Owl Update

Post by **Hilary** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:53 am

Update - saw a little pink butt wiggling around in the nest this morning!

Hilary

Sally H · Post by **Sally H** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:25 pm

YAY!!

Post by **Hilary** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:34 pm

I REALLY want to get a good look to see who's in there, but my one society hen will not hop out! They're great about letting me look and then jumping right back in, but she's not budging. At least that means she's ok with a very different looking chick!

Crystal, I've got my fingers crossed for you, and Sally, you're next!

Hilary

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:35 pm

Grats!!

alwaysfullofjoy · Post by **alwaysfullofjoy** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:46 pm

Too cool. Congrats.

Post by **Hilary** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:18 am

Well, it's up to Crystal now. Pink butt died the day after he hatched - no idea what happened. Two of the five remaining eggs are now gone, but three remain and I'll leave them under the societies for a couple of more days, though at this point I'm not expecting much (pink butt hatched on Tuesday). My goulds are due to hatch out their first clutch next week - hopefully that one will go better!

Hilary

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 12:25 am

Oh no :( I'm very sorry to hear about the chick.

I guess that makes some bad news for both of us with the owls.

All of my indoor pair's eggs were infertile. I threw them out (the eggs, not the birds ;)). We'll see if their next clutch is any more successful. I am surprised at the lack of development of any of the eggs since I witnessed mating and they were great about incubating. Oh well.

The good news so far is that the outdoor pair has 4 eggs (I think I double counted an egg last time), and all four are fertile. They should be hatching within a week. Here is *hoping* they hatch and that the pair raises the babies...

Post by **Hilary** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:19 am

Sorry about the indoor clutch, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for the outdoor guys!

Hilary

Sally H · Post by **Sally H** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:19 pm

My owls had one single broken egg outside of their cage so I gave them a nest today. I used an inside the cage oval hemp one because I would have had to cut a new hole for the nice outside wooden box I have and technically this is still their first clutch (if we get that lucky) so better that I can't keep peeking in. I had been noticing some odd behavior lateley where they seemed to like to run really fast around the floor of the cage. Could that be part of some mating dance? As soon as I hung the nest and put in some coco fiber and a box of that white nesting material, they went to work. I line the bottom with a couple of 4x4 guaze pads so she went in to inspect that while he started getting pieces of coco fiber. It's the first time I've used it...I hope they still use the soft white stuff, too. I left for work shortly afterwards, but my husband just called to say Anna is inside packing it down while Happy keeps bringing her more material. I have to wait until morning to inspect their work.

To be totally fair...we gave the Zeb's a nest, too. Kiwi (cock) was having trouble or just couldn't wait to pick up a piece at a time so he had huge clumps of coco fiber sticking out all over the nest so we had to cut it up with a scissors into smaller pieces. I witness mating behavior with these two all the time so I'm confident they'll hatch a clutch.

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:09 pm

OK so outdoor pair have one baby hatched out and 3 more who should be hatching over the next day or two. They are diligently keeping the baby and eggs warm.

Indoor pair have started a new clutch and currently have 3 eggs in the nest; I expect they will lay at least one more before they start incubating. Hopefully this clutch will have better fertility.

Post by **Hilary** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:31 pm

Yea! Congratulations, Crystal!!

Hilary

Sally H · Post by **Sally H** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 6:50 pm

Eggsellent news!

My owls had their nest all fixed up by the time I got home from work but were sleeping on a perch and one in the greenery. Guess they got used to not sleeping in a nest that quick.

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:43 pm

Thanks guys;

I peeked in the outdoor nest again today and now I have 2 babies and 2 more on the way. Both parents try to dive bomb me as I check the nest for chicks using my laryngeal mirror; it's really cute that they think their 11 grams of fury can intimidate me!

The indoor pair have 4 eggs and are starting to incubate.

Stay tuned!

Post by **Hilary** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:07 pm

Hey, I'll freely admit that mine intimidate ME! Especially when they make a beeline right for me and do a 180 before heading right back to their perch!

Pugnacious little buggers! Looks like you'll have lots of little white-faced finches! I'm going to let mine try again when they're ready, but if it doesn't work the second time I'm not going to let them breed. They're not supposed to be related, but out of 3 fertile eggs one hatched and died the next day, one produced an embryo that never grew bigger than a grain of rice, and the other got tossed out by the societies. They're tight sitters, so either the fertile eggs were the first laid and were just a little past their prime before I gave them to the societies, or something else was wrong.

Hilary

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:06 am

:(

Found a dead baby owl on the floor of the outdoor enclosure; not sure what happened. The other one is still alive and in the nest with the 2 eggs. I am going to wait and see how the parents handle the other babies... hopefully this won't occur again :/

------edit

I found 2nd baby alive on the floor of this cage a few hours later (I was going to hold off on further nest checks, but just scan the floor of the enclosure every two hours or so), so I took the nest away from the outdoor pair and gave the baby and the two fertile eggs to the indoor pair. I'm not sure if the indoor pair will accept the baby and the one or two more babies that are due to hatch any day now, but I hope they will. The indoor pair currently has 5 eggs of their own (the 5th was laid today) and began incubation yesterday.

------another edit
The indoor pair rejected the baby and one of the fertile eggs; the remaining fertile egg probably won't hatch because its incubation has been so erratic these past 24 hours or so. Sad day! The indoor pair does have 6 eggs of their own today, not including the remaining fertile egg, and they are incubating their clutch. I hope this time around their clutch will be fertile and that they will accept and raise their own babies. I have given the outdoor pair their nest again. My plan is not to do any further nest checks and to provide more "live food" (bug mixes) to both pairs to see if that encourages them to raise their chicks.

FINCHforum

Owl Update

poor baby owl