenagers, we currently have two 5 year olds as our last ones, they are living their best birds life in a ten foot tall, ten foot long and six foot wide outdoor aviary. We got them to keep the last old one company, she enjoyed the company her last two years but probably not the best idea since we would like to tear it down but they are only 5 and will likely live another 7 to 9 years.

In general, you need to have two males for every female in your flock. Otherwise you will end up with issues because females will fight for a males attention. You also want to have enough nesting boxes for double your females and all at the same height. Unless your flock has very clear hierarchy the females will kill each other and their clutches to get more desirable boxes. Desirable being partially determined by height in the aviary and partially just by the female. I know my flock preferred being closer to the food and water in addition to height. But the lower ranked females would settle further away without a fight.

I never had a male attack babies, it was always the females. The males are generally laid back when it comes to parakeets, females are absolutely brutal. Are you sure Dustin is a male? If he is a male, it is possible the babies are occupying a nest his mate wants or they are close to mating for a second clutch and he sees them as threat to the new clutch. Although, it is highly unlikely he acted without his mate instigating. It could also be you missed signs of aggression in the female and the male just happened to get bloody. I would definitely not return mom to the babies as she likely triggered the attack if not did it herself. If you knew dad he might be able to care for them, if you have a nurturing male he could too. I had one male who would feed any female or chick who asked, I would volunteer him for daddy duty if needed in my flock. Although we usually only found the babies dead, we did have one year where two females who were too old to lay killed every chick in the aviary. Those two got put in a smaller cage when breeding from then on.

In general, you should not allow more then two clutches a year. Remove the nesting boxes between clutches and make sure to give your hens a good protein source if you do back to back clutches. We tended to because they generally started laying again right when the first clutch. Because we had space sometimes the female would lay in a different box and the male would care for the older babies and his mate.

 

[BellaGooch]

Welcome! My family bred parakeets for over 15 years and we had a flock of over 30 at some points. We'd usually have two clutches per year and end up with about 40 babies per year.

In general, you need to have two males for every female in your flock.

I never had a male attack babies, it was always the females. The males are generally laid back when it comes to parakeets, females are absolutely brutal. Are you sure Dustin is a male?

In general, you should not allow more then two clutches a year. Remove the nesting boxes between clutches and make sure to give your hens a good protein source if you do back to back clutches.

Hello, and thank you for replying! Wow, that's a lot of birds! That's wonderful!
We've had 3 clutches this year, but we've removed the nesting boxes after taking out the chicks, and will leave them out indefinitely. (not forever, but we won't but them back in for a while.)

We do have a proper ratio of females to males in our flock, but I know that at least two of our females battle for the attention of one of our males, fittingly named Romeo.
It is also quite possible that I misinterpreted Dustin's gender, which makes a lot of sense.

Thanks so much for your response; it was very informative and helpful. have a great rest of your day!

 

[Kieka]

If you don't already, I'd probably offer your birds hard boiled eggs. Whole eggs with shells, just crack them in half and leave them on the ground. One whole egg out once a week for the next few weeks. That will help them recover from three clutches. I would do at least 9 months before you allow breeding again with 3 clutches. That might be why you had problems this time, their hormones tend to get really high in repeated clutches.

 

[BellaGooch]

Here are a few pictures we were able to take. So sorry for the poor quality.

 

[BellaGooch]

Hey Kieka , off-topic, but I was just curious: Do you have any recommendations for keeping the flock warm during the winter? We live in Southern CA but it still gets a bit chilly during the night, as they're outdoors. We did put heat lamps last year, but is that necessary or sufficient? Thank you so much!

 

[Kieka]

As long as they have plenty of food and fresh water we've never had to take measure to warm them in winter. I'm also in Southern California in one valleys that get hit with the Santa Ana winds. We do have a wind break curtain that we put down when the winds are really bad, that would probably double for warming just by keeping some warmth in if needed.

If they are used to being outside they can do fine with temperatures down to the 40s without getting uncomfortable. Sometimes it gets down to 30 in the dead of winter but with a larger flock they can bed down near each to share warmth. Our aviary also has the entire top 2 feet solid with branches up that high so they can get out of the wind even without an additional wind break if desired. I'm sure they appreciate the heat lamps but unless where you are sees snow of regular temperatures below 20, they are probably fine without.

The heat here is actually more of a concern. Again, a bird who has lived their whole life outside will handle temperature fluctuations better, but during hot days we mist down the birds and the building to help with heat. Our water dish is large enough for two birds to splash in if they want and, as part of our home sprinkler system, gets refilled frequently.

 

[BellaGooch]

Day 3: Birds Are doing great! We've renamed Alke to Callen

They have been sleeping, eating, and yapping for food (they're not deprived of food, though, they're getting fed 3 mL every few hours) Just like human babies, it seems.

Casey has developed blue feathers on his stomach even in the few days they've been in here. He looks like he's going to be all white with some blue splotches on his lower belly, just like our other bird, Pearl. Callen looks like he's going to be grey, like our other birds, Ember and Ash. By the grace of God, they're continuing to develop, grow, and prosper.

 

[BellaGooch]

The chicks took an unexpected turn for the worst yesterday. Casey has 0 energy and can't even hold his head up for an extended period of time. His 'chirps' are just tiny little peeps, and he only chirps when touched. I can't help but think it's all my fault.
I absolutely hate to see him this way; it makes me so sad. Callen is still walking around and chirping, and I'm hoping that that doesn't change.
That being said, they're both still eating with energy. We're trying our best to keep them warm and comfortable. Fingers crossed they pull through.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[BellaGooch]

Casey passed away peacefully this afternoon, and Callen is barely holding on to life. His breaths are short and weak. I don't know what to do.
I feel so horrible... This poor chick is helpless, and his poor brother has no life at all left in him. He no longer has an appetite, and he's trembling, poor baby.
I've actually cried today, and I never cry. I hate this. I feel like it's all my fault for not keeping them alive.
Callen doesn't appear to be in pain, at least, which is a very, very small consolation. I hope that he passes peacefully, like his brother. He is currently lying down, taking short breaths, like he has been doing for the past few hours.
Sorry to vent. Thanks for sticking with me.

 

[Kieka]

Rest in peace little one.

 

[BellaGooch]

Callen just died in my hands.

 

[Kieka]

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[AbbysMom]

I'm so sorry.