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Faracat

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Posts posted by Faracat

  4. Posted

    As the new indoor aviary is finally finished, today was moving day! :D

     

    We set up a 'tunnel' made from a cardboard box connecting the two aviaries and most of the birds have gone across themselves. It was wonderful to watch as they investigated the tunnel and then took the plunge and flew through. I was quite surprised that the fledglings were the bravest and a couple of them took great delight in going back and forth between the two aviaries. I will move any stragglers over in the dark (I find it easier to catch them then and they stress less) and then the job of dismantling the old one will begin.

     

    It's lovely to see them with much more space. :)

  5. Posted

    Thanks. :)

     

    I use similar nestboxes and they work really well. I have had a few eggs on the floor in the past, but wondered if they were infertile and therefore chucked out as it would be impossible for the egg to accidently roll out. I've never had an egg on the floor that had a chick in anyway.

  9. Posted

    All five are still doing well. I'm still keeping my fingers firmly crossed that this continues. 

     

    RE splitting the pair up. It's not something that had occurred to me, but it could be an option if this brood goes badly. They are in an aviary though, so they chose each other. I would have to remove one of them from the aviary (I do have a separate cage available) and then pair that one with another bird and hope that they stayed in the new pairing when returned to the aviary. 

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    I thought that I should update this thread. This pair are now on their second brood and they have had five eggs hatch. So far all are doing well and I'm trying to make sure that there are no deficiencies in their diet, but we shall see how it goes. *fingers crossed*

     

    PS - the single chick from the first brood is fine.

  11. Posted

    This is her. This is sadly the best photo that I could get as she was being very busy and hardly sat still, plus I have a lot of CFWs. I know the perch is quite a thin one, they have varied diameters of perches and this thin one happens to be outside her nest where she did stop for a moment before popping in her nest to feed her chick.

     

    ETA. I have a tonic that you can add to their water, would it be worth my while doing that just incase?

     

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  12. Posted

    She looks good, I'll try to get a good photo of her later. This brood was four eggs, with three hatching and two died when they had open eyes and the feathers were just starting to come out of the quills. The third chick is still alive and is now getting towards fledging. The grit is a specific caged bird grit and is a mix of tiny little 'stones' and crushed oyster shell.

  13. Posted

    They are in an aviary that catches the sun, so plenty of sunlight. They have mixed foreign finch seed, millet sprays, fresh greens, iodine block (although this is hardly touched by the birds), egg food, grit and a cuttlefish available. Plus fresh water, of course. Is there anything else that should be added?

     

    I have other birds in the same aviary that don't have this high mortality rate with their chicks that this particular pair have and indeed as mentioned the male has had big broods with a previous hen. 

  14. Posted

    I don't know if anyone has any advice that might help with one of my zebbie pairs? The male is a pet shop size bird who has brought up large broods with a different hen in the past (who sadly died), but he's now paired up with a great big 'show' bird who hadn't had chicks before. They have had three sets of chicks, the first two broods (last year) ended up with only a single chick surviving from each brood. This year they were the first of my zebbies to start breeding and they had three chicks hatch. All made it to the eyes open stage and looked really healthy and well fed, only two of the chicks have suddenly died. I have no idea why. Looking at the chicks has given me no clues as to what went wrong. 

     

    As an aside - are the pet shop size birds normally better at bringing up chicks? It certainly seems to be the case with mine. :(

  18. Posted · Report reply

    The talk about black flanks is very interesting. I have a grey pied BC who was a surprise colour as his parents are a normal grey and a CFW. I paired him with a grey BC hen and so far they have had two male chicks, one grey pied BC and one grey BC. Both have jet black flanks (bar the spots).

     

    This is the dad. You can't see much of his flank colour due to the pied, but he's not as darkly coloured as his sons are. 

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  20. Posted

    Thanks for your post.

     

    I have a nice young pied BC (son of the one in my avatar) and a new lot of fledglings look to have one BC and three with smudgy tears, so hopefully split for BC. I was wondering about potentially pairing one of those (if any are hens) with the pied BC in the future, with the aim of breeding more BC's. The grandparent is a very nice bird, in fact he's my favourite, so I wouldn't mind doubling up to him.