Last night when I checked boxes, I found this Bourke's parakeet chick had hatched:
It belongs to Inga. She is the hen who has had three previous clutches of chicks. But she never fed any of them, and in spite of my efforts to hand feed them or foster them to another mother who was feeding her chicks, all 9 of the previous chicks died.
I was encouraged by some other Bourke's breeders to give her one more chance, because it is not uncommon for a young Bourke's hen to need several tries before she learns how to raise chicks properly. So I am desperately hoping that Inga will keep this chick alive.
It was hard to tell last night whether the chick had been fed or not. The photo above shows that the crop is swollen up a little bit, but it looked like it could have had air or just water in it.
When I checked the box this morning, in addition to seeing a tiny bit of food in its crop, I also found a second chick in the nest! The second one has a tiny bit of food in its crop as well. (I did not take pictures this morning.)
With the previous clutches, Inga had never fed any of the chicks at all. And they were smaller and weaker looking than these two current chicks. The size of these two chicks is giving me a lot of hope. But I am ready to step in again with hand rearing formula, and foster hens, if that becomes necessary. The best possible scenario though, would be for Inga to learn how to do it all properly on her own.
Below is a photo of the only budgie chick to hatch yesterday. Now Tiffany has three chicks. The other mothers should both get new chicks some time today.
I was encouraged by some other Bourke's breeders to give her one more chance, because it is not uncommon for a young Bourke's hen to need several tries before she learns how to raise chicks properly. So I am desperately hoping that Inga will keep this chick alive.
It was hard to tell last night whether the chick had been fed or not. The photo above shows that the crop is swollen up a little bit, but it looked like it could have had air or just water in it.
When I checked the box this morning, in addition to seeing a tiny bit of food in its crop, I also found a second chick in the nest! The second one has a tiny bit of food in its crop as well. (I did not take pictures this morning.)
With the previous clutches, Inga had never fed any of the chicks at all. And they were smaller and weaker looking than these two current chicks. The size of these two chicks is giving me a lot of hope. But I am ready to step in again with hand rearing formula, and foster hens, if that becomes necessary. The best possible scenario though, would be for Inga to learn how to do it all properly on her own.
Below is a photo of the only budgie chick to hatch yesterday. Now Tiffany has three chicks. The other mothers should both get new chicks some time today.