More Babies...

[MiaCarter]

Okay, so, I've been sick and in the hospital for a few weeks.

While I was away, I told my husband to check the nests.

"Check the nests!!" I said.

Check the nests. Pull any eggs.

He forgot to check the nests.



While I was gone, they were flying free for 3 full weeks.
Eggs were laid.
And incubated.
And now, they're about to hatch.

Gaaah!

"Check the nests!"

I have no idea who the parents are (and there are a lot of related birds in this room!) or even what species they are.

My nasty little zebra hen and her daughter are sitting. So they seem to think they're the parents. But they actually look like gouldian eggs.

It's in a little canary nest, no less, so big fall-out-of-the-nest risk.

Unfortunately, these eggs are really ripe. Too far along for me to pull them and feel okay with it. Maybe a day or two from hatching at most. (The eggs are virtually entirely opaque).
So we'll just have to wait and see and hope for the best.

So frustrated, though. It's just so sloppy to let this happen - not knowing who the parents are or even what species!
But I would feel too guilty to kill the egg babies a day or so before they're about to hatch. I can't do that. So I guess we'll see.

[jamezyboo21]

Oh oh...I guess will find out in a couple days whose babies they are Lol! I'm the same way. I can't toss eggs that soon from hatching. I just hope they stay in the canary nest and don't fall out.

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

Hey Mia.

Babies are always a blessing .

Once they hatch, you'll know the species. Once they'll color up, you should be able to guess the parents (?). And if they have something like two heads, each of a different colour, consider how pretty that will be .

Honey, all will be well.

Don't blame hubby, I think he had more to worry about, than a few eggs.

~Elana~

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

Re. Falling babies.
Once they hatch, and Moms (?) start feeding regularly, you should be able to take Canary nest down, replace it with an old Easter basket, and place both nesting material and infants in the new nest. You could actually do it with the eggs as well, as long as the new nest, is in exactly the same spot as the old nest had been.

I've had to do this several times, both with eggs and babies. Never had a problem with abandoning.

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

jamezyboo21 - I know it!
That canary nest has me worried!
I'm going to stick my baby catcher under it to prevent falls. Hopefully anyone who falls out will be tended to in the baby catcher until I find them!

Indeed, I couldn't pull those eggs so close to hatching. My only reason to pull them would be because I'm afraid they're inbred and would be sick and die as a result.
But pulling them would guarantee death, so I'd be killing them to save them from death due to the possibility of inbred defects. That's just silly.

I did the math and I think they'd have a 1 in 4 chance of being inbred, so it's not as high as I'd thought initially. (And that doesn't take into consideration my bonded pairs. I have a couple males who don't hesitate to attack another male if they try to mate with the male's hen, so in reality, I think the chances of inbreeding are actually quite a bit lower.)

I know that the most severely inbred don't develop and hatch.
So hopefully if anyone is inbred, they won't be unwell.
I've got the room and I'm prepared to care for anyone who has physical differences.
I guess it's okay. I'll band them as no-breeders and hope for the best!

@lovezebs - You're right! Babies are always a blessing!
And you're right....two heads would be lovely! Just more to love!

Depends on the coloring and gender as to whether I'll be able to determine parentage. I think I'll be able to rule out some potential parents, but I'll probably never know for sure.

That's a good idea on the nest replacement!

The primary mum is Squeeper's foster mum, Ivy, who was just fine with me messing with Squeepers' nest and handling him. So she's pretty tolerant.
The other mum is Ivy's daughter, Pippin. (This was the nasty mother-daughter team that beat up Juliette a while back)
Ivy's son is also in that cage, but he doesn't seem to care about this nesting stuff and seems content to leave the girls to their thing. So I'm letting him do free fly and he's quite content to be away from home!

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

Do we have any two headed babies yet?

~Elana~

[Sally]

I wouldn't stress too much about inbreeding. Though not desirable, the first generation is usually OK. It is when the inbreeding continues that problems crop up. As lovezebs has said, once the eggs hatch, you will know the species, and if Gouldians, once they color up you may be able to establish parentage. All you have to do with any babies is make sure they are outcrossed to totally different bloodlines, and they will be fine for breeding. I too wouldn't blame hubby too much--having someone in the hospital is very stressful, and we all know what stress does to us!

[MiaCarter]

Alas, we didn't end up with any 2-headed babies.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, Ivy threw everything --- eggs, babies, nesting --- out of the nest.

So the 2 newborns passed away and the 2 who were in egg and going to hatch died. One had already started to pip.

Break. My. Heart.

I've never seen that before!
I have no idea what would have caused her to do that other than some sort of disturbance. But there was no disturbance (that I know of).
(And you have to remember that this is Squeepers' foster mom and she was totally tolerant of me reaching in daily to mess with Squeepers.)

Strange, right??

[MiaCarter]

Oh --- oh! --- I forgot to mention the species!

It was a mixed clutch.
The 2 that had hatched were zebras.

The baby who had pipped was a gouldian. Part of me wonders if somehow Ivy knew it was a gouldian and dumped out the nest as a result???
I know they chirp in-egg. Could she have determined species by the chirp? Or by smell?
No idea. But I can't see why she'd dump the entire nest; I'd dump just the offending egg.

The other baby in the egg looks like a zebra (though I'm not sure. He didn't have nodules and he didn't have fuzz, but I know fuzz is the last thing to come in. And maybe gouldians don't get nodules until the very end? Not sure.)

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

Maybe she sensed that there was something not right with them, who knows?

I was kinda looking forward to two headed babies.... :'(

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

lovezebs - That's the only thing I can think of - that she knew something was off.

But she'd fed the hatched babies, so that's what's perplexing.

I guess we'll never know.

I'm just bummed I didn't catch it in time.
One of the babies was just barely alive when I found them. I tried to warm him but he was just too far gone.

Two-headed babies would be fascinating, really!

I'm going to google it. There's got to be an incidence of 2-headed birds!

[Teagarden]

MiaCarter - I hope you are feeling better after being sick & in the hospital. I've been down that road & it's frustrating for sure when what seems like simple instructions are not followed. My husband told me he could not remember what to do when he got home to the birds. Stress has so many different ways to show up.

Sorry the babies didn't make it. I don't know why Ivy would toss like that given her fostering.

Know that you are healing & hopefully caring for your furry & feathered friends continues to bring you joy.

Mary

[MiaCarter]

Teagarden - I know it!
It's so perplexing that she would not only toss the eggs and babies, but lobbed out the entire contents of the nest too!

What's strange is that she was feeding the babies who had hatched. So all was going well.

I wish I'd found the babies sooner as I could have given them to my society finch-zebra finch fostering pair.
Now that my society finch has raised 3 babies, she's obsessed with nesting!
She keeps laying infertile hybrid eggs and sitting on them. I never see her anymore! I keep pulling the eggs and she keeps laying more.
I'm just afraid to pull the nest because I know when I do is when I'll need her to foster again! LOL

[lnlovesorange]

MiaCarter I'm sorry you didn't catch the babies in time... I know they would have been all right in your care...but like you said, she must have known something was wrong. It wasn't meant to be. I know what you mean about your bird being obsessed with nesting, my zebra pair the same, I'm putting in fake eggs, so she stopped laying for a while, but I did a nest check the other day and on top of the 5 fake eggs she had laid 3 REAL ones...and Melvin is bringing in whatever he can to the nest... and she was the WORST mother EVER.... I'm like yeah charlotte, i MIGHT let you have babies just to beat up on them again...um NOT!!! lol... They did make some pretty ones though!! Good luck with everything Mia, and I'm really glad you're out of the hospital and doing better!!!