Baby Bird
Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:37 am
I haven't been on in a minute, but I thought I'd give an update and ask for some advice.
This contains no pictures but still may be a bit graphic.
So not long after we got our zebras, the girls started laying eggs, which would fall and break on the bottom of the cage. This seemed to agitate the girls and cause fighting, so my husband convinced me to put in a nest. We had to babies hatch on mother's day, then had another hatch way after that. Our male was mating with two of our three girls and all three took turns caring for the babies.
We thought everything was fine but when the two oldest were almost big enough to leave the nest, I checked on them one morning to find two of the three were crushed to death. The three adults often all climbed in together but it all seemed fine. My husband said he checked them the day before, but the surviving chick, which was one of the older ones, had to been in that situation at least for a bit. I had to cut him out of the nest, then peel him away from the corpses of the other two. His whole underside was raw and weepy. My husband and I sat on the floor of the kitchen for who knows how long, the baby nuzzling into my stomach for warmth, trying to figure out what to do. We decided he wouldn't have much of a chance of survival, so hubs held and petted him as I started to set up a make-shift gas chamber. Then once it was ready and I went to take the chick from hubs, he begged me to try and save it.
I set up a folded up handkerchief in the cage and placed it in shallow tupperware and put that at the bottom of the cage. No one liked the tupperware, so we let the cloth on the cage bottom.
The 3 adults still fed the baby and covered it up with the kerchief, but would not lay with it, they perched above him instead. I physically checked the chick over daily. We eventually moved the food and water to the very bottom, in case the parents weren't doing enough.
We're happy to say the chick is doing a lot better now, though not 100%. His underside is still naked, but dry and unirritated. He started eating occasionally on his own and started drinking on his own while the parents continued to feed him. That was not long after we set him up on the cage bottom. Maybe about 3 weeks ago, he started perching. It was a real struggle for him at first to flap up to the perches, but he got up there, and went back to the cloth when he wanted his parents to feed him. Now he flies around just as well as the rest, though it takes a bit more effort. He no longer requires his parents to feed him. He's a little more fearful than the adults, but is more willing to be handled, which I still count as a plus.
A couple days ago he started to show feathering that points to him being male. He's very quiet though; haven't heard him sing at all. He still has a black beak and mostly still looks like a fledgling, so I don't know if that feathering is normal.
We were thinking of separating the males into their own cage, but we don't know if that would cause any of them extra stress or what would be the best timing. Also, the girls /never/ stopped laying eggs, and since the removal of the nest, fighting as started up again. They're attacking each other as well as Big Daddy. The chick doesn't show any signs of being picked on, but some of the girls are missing patches and Big Daddy is missing a large patch covering his back.
We've been focusing a lot on our birds almost exclusively since Mother's Day, but needless to say we're nervous about the whole situation. Now that the baby is more-or-less healthy, we don't know what means to take to improve the situation for him as well as the flock as a whole. We know the current situation isn't ideal, but really would like input as to how to improve it in general. We want what will improve the baby's health, but we also want to reduce the stress and fighting of the females. Big Daddy still seems like a happy little bird, but is half bald. They seem to be picking him faster than he can grow feathers in, which is obviously not okay.
Please help.
This contains no pictures but still may be a bit graphic.
So not long after we got our zebras, the girls started laying eggs, which would fall and break on the bottom of the cage. This seemed to agitate the girls and cause fighting, so my husband convinced me to put in a nest. We had to babies hatch on mother's day, then had another hatch way after that. Our male was mating with two of our three girls and all three took turns caring for the babies.
We thought everything was fine but when the two oldest were almost big enough to leave the nest, I checked on them one morning to find two of the three were crushed to death. The three adults often all climbed in together but it all seemed fine. My husband said he checked them the day before, but the surviving chick, which was one of the older ones, had to been in that situation at least for a bit. I had to cut him out of the nest, then peel him away from the corpses of the other two. His whole underside was raw and weepy. My husband and I sat on the floor of the kitchen for who knows how long, the baby nuzzling into my stomach for warmth, trying to figure out what to do. We decided he wouldn't have much of a chance of survival, so hubs held and petted him as I started to set up a make-shift gas chamber. Then once it was ready and I went to take the chick from hubs, he begged me to try and save it.
I set up a folded up handkerchief in the cage and placed it in shallow tupperware and put that at the bottom of the cage. No one liked the tupperware, so we let the cloth on the cage bottom.
The 3 adults still fed the baby and covered it up with the kerchief, but would not lay with it, they perched above him instead. I physically checked the chick over daily. We eventually moved the food and water to the very bottom, in case the parents weren't doing enough.
We're happy to say the chick is doing a lot better now, though not 100%. His underside is still naked, but dry and unirritated. He started eating occasionally on his own and started drinking on his own while the parents continued to feed him. That was not long after we set him up on the cage bottom. Maybe about 3 weeks ago, he started perching. It was a real struggle for him at first to flap up to the perches, but he got up there, and went back to the cloth when he wanted his parents to feed him. Now he flies around just as well as the rest, though it takes a bit more effort. He no longer requires his parents to feed him. He's a little more fearful than the adults, but is more willing to be handled, which I still count as a plus.
A couple days ago he started to show feathering that points to him being male. He's very quiet though; haven't heard him sing at all. He still has a black beak and mostly still looks like a fledgling, so I don't know if that feathering is normal.
We were thinking of separating the males into their own cage, but we don't know if that would cause any of them extra stress or what would be the best timing. Also, the girls /never/ stopped laying eggs, and since the removal of the nest, fighting as started up again. They're attacking each other as well as Big Daddy. The chick doesn't show any signs of being picked on, but some of the girls are missing patches and Big Daddy is missing a large patch covering his back.
We've been focusing a lot on our birds almost exclusively since Mother's Day, but needless to say we're nervous about the whole situation. Now that the baby is more-or-less healthy, we don't know what means to take to improve the situation for him as well as the flock as a whole. We know the current situation isn't ideal, but really would like input as to how to improve it in general. We want what will improve the baby's health, but we also want to reduce the stress and fighting of the females. Big Daddy still seems like a happy little bird, but is half bald. They seem to be picking him faster than he can grow feathers in, which is obviously not okay.
Please help.