Need help with lavender babies

Tips for successful breeding and troubleshooting breeding problems.
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isobea
Incubating
Incubating
Posts: 1025
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:45 pm
Location: San Diego North County

Need help with lavender babies

Post by isobea » Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:48 pm

Hi everyone,
I need help from experienced breeders who have figured out what to feed lavenders so they can successfully parent-raise their babies.
My lavenders had two babies in August which they took really good care of for about two weeks. They had a combination of hard boiled egg, Quiko Special egg food and Quiko Goldy (for insect eaters) available at all times. Also romaine lettuce, cucumber slices, different kinds of fruit, fruit flies breeding inside my aviary (which they ignored), several seed mixes, fresh annual grasses and bouquets of flowers (for nectar).
This time they had three eggs which I took away from them once I could tell they were fertile. I put those eggs into the nest of my old shaft tails (who always have infertile eggs). After two days I noticed the shaft tails not sitting tightly on the lavender eggs. In fact they were cold at that point. Nonetheless I put them back into the lavenders' nest, just in case, assuming it was too late. This morning I was quite surprised to find warm, fuzzy babies in the lavenders nest.
These birds are very dedicated parents, so I am assuming they need some other kind of food I haven't figured out yet. What works for you?
Thanks for your help,
Iso

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