Baby Scarlett Chested Parakeet BORN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[finchandlovebird]

OH MY! I am so excited. Just noticed Mom was out of the nest box eating & drinking; dad sitting in the nest box door. Thought I would take a peak, & there's a fuzzy, fluffy baby in there Quickly went to get my camera, & Dad (Meatball) made a sound like a crying baby.....must be a warning sound. Tried again later & heard the "crying baby" again. So I won't know if the other 2 eggs hatched.....maybe not for a while yet.
Actually, today was the due date; but I wasn't counting my chickens, since her first clutch was clear.

[debbie276]

Yahooo great news!
All the best

[paul-inAZ]

Fun.
I had scarlets and found them to be very good parents. The male will often get defensive and make those noises, sometimes almost like a hiss, to tell you to back off. Protecting his family.
I now have yellow turquoisines and the male occasionally hisses at me even though they are not nesting.

[finchandlovebird]

Fun.
I now have yellow turquoisines and the male occasionally hisses at me even though they are not nesting.

Paul.......I just found out about yellow turquoisines and tried to find out about them on the net...just pics though. Are they a different kind that Scarlett Chested????? I would like to learn about them.
From what little I could see, they are very expensive...$1200? Is this correct.

[paul-inAZ]

Turqs are not directly related to scarlets except very loosely being one of the small parrot families from Oz.

I got mine a couple of months ago so don't have much history with them yet.

They are about the same size as scarlets and I guess their care is the same.

Behavior is much like scarlets although mine may be a bit skittish because they came from an outdoor aviary with little people contact. Nowhere near as placid as my Bourkes. I'm told that the male can attack his male children so that is different than scarlets.

The yellow mutations are not at all common here and are pricey. Mine seemed like a pretty good private party deal at $125 each. He was shutting down the aviary. Mine are pure yellow fronted with the male having the red splash on his shoulders but some of the other mutations go all the way to full red fronts and backs. He had some others with partial [patchy] red fronts at the same price. I think the full red fronts get costlier but at that point you have your scarlets with their red chests so why bother.

I've seen prices on line of around $100 and up for normals; double that for yellows and up to $750 for full red fronts and backs.
$1200 seems outrageous to me but perhaps that was something special in the seller's mind.

[finchandlovebird]

thanks Paul; I was just curious

Now have TWO hatchlings. Parents aren't out together much, so maybe today I'll have a chance to see if the other one hatched yet. I read in a book that they hatch in the order they are laid.

[cindy]

Congratulations, keep the dried egg food and soft food that include foods like dark leafy greens (good for folic acid), peas, corn, chopped carrots, boiled grated egg. If they are eating pellets you can soak and warm the pellets in the microwave and let the parent feed that to the young as well. The parents will go through a lot of soft foods so keep the dried egg food supplied as well. My bourkes are feeding young and take in the pellets and egg foods first along with soft foods. Scarlets eat anything offered including sprouted mung beans.

Mom should be staying in with them except to eat and drink and relieve herself. Dad will usually go in and feed mom and the chicks. he will be out of the box a little more than mom.

You asked about turquoisines, they can be a little more tricky to breed than scarlets and bourkes and as Paul mentioned more skittish.

I currently have 5 pairs of scarlets, young from two clutched (March and May hatches) and 4 pairs of bourkes (young from two pairs). The young scarlets you will find when fledged are little skittish but calm down as they mature. Bourke babies tend to be a bit more calmer. Both are a joy to raise and own.

How many more eggs are left to hatch?

Dolly, I got your pm and sent you one in return...hope the info helps. I will also bump my scarlet topic up for you and add some youngster pictures for you to see.

[Sam007]

Congratulations!

[Rox]

So exciting!! Big congrats Dolly and please posts pictures once you can sneak a pic or two

[finchandlovebird]

8/6/15 2 babies & mom

[finchandlovebird]

.

The young scarlets you will find when fledged are little skittish but calm down as they mature..

Cindy, what do you do when they fledge Hangs sheets around the cage sides so they don't slam into the wires The books say they can fly right into the cage sides.

[paul-inAZ]

My scarlets flew awkwardly, almost comically, for the first few hours and then quickly proceeded to figure it all out. As with all fledgelings graceful landings on a perch take a little more practice.

"The books" notwithstanding I didn't do anything special and doubt that they can fly fast enough to hurt themselves on cage walls. I suppose it has happened but would rate that a very low probability.
Just leave them alone and try not to startle them.

[Jen]

How exciting !!! Congratulations on the new babies!

I have a couple of questions about Scarlet Breasteds. I have a pair that feed each other and "hang out" a few different nest boxes a LOT. It's like they can't decide which box will be the best. Is this normal? They go to a nest box and the hen goes in and out taking all the nest materials out and dropping it to the floor. Should I put more nesting materials inside the boxes? Will they eventually pick a box and quit doing this? How long will they do this before settling on a nest and start laying?

Thanks in advance for the info, and again. CONGRATS and best of luck with your new babies! Please post more pictures!

[paul-inAZ]

I don't know about multiple nests. But if you remove all but one they could stop being indecisive and decide to nest there.

As to nesting material: My birds have not been shown to be very fussy. I use aspen wood chips for grasskeets. The sort from the pet shop sold as pet bedding. The chips are about a half inch in size.
Put two or more inches into the nest box. She will rearrange the chips but have never thrown any out.

[finchandlovebird]

Jen, I agree with Paul....just have one next box. She'll toss a few chips around & out, but won't empty the box entirely.
Good luck & keep us posted.
Read Cindy's post about Scarlets which she brought up to the front again.