crazy crazy day yesterday with babies....

my cordon blues were laying eggs. they are tossers. I had intended to remove the eggs from the nest, and place them into my society finch nest so they would raise them as their own.
BUT, because the nest is very small, and you cannot SEE in the nest, I could only see one egg.

I gently tipped the nest so the eggs would fall into my hand but these came out instead!!
3 baby cordon blue chicks, just days old.
I just about crapped my pants!!



entrance to the finch nest....they also have bedding up the backside right to the top ....for protection


no turning back now... I cannot return the babies to the nest, the cordon parents will not go back into the nest...so my only hope is to place them into the society nest, hoping they will accept them and feed them as their own.

1/2 hour later, I go back into the bird room......I decided to double check the cordon blue nest one more time.....I've seen babies get stuck in nests before...
and this came out....

another baby....that makes 4 in total


again, I had to disturb the society nest, and put the other chick in.....god I was stressing over this!
every time you disturb the nest, you run the chance of the parents abandoning the chicks permanently....

the parents returned 10 minutes later to sit on all 4 babies, plus their own....that sure is one crowded nest.

this morning, I didn't see any babies tossed, which is good news, so I am really hoping the parents are feeding these cordons....

the second issue I had yesterday, was pulling the red rump parakeets from the nesting box. I was not intending on hand feeding these chicks, but the hen worried me somewhat....she was not in the nest any longer, but still fed her babies. It wouldn't take much for her to stop feeding her chicks, and should that happen over a 24 hours span, all 4 would die .....so I pulled them.

the oldest one is just 2 weeks, it took one look at me and tried to bite me....poor thing was terrified of big bad 'ol me....honestly I just wanted to smother him in kisses

he was also quite difficult to hand feed, his beak was clamped shut, would not open it, but I finally managed to get the syringe in and feed him sufficiently, the rest of the chicks are very willing to eat, as they are younger.

little fluffies....awwwww


the oldest chick-2 weeks old


they typically ween around 5 weeks of age so I don't have much handfeeding to do.

I also came home with a beautiful male mahogany canary yesterday.
I placed the cage in our livingroom while he is being quarantined.

this morning when I got up, the cats had knocked over his cage, seed and water was spilled over our table, carpet etc....what a mess!!....but he was ok, thank goodness!....needless to say I changed him into a more sturdy cage

Holy smokes, Beth, "eventful day" is a complete understatement.

I will have my fingers and toes crossed that your finches will be good to the Cordon Blues!! I have a good feeling...don't even ask me why.

And I cracked up laughing at the visual of you trying to feed the oldest red rump baby, while he/she wouldn't open the beak at all. :54:

You are such a good mama! Best of luck to all those chicks. Golly, you sure have your hands full. I LOVE IT!!!

They are so adorable! What a sweet surprise. Very very tiny though. I am assuming they are aviary birds right? And the parakeet chicks are also super adorable. Just look at those itty bitty beaks. He could bit you as hard as he wanted, and it would still be a cute little love pinch

Those cordons are so precious! I am keeping my fingers crossed That the Societies take good care of them - I also have a good feeling about this
And those red rump babies! All that fluff just melts my heart<3

Your babies are precious!

Our cordon bleus tossed two chicks recently. The second one was pretty traumatic for us. The male took the chick and literally bashed the chick on the bottom of the cage, like you might do with a fish. There's at least one left. Hopefully they'll keep it.

Beth, the photo where you are holding an additional Cordon Blue chick and the 2 eggs, is the one egg (in the foreground) fertile? :11:

I thought so too Wendy, but I candled it and it wasn't.....remember the first three I put in, well there was another fertile egg in the nest so I put it in the nest....it just might hatch today.....

it is super rare for cordons to have 5 chicks, let alone 4....normally it's three.

must be all the protein, they're getting...wow,....I'm just thrilled they are doing so well.

Karen---that is just terrible!!....I had no idea they do that....ugggg, little turds..... do you have society finches?....they can foster the eggs and raise them...

crimson said:

I thought so too Wendy, but I candled it and it wasn't.....remember the first three I put in, well there was another fertile egg in the nest so I put it in the nest....it just might hatch today.....

it is super rare for cordons to have 5 chicks, let alone 4....normally it's three.

must be all the protein, they're getting...wow,....I'm just thrilled they are doing so well.

Karen---that is just terrible!!....I had no idea they do that....ugggg, little turds..... do you have society finches?....they can foster the eggs and raise them...

Click to expand...

We don't, but now I'm thinking I'm going to tell my partner she needs a pair or two. Can they foster even when they don't have babies/eggs themselves?

I must say one thing - if *I* had to even touch such teeny tiny little things, I *would* most certain 'poop da pants'!! How on earth do you not break them?? They are so very tiiiiny!! :07:

You deserve a big old heavy shiny medal - for being so brave and for raising such precious lives! :respect:

thekarens said:

crimson said:

I thought so too Wendy, but I candled it and it wasn't.....remember the first three I put in, well there was another fertile egg in the nest so I put it in the nest....it just might hatch today.....

it is super rare for cordons to have 5 chicks, let alone 4....normally it's three.

must be all the protein, they're getting...wow,....I'm just thrilled they are doing so well.

Karen---that is just terrible!!....I had no idea they do that....ugggg, little turds..... do you have society finches?....they can foster the eggs and raise them...

Click to expand...

We don't, but now I'm thinking I'm going to tell my partner she needs a pair or two. Can they foster even when they don't have babies/eggs themselves?

Click to expand...

from what I understand yes they can, you can buy fake eggs and see if they sit on them....
you can buy socities cheap too, maybe $30.00 for a pair....both of mine are pied(brown and white)
just make sure you get a male and female....the male sings and jumps up and down for courtship....while the female just sits there looking at him like he's weird haha...they make the cutest little squeegee noises.

you might want to buy 2 finch nests, one small and one large...that way they will choose which one they want to nest in, and it speeds up the process of nesting.

remember nesting material, they prefer timothy hay & jute....good luck!!

MomtoPercy said:

I must say one thing - if *I* had to even touch such teeny tiny little things, I *would* most certain 'poop da pants'!! How on earth do you not break them?? They are so very tiiiiny!! :07:

You deserve a big old heavy shiny medal - for being so brave and for raising such precious lives! :respect:

Click to expand...

well thank you for that Michelle....yes, they are incredibly tiny!!, and you have to handle them ever so delicately.
I sure hope the societies are feeding them....when I looked at my photo again of the babies in my hands, from what I could tell, their crops were empty.
so that means one of two things....either the parents weren't feeding them, or they were about to be fed.
either way, I'd rather have the societies feed the chicks, they are more reliable and NOT tossers.

Thanks for the advice Beth!

ok, I couldn't STAND IT ANYMORE!....I just had to look, the only problem is the way they built the nest I can't see inside from any angle outside the aviary. I've stood on chairs, stools, I just can't see.....so I got my camera, opened up the big door of the aviary and took some shots.
that was hard, I had to turn into sort of a contortionist of sorts to get these shots.


two chicks....where are the other 2?????


the good news is their crops are full.....I could not get the camera angled just right so I could get right into the nest.....actually I freaked out 3 birds that are nesting....so me bad!

notice the egg closest....there is a hole in it....now I'm not sure it there was another baby hatching, or the societies did that.

They're keeping you busy!!!! I'm hand feeding my last batch until fall. I'm too busy during the summer to have baby chicks. I need to yank the nest boxes cause the parents are trying to have another one again which is a big no no....I've been too busy with everything to be dealing with nest boxes right now....Good luck to you!!!

Mikey- when birds hatch, do the pip at the end of the egg, or in the middle?....