Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:45 pm Post subject: Unclear If Parents Have Abandoned Babies - Help Please
Hi
I'd be grateful for any help. Should explain that I have just come out of hospital after an operation. When I went in my normally reliable pair had 3 young chicks from 6 eggs (slight surprise, usually have had 100% hatch rate). All three very well fed. Whilst I was away someone else had to feed the birds but didn't apparently check on them. Got home Wed and resumed looking after them myself on Sunday. Chicks now approximately 3.5 to 4 weeks old but the notes I had in my head have gone into the ether due to illness. On Sunday I found one dead and decomposing in box, two looking well. Due to the state of the large decomposing chick I had no option but to remove the surviving chicks whilst I changed the shavings. Yesterday the chicks looked ok but I wasn't 100% sure if they had full crops. Today Tuesday, their crops seem empty and they are quiet. Parents are in the flight investigating other nest boxes. Would the crops still be visible if they are 4+ weeks, I don't want to remove them if they are being fed. Also I am aware of trying to remove them too late, as then they will refuse the syringe. I've normally only parent reared and haven't observed the situation with visible/not visible crop but I am very concerned and really would be grateful for advice. Thank you in advance
Very unusual behaviour for kakariki....
4weeks.. feathers got good colour , yes the hen moves on.. the male carries on feeding
Are u 100% sure u dont have a vermin issue or had a serious issue with dogs at night... something like that?
Thu if have a dead chick.. for a while.. compositing, and the parents have not been able to push it out of the nest (box) yes it is likely they could likely have abandoned the nest box.. thu with experienced parents/ male I would expect it likely for him to hear the remaining chicks and go back to check out and feed.
Do you have a holding flight with single males/ flock in ....
A fresh box...bit more open, chances are the flock will step in and feed 'uncle' the raising of the chicks.
At that age u should be able to hand feed with a bent 'funnel' teaspoon. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
I wrote a reply but clearly user error (ie me) because it hasn't appeared. Really sorry that it seemed I hadn't bothered to thank you for the good advice. There's no obvious vermin issue, no dogs etc. We've moved on a bit - turns out the cock was going in and feeding erratically, then hen is clearly over it. However, sadly I trusted him too much and despite checking often, three days ago I found the larger of the two dead, crop completely empty. Guess it was just too weak by the time I realised what was going on with them. I immediately brought the remaining baby indoors and mercifully she took a good amount of hand-rearing mixture and is still with us.
However I'm not overly optimistic of her chances - she is very small, I've spent time figuring out the age from before I got sick and hospitalised and believe she is now 4 weeks and 3 or 4 days but she was only 56 grams. I've weighed her each morning and she's not increased infact this morning she was only 54. That's the morning pre-feed weight on reliable scales. Most of the time she will not take enough feed - she's reluctant to take more than a couple of mls, lucky to get 4 into her so I'm feeding her more frequently. This morning her crop was completely empty but she had passed some rather worrying looking faintly blood stained droppings though she seems very lively, and actually surpassed herself with 6mls though it took a lot of coaxing to start her off. I'm used to rearing cockatiels with their energetic head bobbing and I know kakis aren't so vigorous but even so she doesn't seem to be very food interested which I'm guessing is maybe because she's never been fed adequate amounts from the word go.
So I'm plodding on. Thank you very much for all your help, and I'm sorry about doing something wrong with the first reply.
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