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Emmy

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Posts posted by Emmy

  2. Posted

    2 hours ago, Lagosuchus said:

    I know it's an old post and maybe you won't read it but maybe somebody else can benefit of it.

    You say 'its an old post' but no matter if it had  been said before.   to someone new beginning to keep finches it will be a new post to them and any piece of information old or new will always be helpful.  There's also another reason for posting things that have been said before-- take it from me as we get older sometimes we tend to forget what has gone before, So Welcome to the forum and thank You for posting that information,:good:

    Emmy

  3. Posted · Report reply

    One pair of my cockatiels had 4 eggs in their nest box - all 4 eggs were fertile.  I had to keep a close watch on this pair because they had a bad  record for not feeding their young.

    The first egg hatched out on the 27th August and the chick looked healthy ( I could check without disturbing the parents\) so I had fingers crossed this time it would be OK.I usually checked in the morning but on the 29th I didn't get around to checking until the afternoon and I was devastated to discover that the little healthy chick hadn't been fed and it was hardly breathing.   I did all I could to try to save it I put the  incubator on  but the wee thing was too far gone-- if I had only checked in the morning I would have been able to save it.

    I knew that one of the other eggs would be about to hatch  so I decided I'd bring the three fertile eggs in and put them in the incubator and I put 3 dummy eggs into the parent's nest box. When I was putting the eggs into the incubator I could hear a chick  chirping from inside an egg.

    That night (29th August at 7.15pm ) one of the eggs hatched -- it's a lovely wee chick and I named it 'Titch'

    Titch 29th August 2017.JPGThis is Titch- photo taken 11 pm on the 29th August when it was just over 4 hours old.

    As cockatiels  lay an egg every 2nd day I reckoned the hatching would be the same-- an egg would hatch out every 2nd day, so I reckoned that the next one would hatch out on the 31st August and it did - 'Tosh' (new one's name :lol:) hatched out tonight at 6pm almost exactly 2 days after Titch.  Tosh was chirping from inside the egg too before it hatched. So if all goes to plan 'Toots' which will be the 3rd chick's name if all goes well should hatch out on the 2nd September.

    About an hour after they hatch out I give them a 2/3 drops of warm coconut water- this is instead of electrolyte and I've found that helps with them digesting the formula when they first  start to be fed.

    I do have photographs of Tosh but because the photographs  need to be resized and I cant find the link on this new computer to do that  I'll have to post them later.

    I have just finished hand rearing Taz  and now I'm back again burning the midnight oil but Taz will be going to  its new home sometime next week.

     

    Emmy

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  4. Posted · Report reply

    Hi Paul Welcome to the forum

    Hopefully you will get a response to your enquiry.   Sorry I cant help you -  I have a mixed aviary but not a lot of pied or whites  and I'm a bit too far away.  Perhaps some of the other members will be able to give you information about bird sales in or near your area. 

    Wishing you Good Luck in your search and hope you feel better now.

    Emmy

  5. Posted

    Gary Now that there is a bit more colour  in their feathers - I'm thinking the reason they don't sound the same is -its beginning to look like the wee one  may be a Bengalese :o:D

    but it doesn't really matter what they turn out to be as long as they are healthy and able to feed, drink and fly.:)

    Emmy

    (I have another story about 'Shadow' the previous zebra finch I hand reared but not sure where to put it - add it to the blog about the hand rearing of it or start another post?)

    Emmy

  6. Posted

    If birds have 9 lives like they say cats do then the older chick has only 8 now (;)) 

     

    The older one (named it 'Tufty' ) can fly a bit now and decided when I was feeding them it would have a bit of fun--it flew out of the cage and landed on the floor - what Tufty didn't  know was that the dog wasn't locked in its cage and was sleeping on the floor about 2 feet away from it landed.  

    Chick is now minus two of its tail feathers - NO it wasn't the dog  that did that it was ME! grabbing hold of it before it took off again. :rolleyes: 

    One thing I have noticed about them though is they definitely don't sound the same when they are chirping.

    Emmy

    • Like 2

  7. Posted

    Taken today older one now perching on my finger and both were out from the nest this morning :D

    July 21st 2017 resized.jpg

    Looks like the wee one is going to be a 'pied'   Older one ?? guess I'll just need to have a bit patience -unless anyone else can work it out?

    Emmy

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    Hi Gary

    (It's not a heating pad). I made up the 'nest' using the glass jar that the 'creme brullee'  was in (bought in Lidls : good excuse to buy that) .put a piece of rubbery foam on the bottom of the jar then some nesting material, then  to keep the 'nest' clean i use 4 squares of toilet tissue placing a corner of each one in the middle so it overlaps all around the dish and I change that every time they get fed.  I put this into the small carrying cage and then the cage went into the brooder. Temp. approx 28/29C. the little pad on the top I made from gauze filled with nesting material and place that half over the top of the nest to make it seem there was a parent bird brooding them:rolleyes::lol: a bit silly I know but if it didn't make the chicks feel better it definitely worked for me:lol:

    They are now out from the brooder but still in the 'nest' in the small cage. (Still in the house) Tomorrow I'll hopefully be moving them into a larger cage with a perch in it - reckon it wont be long until the larger one comes out from the nest. . Still getting fed every 3/4 hours. 

