Urgent - lovebird killed newborn baby, another still to hatch

A week ago I discovered my lovebird, Cheeka, had 3 secret eggs. Unfortunately, two were fertile and very developed or else I would have removed them. She's under a year old so too young to breed, and I had no intention of allowing babies. Tonight I heard a baby chirping from inside the egg, and Cheeka was rolling it about. I think she was curious, or confused, not sure? The baby hatched, he was perfect and healthy, and chirping away.

A little while later he made a high pitched cry then silence... I checked on him and he was dead. Cheeka had crushed part of his little break and bruised his wing.

The other egg will hatch any time now.

I don't want the same horrific thing to happen, is she likely to kill this baby too? Should I take the baby off her straight away? I have experience raising babies, as I've had to raise them for my neighbour, but only from 2 weeks old. The idea of even trying to raise such a tiny fragile little thing is confronting, but I don't want him to suffer the same awful fate.

Any advice?? Should I give her another a chance and risk her killing it, or attempt to raise a newborn?

I'm so sorry! What a terrible set of circumstances. I hope the experienced ones will chime in, I'm just giving you my support and hope for the best.

Since you had no intention of breeding I won't go into all the ways to prevent parent aggression in future pairings, but please remove the box as soon as this clutch is ready and read the article below on preventing future clutches

http://www.silversageaviaries.com/handlinghormones/

In your case it is likely because she is too young, was hand raised (not always a factor but can contribute), was disturbed, or something was wrong with the chick (which is likely inbred if you got both parents from the same place).

As for pulling, the baby will need to be kept extremely warm and fed every hour for at least 24 hours, probably longer, and then every 2 hours for a long time, then every three hours... are you able to do that?

A better option is probably to find a local breeder with a pair that has a good history of accepting fosters. In the mean time, be sure nothing is upsetting your hen such as strangers, other pets, moving things around in the room, disruptions to her schedule, etc, as these things can cause her to kill chicks.


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Thank you silver sage, I was hoping you would chime in.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

Considering her age, I'm surprised she even managed to get the eggs to this stage.That link is really helpful, and I'll remove her tent after this (she may kill me in my sleep for it, but it's going to happen!). I feel terrible for not removing the first one after her reaction to the chirping egg, but she was acting caring and concerned towards him.

I do have a brooder setup, with heat and a thermostat. Only because I was forced to raise a baby, featherless, probably 7 days old who had a severely ruptured air sac. But a big difference to 0 days old, and I'm only experienced from 2 weeks.

So while I'd be willing to put in that effort, it's definitely not the safest or best option for the baby. I've sent a message to a local breeder I found online, to see if he has a pair who could take it in. Waiting to hear back... if not there's a local petshop where the vet staff hand raise parrots, I could try them.

The baby's now chirping inside the egg. If it hatches before I find someone to take him, should I take him out and put him in the brooder or leave him? They don't need to be fed for a few hours after hatching, right?

Not for a few hours, but if you take it out there is likely no putting it back.


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It really is such a hard call to make either way