Using a brooder?

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:24 pm

Found a dead chick on the floor of the cage today when I got back from work, the eggs weren't due to hatch until the end of this week. I could only see one shard of eggshell in the cage.

Is it possible that the egg got broken somehow and the parents tossed the dead chick? Or is it more likely that the egg fell out?

MiaCarter · Post by **MiaCarter** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:14 pm

Yes, it's possible one of the eggs got cracked in the nest and the parents rolled it out.
Or maybe it just fell out.

It's also possible the eggs were further along than you realized?

Here's a question: did the baby look fully developed? If it had several days to go it would have been extremely tiny - maybe half the size of a full-term baby.

The yolk would also be outside of its body if it was premature.
So there would be a baby with a yolk beside it. The yolk is enclosed within the body within the last 24-36 hours of incubation inside the egg.
If the baby was alone, without an attached yolk, that means he was full term and likely hatched.

What species is this? If it's a zebra finch or another species that's born with fuzz, you can use this to gauge development.
Fuzz is amongst the last things to form, so if it had fuzz, then the baby was full term.

The parents usually eat the egg shell. So if it's on the floor, then that might point to falling.

They can also sense which eggs are live and viable. So if the baby had died inside the egg, they may have rolled it out of the nest. I've seen them do this with eggs that I knew were DIS (dead in shell), but I hadn't removed from the nest.
So it's possible the baby died because they were off the nest and then they rolled out the egg.

I meant to add...
Happy to hear they went back onto the eggs!

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 2:29 pm

The baby was about one and a half centimetres long, it didn't see any yolk but it didn't have any fuzz. They are zebras, this is the first time mine have had eggs so they might not be great parents?

lnlovesorange · Post by **lnlovesorange** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:05 am

Yeah, Mia knows her stuff, and fortunately so do your birds. Don't get me wrong there is such thing as bad parents, or first time parents that may toss or abandon, just cuz they dont' know any better, or just cuz... but in a lot of cases babies (or in this case eggs/chicks) get tossed for a reason. (ever heard of natural selection?) Unfortunately, the birds do these things sometimes for a reason, either something could be severly wrong with the baby, or like Mia said it's already DIS. Sometimes we can intervene (again ask Mia she doesn't mind some "special babies" as neither do I...I'll have a nice photo for you come April 12... tee.hee.hee.... Anyways, I'm getting off track, as sad as it is, I would hate to see a dead chick, I checked the bottom of my cage every day dreding it!!! Luckily my birds are KICK ass parents!!! So that never happened, but there might still be viable eggs in the nest, or even chicks (they don't make much noise for the first 2-3 days) So sorry for your chick loss, as it does sting a little to lose any form of life. But maybe with a little luck you'll have some chicks anyway. And even if not (cuz I know they had some trouble brooding, which mine did too their first clutch) then they will diffinitely try again. TRUST ME. That's actually my biggest fear now...I hope i can get mine to stop!!! lol Good luck and keep us posted I'll be thinkg about you!

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 1:53 pm

One of the other eggs hatched, it has fuzz and seems to be ok so far, it's moving and I think the parents are feeding it. Are there any additional supplements I should provide for them now that they have a hatchling?

I am feeding mashed egg with crushed mealworms, broccoli, carrot top, cuttle bone and finch seed mix.

Post by **Sally** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:19 pm

Congrats on the hatchling! You can continue feeding just as you have been, the parents will probably eat a lot of the egg food to pass on to their babies. My birds also always like spray millet to feed their babies.

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:49 pm

Could someone give me a hand on the possible colours of the baby/babies? The female is (I think) cfw black cheek, the male is normal grey pied. I don't know if either of them are split and the male could have other mutations but he has a lot of pied.

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:23 pm

The last fertile egg has hatched, but they haven't eaten the shell yet, should I leave the shell or remove the shell? And how would I remove the shell without disturbing them too much?

Post by **Sally** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:09 pm

Leave the shell, the parents will either eat it or toss it.

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:42 pm

Is there any possibility that she might have started laying again? And if so how do I discourage her from laying any more so she can care for her babies?

afinch · Post by **afinch** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:44 pm

?

Unless you can and are willing to hand feed babies, I would give them some space to figure things out on their own...

Post by **Sally** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 5:36 pm

If she has babies to care for, it is unlikely she will start laying another clutch already. Some birds will be so eager to lay another clutch that they start laying eggs before they have even weaned the prior clutch, but it is not normal for any hen to lay more eggs when she has eggs that just hatched.

Themcleodflock · Post by **Themcleodflock** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 5:37 pm

What I thought was a shell is a new egg, should I remove it to let them look after the hatchlings?

Perhaps she is laying again because of the disturbance last weekend?

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