    Emmy

  13. Posted

    A while ago, when I was cleaning the cages I had found eggs on the bottom of some of the cages.  After I had collected the eggs I had no idea which pairs the eggs came from so I fostered the eggs to my pair of Begalese finches.

     (I have kept a regular check on this pair of Bengalese this time because they had stopped feeding the  previous chick they had fostered before the chick was able to feed on its own.(had all its feathers) and the chick died.

    They hatched out two of the eggs but there were a good few days between the eggs hatching, but they fed the chicks and everything seemed ok until 2 days ago. When I checked in the morning the youngest one had an empty crop and was very lethargic and lots of the feathers on its back were missing, the older one was begging for food but was not being fed.  I left them for a few hours to see if they had been fed but crops were still empty.  

    So abandoning  all my promises to my family that I wasn't going to hand rear any more birds  I set up the brooder again and brought them into the house. They are feeding well now and feeding them every 3/4 hours using VerseleLaga NutriBird A2 hand rearing formula -( no feeding during the night;):D)

    Still haven't got names for them yet and still can't tell what mutation they will be.

    So here are the two newcomers;

    (having bother uploading photos will post them later )

    Emmy

     

     

     

     

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Hi Sarah 

    Glad to know there is someone else  just as daft as me(lol) 

    I'm forever popping abandoned eggs into the incubator.  I'm cutting back on the quails and had only one pair of Texan Whites left. found one egg in their hutch and was going to bin it then decided I'd pop it into the incubator and YES it was fertile but that's another story about when it hatched but its OK now.  Nice to read about what you are doing. Sorry I cant write more just now but I need to go and feed my cockatiel chick (Chirpy) still getting formula -  and then check that the 3  love bird chicks I'm hand rearing are OK for the night .  Will get back to you soon. (My computer is keeping cutting out so sometimes I cant get into the forums-  think I'll be needing  to get a new one soon:o)

    Love your photographs :good:

    Emmy

  18. Posted · Report reply

    31 minutes ago, Stuart whiting said:

    Sounds like that yer doing very well Emmy,

    all yellow and fluffy  :D is he / she a lutino B)

    thanks for sharing 

    I've no idea what colour it will be and to be honest don't even know which pair are the parents.  I've hand reared a number of them but this is the first one that I've hand reared that keeps chirping to me (lol)

    Emmy

    • Like 1

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Chirpy just had its first proper feed (used a crop tube) but didn't over feed it. 

    I'm thinking I'll let its crop empty more than just once a day to begin with.  Though it will probably need another feed about 2.30am /  3 am. 

    Tomorrow I'm going to make it a little 'comforter' for it to snuggle into- the small teddy bear that I used for the quail/ duckling is just a wee bit too big although Chirpy was trying to snuggle into it. (lol)   Just a pity the parrot's egg hadn't hatched out at the same time they would have got on fine snuggling into each other (lol)

    Meantime everything is looking good.  (parrot egg is still OK with good heart beat:good:)

    photo of Chirpy after its first feed all snuggled up in the brooder.

    June 18th 2017 11.15 pm Chirpy cockatiel chick.jpg

  21. Posted · Report reply

    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 ;) :lol:

    Just hope Chirpy survives now - keeping my fingers crossed.

    Emmy

    18th June 'chirpy' just hatched pm resized.jpgChirpy nice and clean now:good:

     

    • Like 1

  22. Posted · Report reply

    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 :obut 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

     

     

    • Like 1

  23. Posted · Report reply

    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 :lol:?)

     

     

    Here's a link to YouTube

    https://youtu.be/byWdWFJ7R7c

    Emmy

    ps please just ignore the  Chihuahua -Rabelou- barking -big bark tiny dog(lol)

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    (Not sure if this is in the correct area but it is to do with breeding) you probably will have read my other post about the damaged egg well  these photos are of the other two eggs that are in the nest box. Tonight I managed to get a photo of the eggs while the birds were feeding so they weren't disturbed.  I then candled the eggs using Pi casa and I'm almost 100% certain that both eggs  are fertile

    First photo is of the two eggs that are  in the nest --quite clearly showing the embryo developing in both eggs

    1.

    canded inpicasa eggs in parrot nestbox 15thJune (2).JPG

     

     

     

    2.

    canded inpicasa eggs in parrot nestbox 15thJune - Copy (2) - Copy_LI.jpg

    Second photo shows the shape of the embryo in one of the eggs - unfortunately I couldn't get the  larger clearer print to post here so I have ringed the shape hoping it makes it clearer.  (to me it looks like the shape of a tiny chick.   Next thing I'm thinking of trying is to photograph the egg in the incubator and edit it in Picasa to find out if an image will show up from the damaged egg.

    (edited to add:-- I  did take a photo of the damaged egg but it didn't show up any further details in Picasa  Maybe try again in a few days time.)

    Hope you find this interesting.

    Emmy

    • Like 3