What am I doing wrong :(.......

Tips for successful breeding and troubleshooting breeding problems.
Post Reply
User avatar
FinchezRule
Callow Courter
Callow Courter
Posts: 162
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:09 pm
Location: Chicago, IL

What am I doing wrong :(.......

Post by FinchezRule » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:25 am

My pair of Red Cheeked Cordon Bleus has sucessfully hatched two clutches so far of about 3 chicks each time. I didn't peak once, I provided plently of mealworms and other suitable food and with no fail they haven't been able to raise a clutch successfuly. I say that the babies are dying about a week old, by the time they're on the floor they're pretty much pecked to death with blood :( . I'm not sure if the parents are doing this or the other birds once they're on the floor but it makes me sad that they do well for a week then the babies die.

Am I doing something wrong? I can't seem to raise a clutch of anything these days.
I don't have any finches right now but I used to, I'll try to provide my knowledge around the forum

User avatar
poohbear
Weaning
Weaning
Posts: 1991
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:33 pm
Location: Nottinghamshire UK

Post by poohbear » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:35 am

Caged birds abandoning their young is unfortunately quite common...If you are really keen to breed from any pair of finches it's best to keep them on their own.
Image

User avatar
Sally
Mod Extraordinaire
Mod Extraordinaire
Posts: 17929
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:55 pm
Location: DFW, Texas

Post by Sally » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:59 am

Once you move beyond Zebras and Societies, you will have failures--that's just the way it is. These harder-to-breed species do best either in large breeding boxes (one pair to a box), large walk-in flights, or spacious, well-planted aviaries. Birds abandon for a number of reasons, primary either inexperience, they feel there is something wrong with their babies, or they feel that conditions are not right for their babies to make it.

It's not that you are necessarily doing something wrong, it's just difficult to make the parents comfortable enough to want to raise babies. Many people would envy the fact that you have gotten RCCBs to incubate and hatch out babies.

User avatar
mickp
Weaning
Weaning
Posts: 1822
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:23 am
Location: South Australia

Post by mickp » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:00 pm

Paul and Sally have pretty much covered it all. given time they will get it right or you could try fostering the eggs to societies next time.
recently I lost a clutch of 4 rccb's they were about two weeks old and I have no idea as to the cause, parents now have a new nest and are sitting on 3 eggs this time. maybe someone needs to publish a book for us all - a dummies guide to nature :lol:
Addicted to Finches, yes I do admit it.
I pray they never find a cure.

AussieFinchForum

User avatar
L in Ontario
Mod Emeritus
Mod Emeritus
Posts: 13365
Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:29 am
Location: Barrie, Ontario Canada
Contact:

Post by L in Ontario » Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:38 am

Aw Mick, I'm sorry to hear about the 4 RCCB's!

I just had a 6 day old Gouldian chick die off on me in the nest last week. I knew something wasn't right with it as it was only about 2/3's the size it should have been at that age. It had plenty of food in the crop but just didn't grow. Mother Nature knows best sometimes... :(
Liz

Post Reply