I have two more zebra finch eggs from Vilu. The last three babies that I got from her all died, one from pipping upside down, and the other in-shell with a black liver, and the other just a day old from the same. I am biting my nails with this next batch, because the 'Black spot' as they call it COULD be congenital if the parents are carrying one of the myriad of disease that cause it. It can also be caused by hundreds of things such as bacteria, mold, poor humidity, etc. so it could be almost anything. Luckily vilu is very tame and allows me to pick out soiled nesting material without a fuss. I will try to keep the eggs clean and keep the room humid and hope for clear chicks. I took away the hay at the bottom of the cage just in case. If I get more black spot deaths, then the cause must be congenital, and Vilu will not be laying any more eggs.
As dearly as I would like to have a bird from cradle to grave, I feel it would be irresponsible to put Vilu through it as well as bringing about more sick birds.My older couple are building a second nest in our curtains of all places. I hung a small box there to try and contain the grass and inevitable poop, but they still like to sleep in their coconut at night on the other side of the room. I call the box their summer house, it has a great view from our 4th floor window!
Scrambles, my blackcheek cockerel has still got no voice. It sounds absolutely terrible in the morning, just tiny little squeaks and wheezes. It's just a little hoarse by night. I have no idea what is causing it. He has already been treated for everything other than aspergillosis and Spanish Dancing Green Butt-Bongo Disease, but I have no way of obtaining medication for that as of yet. I supplement his seeds with natural antifungal herbs and I boiled and cleaned their little coconut nest, in case something in that was doing it. I have noticed no change and my house smelled like a boiled bird butt for a few days. He seems really happy though, and ''sings'' all day long. He has even been venturing to the floor and looking for bits of hay or string to put in his nest.
I finally got a forced-air incubator! It's just a little mini one, but no more waking up in the night to temp check. Awesome. It sure does vibrate pretty loudly, but from what I've read so far consensus says this won't affect the hatch in any way. I've got my second batch of quail eggs in there, but the shells are just so darn hard to see through even with a very bright light. I have no idea if any of them are going to hatch! I wouldn't be surprised, as they were bought from a grocery store, refrigerated, and laid almost two weeks before I set them. It sounds preposterous, but keep in mind, I had another batch that was only a few days fresher have two fertile eggs. I got one early DIS, and one half-formed chick that I accidentally killed by opening a ''bad'' egg that was determined ''inftertile/early death'' by a float test. I will never float test my eggs again, but if this accident hadn't happened I would have got a chick from the two week old refrigerated eggs.
I have also used a few common leghorn eggs from the fridge as 'test eggs' and both of them developed. I knew better to take the second one out after three days warming up my incubator, but the first one surprised me by having veins and an embryo in there!
Since I have my new incubator, I was able to take the UTH pad back for heating the floor of my brooder, which is ready and waiting for baby quail. If grocery store batch number 2 doesn't hatch, I FINALLY found someone who breeds coturnix who will happily sell me hatching eggs.
And last but not least, I took a series of pictures I can use to explain the process of making a syringe small enough for tiny waxbills, which I will hopefully get around to arranging into a tutorial and posting. Sorry for keeping everyone in the dark so long, and thanks for missing me!
