Emmy

It's now 7 pm and I've finally finished cleaning Chirpy. The worst part to do was removing a large part of the membrane that was stuck over its eye but it looks nice now and it is still chirping away. I'll wait until later on before I give it any formula. Think all it needs now is rest and quiet -- me too Just hope Chirpy survives now - keeping my fingers crossed. Emmy Chirpy nice and clean now

Been some afternoon!!!!! there was no further progress with the cockatiel chick hatching so I put it in 'Buddy' to check its heart beat and its heart beat had dropped from over 300 beats to 70 beats I had a feeling it was probably stuck in the shell because it was more than 24 hours since it first started to pip but I left it for another 30 minutes and checked the heart beat again and it was down to 50 so I intervened and helped it out from the shell - it is a BIG chick and it was stuck to the membrane and -I can laugh now- when I had got it out from the shell I chirped to it --it was still chirping back to me (lol) I left it for about an hour in the incubator without doing anything to it so it could rest. I then had to use a damp cotton bud to try to release one of its wings which was stuck firmly to its head then one of the legs had to be done too. (I honestly felt it could be doing with being put in a bath and given a good soak but I knew that wasn't possible, so I guess it has to be a bit at a time. I've got the brooder ready and I've just given it 2/3 drops of warm coconut water (works the same as electrolyte) to stop it becoming dehydrated - Think I'll need to name this one 'Chirpy' (lol) I have taken a photograph of the chick but haven't had time to download it yet- unfortunately I didn't get any photographs of helping it out from its shell I was too busy concentrating on saving the chick and 'camera' never entered my head. I'll update later - guess its time for me to have a coffee. Emmy

Cockatiel egg in incubator is about to hatch and I took a video.clip. You can hear the chick chirping from inside the egg. The 1st and 2nd LOUD chirps you hear is ME! chirping to the chick and then you will hear the chick chirping --(is it chirping back to me its new MUM ?) Here's a link to YouTube https://youtu.be/byWdWFJ7R7c Emmy ps please just ignore the Chihuahua -Rabelou- barking -big bark tiny dog(lol)

(Left to right) So nice to see 'Baby', 'Dad' and 'Mum' (Diamond doves) enjoying the sunshine in the outside flight. Emmy

Happy Birthday Dave Wishing you all the best. Emmy

Hope you had a lovely birthday Claire (Sorry I'm a bit late) Emmy

Hi Susan Welcome to the forum. It's the usual story (lol) you buy a pair of zebra finches and before you know it you begin to lose count of how many you have Here's something you can try to stop the male plucking her feathers. Cut 6 /8 --10 cm lengths of normal parcel string - gather them together and fold them in half and put the loop through the cage wires and then pull the other part through the loop to secure to the cage and he will be more interested trying to pull the string apart and leave the female alone. This has worked for me before. Hope it's of some help to you The wee ones can make some noise when they are letting 'mum' know they want to be fed. Are you just going to keep zebra finches? I have a few different types of finches and other birds too. At the moment I have some eggs in my incubator , found them on the bottom of my inside flight in the aviary and one was a diamond dove's egg and I had to help the tiny diamond dove chick out from its shell yesterday (it was stuck in shell and would have died if I hadn't helped it get out) and I'm now hand rearing it. I'll be feeding it (using a cocktail stick) every 2 hours for the first few days. This photo was taken when it was an hour old.

Sorry I'm a bit late but hope you have a wonderful birthday Sarah Emmy

One day I will count them, but I really have been selling some Emmy

Gary, I have 4 hens (Easy to count ), 3 Texan white quail, 6 CPQail, 2 peach faced lovebirds (sitting on 4 eggs), 3 Amazon parrots, 2 Barraband Parrots; 4 owl finches, 4 Madagascar lovebirds., 2 grass finches (hecks), ? Gouldians, ? diamond doves; ? Fife canaries: ??Cockatiels; and ????different mutations of zebra finches. So that makes my total 30 plus the ?? marks now recording it this way --30 plus ? sounds OK to me (almost forget to mention one pair of the canaries have 4 eggs in their nest) Emmy

