Using a brooder?

[Themcleodflock]

I think that my female may have stopped sitting on her eggs properly, I just cleaned out the cage and since doing so neither the male or female have gone back into the nest to incubate the eggs properly. If I need to incubate the eggs in a brooder can I give the babies to the parents to raise when they hatch or would I need to hand-raise?

[Sally]

Usually, when the eggs are removed to a brooder or incubator, the parents will not accept the babies back after the eggs hatch. You may have disturbed the parents enough with the cage cleaning that they have now abandoned the nest. I'd give it a litle more time, to see if they will return.

[Themcleodflock]

It's been well over an hour since the parents were sitting on the nest, is that long enough to have killed any fertile eggs? I don't have an incubator so I would need to improvise and I have 0 experience of hand feeding.

[Sally]

There is no way to tell if the eggs have cooled off too much, I've had eggs hatch that should not have made it, and I've had others that didn't make it. Personally, I would just leave it for now, give them a chance to go back to nest. If you don't have a brooder ready, and with 0 hand feeding experience, you probably would be setting yourself up for disappointment. Often, the best course of action is to see if they will return, leave it for the rest of the day at least, and then clean out the nest tomorrow if they have truly abandoned it. They can always start again.

[debbie276]

I agree with Sally, I'd wait and see if they go back to nest later today. Depending on the environment I've known of times when eggs went on to hatch after not being sat on for a day or more.
Incubating eggs is difficult, between getting the temperature and humidity right and then handfeeding the chick's it is a huge chore and not always successful.

Best of luck

[MiaCarter]

I'd let them be.

I've had eggs survive after an entire day off the nest --- cases where logic tells you that the eggs shouldn't have survived. But they did.
So I'd just leave them for now. I'd back off and hope for the best.

Hopefully they'll return soon. They usually do in my experience. (Unless they're waxbills....they abandon very easily.)

Really, if they've abandoned, I'd let them be and start over if necessary.
Otherwise, you'd be tasked with making a brooder in the next few minutes and handfeeding every 2 hours around the clock for the next 2 months (or longer if they wean slowly.)
It's absolutely exhausting and the odds of survival for handfed-from-day-1 babies is really poor for an experienced handfeeder. Maybe 10% survival? It's just a lot of suffering and heartbreak. So I don't recommend it if you can avoid it.

[Themcleodflock]

I will wait and see, if they have not returned to the nest by lunchtime tomorrow then I'll clean out the nest and remove it from the cage.

[Themcleodflock]

They are back on the nest, here's hoping that the eggs are ok

[debbie276]

Great news!
Best of luck

[Teagarden]

Fabulous!
Hoping all goes well for them.
Mary

[Themcleodflock]

The parents rooster in the nest but since waking up they haven't been in the nest for more than a few minutes. Could the eggs still hatch if they only sit to roost?

[Themcleodflock]

After a few hours this morning they seem to be sitting on the eggs properly again, so fingers crossed the eggs should hatch next weekend

[debbie276]

[Themcleodflock]

In terms of egg food and supplements I am providing: cuttlebone, broccoli floret and mashed boiled egg with crushed dried mealworms mixed in. Is there anything else I should be providing when the eggs hatch?

[debbie276]

Those supplements sound very good. They should do nicely on that.