FINCHforum

Well my young first time parents that had 5 chicks have stopped feeding them. Found one dead in the nest 4 days ago. Thought it may have been the heat?? Then another one day before yesterday. Parents were feeding but very little. I started supplimenting and now the parents won't feed at all. So I have been handfeeding. They are fully feathered and older. The youngest eats right away, the oldest eats fair and the middle one I have to force. They are old enough to be afraid once taken out of the nest box. Hopefull they will adjust to their new Mom....maybe I should of brushed my hair or something They seem healthy, just not fed enough.
The other nest with chicks are all doing well. I sure hope those parents continue to feed well.

Aw fully feathered when the parents stopped feeding...? That's a shame - I wonder why? I (luckily) haven't had that happen. I wish you all the best with the handfeeding. They can't be far away from fledging. Glad to hear the other parents are still going strong with their chicks.

Sure am glad they've got you. You go girl.

Yes, it is strange for them to abandoned with the chicks being this old. At first I thought maybe infections, air sac mites?, yeast...something. But they look fine. Poop is fine and parents are looking great. I had just ran all the breeders through a bi-yearly s76, wormer prevenative routine prior to setting them up.A real puzzler. I know a lot of time parents will abandoned if they have been bred too much but this is their first clutch. So I am waiting to see how these last 3 chicks do. They should be trying to eat some millet soon hopefully. I think that if the parents had continued to feed as before they would of been fledging now instead of being hand feed. I have had parents abadoned except twice before. Once because the pair had only one chick. They just kept building a new nest on top of him so I hand fed him. He is a year old and a beauty. The other time I had the male die mid rearing. The female half heartedly fed so I finished them out also. I gave her a new mate(the brother of the one who died) and they successfully raised another clutch.
So this one is a real puzzler.

I think it just happens sometimes and we look for reasons that cannot always be explained. Best of luck with the hand feeding Candace.!

It is a shame when this happens and they are so far along.

Thanks Donna. What you just went through had crossed my mind. It is always hard to see the young rejected for whatever reason. I sure hope these guys make it. I will do my best

Here is a picture of the 3 amigos before feeding them for the night. Not having to pry open the mouth of the one anymore but he sure isn't a happy camper I removed the nest from the parents cage. It was an outside mount. I debated whether to try again with them. Her beak is really dark and I figure they all need a learning curve so I gave them a new clean nest...... Hopefully this time they will feed to the end.

They are sooo adorable Candace.

OoOo One of them is a Blue, too!!
Looks like you won't have to buy any Blues ;)

Tiffany, A BLUE Really Could it be possible
You know I was looking at this little grey fellow last night and was curious about his colors. I was going to ask you what you thought and then I thought....no he is just behind in developement. His green will come in
The female is a really dark red head...one I breed, one of those that is almost black. Her parents are Hen BH PB GR (that parents Hen BH PB GR & Cock RH PB GR)
The cock was bought for $ 65.00 at a show from an 19 year old who had raised his birds as a hobby and was getting rid of all...I guess at 19 he had other interest. I actually bought 2 males. At the time I had 2 lonely females at home. The female I first place this male with had no desire for him nor him for her so when last years hen matured (I wasn't crazy about her head color but I liked her size.(a big girl) I put him with her. They had been flirting from across the room The males I bought were both visually RH PB GR. The guy said they were just regulars. He said nothing of blue and did not have blues or yellow for sale..... so I thought you had to have yellow in there? I get so confused Help me out with this one.

A bird can be visually green but be split for blue body. And if he didn't breed the prior generations he could only tell you specifically what he knew about the current birds he had.
Those split recessives can still be passed on, and would only show up if another bird paired with them had the recessive gene as well.

This is the same reason why you can get visually orange or white breast offspring from birds who are both red, black or purple breast.

You don't have to have yellow to produce blues.
The only mutations that require yellow are obviously yellow, dilutes, pastel blues and silvers.

So the two parents of this baby must both be /Blue body.

The grey isn't a color problem.. that's what baby blues look like! LOL
Congrats!

okay then.... I still do not get how the hen could be split to blue. I bred the hen and the hens parents on one side(the cock) of the grandparents. All RH PB GR 3 generations. So could the blue have come from the parent of this hen's parent? Like grandmother on one side passing it on to this grey chick? Seems like small odds???? Help

Don't know how you got it Candace, but you must be elated!! Congrats!!!
I don't even try to figure this genetic thing out. I like surprises anyway.

If one (or both) mated birds are split to blue there is a 50% chance that an offspring will be split to blue.

Remember how to multiply fractions?
For each pairing multiply 0.5.
So, if a great grandparent is split to blue there is a 25% chance the parent will be split to blue.
If a great great grandparent is split to blue there is a 12.5% chance the parent will be split to blue.

I think this is right.

It's possible.. Somewhere in their line (father/mother - grandmother/father etc.) a bird carried blue..
And she inherited it..

And passed it on to this baby, along with the father