The Ugly Stuff/Don’t Count Your Chicks Before They Hatch!

What a disgusting picture. That’s 9 dead eggs and the shells of 2 dead chicks. Why? I have no idea. The other nests are thriving, and these parents have a great track record. Last week everything was fine, this week the whole clutch is gone. Two babies hatched before dying, the others died in shell.

Why would I show you this? It’s heartbreaking!

That’s exactly why I’m sharing. Those of you who know me know I make an effort to share just how hard raising birds can be. By hiding this kind of thing we can make ourselves look better, but we can lead the unsuspecting newbie to believe that raising birds is all healthy babies and sunshine. It isn’t. It’s hard, it’s sad, it’s expensive. How expensive? Well this incident alone will probably cost me about $900 in vet bills at LEAST trying to figure out what happened, since mom and dad aren’t displaying any symptoms and will need exams, blood work, etc. Add that to the 11 dead babies, and for the sake of easy math let’s say each baby would have an adoption fee of $100... that’s $2000 down the drain and a lot of sadness, worry, and hassle as I dig into what went wrong here.

I’m not showing you the chicks that hatched before dying. The parents did exactly what they are “supposed” to, that is they flattened the little bodies as best they could so they will dry out instead of rotting in the nest. It’s gory; no one needs to see that.

I also don’t always share when babies die of other causes. But it happens! And my birds get top of the line care and I STILL LOSE BABIES.

That’s a huge part (though there are many reasons) why I discourage people from jumping into breeding. Babies die. I’ve spent years learning how to prevent problems to start with, identify them early when they happen anyway, and act fast to fix them so the baby can survive and even THEN this kind of thing can come out of the blue and kick me in the gut. If you are thinking about starting to breed, are you going to do it long enough that you’ll learn from your dead babies and be able to save others with what you learn? Because if you aren’t, don’t even start. You owe it to the ones that die to learn everything you can and SHARE THAT KNOWLEDGE with others who struggle so that those babies don’t die for nothing.

So that was long and ranty but the bottom line is this: DON’T COUNT OUR CHICKS BEFORE THEY HATCH, AND DON’T ASSUME YOUR BIRD BREEDING IDEA WILL BE FUN, EASY, OR CHEAP.


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I'm glad you shared, it is important. I'm sorry for your lost. I hope the parents will be healthy, and you find answers.

And sometimes the ones we save are the saddest ones of all...

Occasionally, breeding birds will toss a baby that isn't completely perfect from the nest and stop caring for it. Which as Dani mentioned aboved, IS EXACTLY WHAT THE PARENTS SHOULD DO, if they think something is wrong. In a natural setting, the parents would be giving their healthy chicks the best chance of survival by not wasting precious resources on "chances". So if they can tell that a chick is weak, sick, genetically inferior, etc, they will sacrifice it to make sure that the rest of their chicks have a better chance.

Luckily, since we are breeders, babies don't have to be perfect to survive and many "imperfections" that would cost a chick their life in nature can be overcome in our homes.

A breeder I know had a cockatiel thrown from the nestbox by the parents at around a week old. At first the baby tiel was slow to grow, but other than a slight delay, he seemed fine for the first few weeks. Then he developed crop issues. Back and forth to the vet. Medications. Crop flushings. Hand feeding for almost 4 months before his body just couldn't take anymore. After all the time and money put into trying to save him, the best guess anyone, even the avian vet had?

Genetic failure. Something developed wrong. Welcome to breeding.

“Welcome to breeding.” So true.

And do you guys remember when I lost Kono? After months of vet visits, medications, supplements, she was an adult bird living in a brooder for weeks being medicated multiple times a day. Thousands of dollars later she died and we still don’t know why.

And that’s a monetary loss loss, not just an emotional one. Kono was the CORNERSTONE of my future breeding program. Everything I was working towards was built around her. I spent top dollar from a fantastic breeder and she just. Died.


Maybe you can tell, someone asked me this week how to get started breeding birds “for cheap” because they want some extra cash. Maybe you can also tell, that kind of question really bothers me.


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SilverSage said:

Maybe you can tell, someone asked me this week how to get started breeding birds “for cheap” because they want some extra cash.

Click to expand...

You don't.

Yep, this will happen...That's a bummer too, when you lose an entire clutch like this, and a large clutch at that...And when it comes from a pair that has never had any issues, it's even more frustrating...and sad.

I'm so glad you posted this, because not only is it showing how difficult breeding birds is, but it's also showing what a responsible breeder has to be accountable for when things like this happen. Unfortunately most breeders in this situation will simply throw the eggs/dead babies out and immediately let the pair try again without ANY vet care at all, and without caring about what the problem is at all...Nor will they disclose any issues either...