Gary I think this 'blog' post must have come up again because I was editing the post to change a word in the 'Blog' I had 'Piper and Darcy' recorded as red winged Amazons but they are Orange winged Amazons (lol) They are the same ones I had last year. 4 eggs were laid last year but they didn't look fertile (didn't show up clearly on the ovascope) so I was advised to remove the eggs and hopefully the female would go down again but she didn't the only thing that did happen was they became very aggressive towards me. (Was told they must be thinking I was a nest robber ) This year I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will nest again -so far its looking good - they are feeding each other and I was told that's a good sign. Glad I got the 'Buddy egg monitor' because it will be a double check to find out if any eggs laid are fertile. (I'm thinking it's maybe time 'Bobby' updated his 'blog' -so watch this space) (I've just got the 3 parrots (plus all the other types of birds as well lol) and they are all mine ) Sorry about the mix up. Emmy

Welcome to the forum Elbee. It's never-ending all the new things you discover about those little birds and nice to share information and photos. Hope you enjoy the forum looking forward to your posts. Emmy

Thanks Clare only problem is my obbb are all siblings (I still have their parents). Just thought I may just get a surprise (lol) Emmy

Another beauty Trevor What pairing did that one come from? I'm thinking of pairing up a bbob cock with cfw hen split for bc (she is showing signs of bc ) but part of me is thinking it may not be right to do that. BUT if I had put them into the outside flight they may have paired up on their own (million to one chance -lol) Emmy

One day you should have a new mutation named after you. The results you are getting just don't happen overnight -hope all goes well with the next lot. Emmy

It's another wee beauty Trevor Hope the others turn out well too. Your work kinda makes this old saying wrong-- "Patience is a virtue, find it if you can, seldom in a woman but NEVER in a man" Emmy

Thank you for posting the photographs I think they are so cute when they still have their black beaks. Emmy

First I'd like to say 'Welcome the forum' Are your young chicks still being fed by the parent birds? Do you put the egg food down to make it available to them all? What I normally do is when the adult birds are feeding the young in the nest I give them a little egg food along with their normal seed every day and oyster grit is always available to them as well as cuttlefish. When the chicks fledge I continue with the above and also give millet spray to encourage the chicks to peck on their own. Once the chicks are separated from the parents For the first week I still give the egg food every day then gradually decrease the amount daily and then only give a little twice a week in finger feeder or a small container. Hope this helps. from the description of the chicks they seem all to be pied - I love chicks like that. I have a variety of colours of finches and have some crested ones too. Any chance of you posting a photograph of the chicks ? Emmy

Hi Andy Hope you have a lovely day celebrating. Emmy

Hi Ricky If its the one sitting on the perch I think its a female. Emmy

Hi InleGM First I'd like to say Welcome to the forum. There's a few things I could give you advice on but I hope others will jump in and correct me if I'm wrong. You didn't say the height of your cage but in my opinion you do need a larger cage for them. It's not a good thing if they start to eat their eggs- could become a bad habit -this could mean if they did lay fertile eggs they would do the same with them. When they have laid eggs in their nest they don't like their cage to be moved to a different position. Before I realised this In the past I have had them incubating eggs and moved their cage to different location and they came off the nest and didn't go back, even if they had live chicks in the nest if the cage was moved they didn't go back to feeding the chicks and if I hadn't hand reared the chicks they would have died---(I have Blog on here mentioning this- 'Hand Rearing Birds by Emmy') They do like a 'bath' from time to time- this can be attached to the front of their cage or a shallow dish with water can be placed on the bottom of their cage Re 'banding' I think you are meaning putting rings on their leg when they are young. I don't put closed rings on mine, which gives information when they hatched out etc. etc. when I do ring mine I use coloured split rings but this is just for my own information and wouldn't give information re who the bird belonged to. I'm sorry but I've no idea what happens re closed rings where you live. I know I use the following if the birds start pecking each others feathers but it may divert them from eating eggs -don't know if it would though: Cut about 6/7 10cms lengths of normal parcel string and then fold it in half and loop it through the wires of the cage they love pecking at this. Hope this gives you a little help. Emmy

Another beauty Trevor Just waiting to find out what my Bengalese hatch out no idea what type they are incubating, only thing I do know is they will not be Bengalese Emmy

That one looks a right wee 'porker' bonny bird Emmy

What a lovely wee bird Trevor. Any more in the nest? Emmy

Some of my finches like toys too Emmy