A few questions

Hi guys,
Well, as you may know, my friend is breeding his patagonian conures, well, today he went to check on the birds & found that the nest box had a hole in it, so he removed it, the bad thing is, the birds have mated, now he is not sure if they will breed or not. All pet shops are closed till tuesday, so that will be the earliest he will be able to get one.
Will it affect the birds breeding if their is no nest box available since they have mated?
If he kept all the chicks in the nest box & brought them out everyday or after they are six weeks old, will they be able to be tamed?
How many times a day will you need to feed the chicks a day if you are hand rearing them?
How long till the hen will lay eggs?
If there is no nest box available, will she not breed or will she lay eggs on the floor?
Thanks

Sorry I cannot help you because I am a rescue volunteer and do not know about breeding. Perhaps others who have been breeders can help you out. How much experience in breeding does this person have??

Hey Kiwi, just because they have begun mating doesn't guarantee the female will lay eggs, and if she does lay eggs there is no guarantee that the eggs will be fertile and if they should they be fertile, unless they sit on the eggs they will never hatch, all that being said, hens usually lay about a week to ten days after mating begins, eggs layed on the bottom of a cage sometimes hatch but more often than not don't, I believe eggs are still viable a few days after being laid even if the parents don't sit on them right away as long as their kept from getting cold, you can place them in the nest box but without parent or artificial incubation they won't hatch, most breeders I know pull their babies at about 3 weeks or so, at that time they'll be on 4-5 feedings a day depending on the species, just be prepared that in adding a new nest box at this point may result in to much stress and they may not be succsesful or even use the box at all, don't know if that helps at all, but there you go........

Hey guys,
sorry for the late reply, well, he has some knowledge but not alot, he just wants them to breed, I have told him to research, he has now been reading alot, so he knows most of the answers now, but one thing he hasn't found out is, how many times a day are you meant to feed the chicks & at what times?
Thanks guys

Kiwi2010 said:

Hey guys,
sorry for the late reply, well, he has some knowledge but not alot, he just wants them to breed, I have told him to research, he has now been reading alot, so he knows most of the answers now, but one thing he hasn't found out is, how many times a day are you meant to feed the chicks & at what times?
Thanks guys

Click to expand...

It all depends on when you pull the chicks, if you don't want to have to feed them every 2 hours or so, then its probably best to let the parents do the feeding for the first 3 weeks or so, then you'll be on 5 feedings a day 6-10-2-6-10, as the chicks get older and put on weight they will be reduced to less feedings per day, all that being said, if the parents wont raise the chicks he'll have to be prepared to do it from the very start, since he doesn't have any experience in breeding birds I will asume he doesn't have any experience handfeeding as well, hence you asking these questions, handfeeding without experience is a recipe for disaster and will only end badly, a suggestion would be to have your friend find a local breeder or breeders and volunteer his time to help and maybe gain some hands on knowledge before taking it on himself, good luck

Hi Bobby,
Thanks for your reply, that sounds great & I will be helping him take care of the chicks , I will keep you updated on his progress!

With budgies, eggs can stay cold with no damage to the chick for up to a week. I assume it would be similar. If she is about to lay and there is no nest box she will probably lay off the perch or in a food container. After 1-2 eggs like that she will probably stop. Also, just because they have mated doesn't actually mean that there will be eggs.

Hi,
Thanks for your reply & thanks for your advice