This is such an important thread!! Thank you for sharing, Dani.

I can't tell you how many times first time 'breeder's don't believe me when I tell them to expect things to go wrong, because 'the parents know what they are doing' and 'parrots rarely have things go wrong while raising babies' --- the people that say that clearly have never lost a chick, a parent, or seen a whole clutch go bad like this.

It happens, despite our best efforts, it's expensive, you betcha, and it is definitely heartbreaking. Losing my hen this year was a harsh reminder of how breeding can and will go wrong.

So many people think it goes perfectly...but it just doesn't. Sometimes you can get lucky with a pair that sits and feeds just fine, but most times it just doesn't go as planned.

Dani, you share so much joy with the group it is vital to unveil the heartbreak that accompanies life with avians. So sorry to see the lineup of eggs. Only a responsible breeder would invest to determine cause.

To paraphrase a truism from my industry:

Q: How do you make a small fortune breeding birds?
A: You first start with a large fortune.

Not to mention the emotional loss when nature takes an undesirable course. Thanks for posting, it ought make an impact.

My first clutch of Cockatiels I lost 2 babies.
Most likely through ignorance and inexperience. I still feel terrible about it.
The second and last clutch caught me off guard. I did not expect my breeding pair to start another clutch so soon, but once "started" it could not be undone.


I only lost one with that group with an egg that had gotten a crack in it.
But I still had problems. At about 4 or 5 weeks the parents started plucking the feathers out of the babies and I had to take action that I was not full prepared for.

You need to have the equipment (expensive equipment) on hand and ready to go when the need arises. You can't go shopping on Amazon for a brooder when you have to take the chicks away from the parents RIGHT NOW.

texsize

Thank you for sharing this. It is heartbreaking and I’m so sorry for your loss. I wish more people could see this.


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It was the humidity.

I initially ruled that out because the other nests were fine but I discovered a crack in the box. I’m now experiencing major hatch complications in all nests; the humidity has skyrocketed and the babies are swelling and getting stuck in the eggs. So I’m going to be up all night tonight and probably over the next week with hatch assists, which are terrifying, and controlling the humidity as best I can. I’ve lost 5 more babies in shell and one that hatched part way before something went wrong. I don’t know if he died on his own or his parents did it.

This is my largest scale catastrophe yet. It’s exhausting. I wasn’t expecting it, it’s heartbreaking, it’s expensive, it has me in tears.

Obviously I’m figuring out not just how to fix this now in the middle of a crisis but also how to prevent it from happening again. Going back over what I did and why, and mentally going over who never to ask for advise again, etc.

Oh and now one of the nests has ants as well.


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I'm sorry, Dani. My deepest condolences for the losses and deep emotional impact. Not a breeder but I'd never have considered humidity.

Good luck with the hatch-assists. If anyone can do this, it is you.

very sorry to hear, as you yourself have said in the past. Mistakes cost lives in breeding and here goes to show, not even a human error, a minor one where the casing has failed in a way you couldn't tell until too late.

Breeding is like any 'hobby' it's a drain of money and like I've said to so many in the past wanting to profit from breeding, if it was easy to do birds would cost nothing. The price of a bird is merely to mitigate the cost to the breeder

So great of you to show (and share) this side of birdkeeping!


I've met many birdbreeders in the past (not parrots, usually, the smaller ones canaries, finches etc.) who would go with: before the first round of eggs&babies you make sure all conditions (aviary, nestboxes and birds) are as perfect as can be and keep an eye out for trouble, the second round babies are considered "a bonus round", you still do your best but if it fails they just go with "well the birds invested everything they had in the first round" (and usually "the weather did not help either").
The first round/spring&early summer birds usually (not always) used to end up as great breederbirds and showbirds, the seconds round/late summer&autumn birds are more likely to be sold to indoor-lives as tame birds or just "look at them being pretty"birds.
Luckily most serious breeders will limit the birds to one or two rounds and not encourage the non-stop breeding some species are prone to.


Anyway- wonderfull you do your best to find out what went wrong and how to fix/prevent this.


(I do not mind the unfertilized eggs and the ones that died off early, but fullyformed babies not being able to hatch always fill me with a sense of great loss ...so close to a beautifull life here and it did not make it.)

I raise a few different species of exotics and I've had this happen as well across the board. It really does suck but makes the successes all the more rewarding.

Oh, Dani. I’m so sorry. I’ll be keeping fingers crossed for the assists.


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