NEED HELP!! two week old budgies

[AmyMyBlueFront]

i put some pressure on it with a cloth and the bleeding seems to decrease so i put it back in the nest box. I just checked and it definitely improved. I’m not sure how the little got injured but my vet told me sometimes pin feathers bleed and if the baby is not bleeding constantly then i’ll have to try something else. But for now, things seem to be under control. I did not know taking care of birds would be this hard and scary lol they’re so fragile

i think for you being so new at this,you are doing a fabulous job!

 

[Yasmine]

i put some pressure on it with a cloth and the bleeding seems to decrease so i put it back in the nest box. I just checked and it definitely improved. I’m not sure how the little got injured but my vet told me sometimes pin feathers bleed and if the baby is not bleeding constantly then i’ll have to try something else. But for now, things seem to be under control. I did not know taking care of birds would be this hard and scary lol they’re so fragile

i think for you being so new at this,you are doing a fabulous job!

Thank You so much!!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Any updates on the little ones?? How is Mama and Dad doing with them??



Jim

 

[Squeekmouse]

i think for you being so new at this,you are doing a fabulous job!

I have to second this!

And thanks for posting updates and pictures. This is a beautiful story!

 

[ChristaNL]

This thread needs more picts!

 

[Yasmine]

Yes! They are so grown now and have almost all of their feathers. They’re just soooo cute!!! This is the oldest. It’s three and a half weeks old. Thank you for those saying I’m doing a good job. It’s so much work but it’s so worth it to see them grow up in front of your eyes!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

OMG!! Sooooo big!! Sooooo fast!!!! Soooooo dang CUTE!!
I can't wait to see the whole family together Mom and Dad certainly know what they are doing...and so do you! This is a wonderful thread and such a happy one too. I'm lovin' it more and more! Do you have any names picked yet?? I know it's early and all but do you plan on keeping them or finding them homes?


Jim

 

[ChristaNL]

That is one beautifull looking youngster indeed!


You really have an amazing story/ journey.
I am happy for you!

 

[Amsterdam]

what a cutie love the color too im waiting the same hope everything for me works as well as it did for you great progress!!!

 

[Scott]

You and the parents are doing an incredible job!!

 

[EllenD]

If the babies are only 1-2 weeks old then they are being fed every 2 hours or so, you need to make sure that both your adult Budgies have access to plenty of seed-mix and fresh, dark leafy greens and fresh veggies ALL DAY LONG! Both the mother and father Budgie will be feeding the babies, and especially the mother, because she also made and laid the eggs, tend to lose weight, calcium, vitamins, etc. at an alarming rate while feeding babies, so they both must always have a large dish of a healthy seed-mix in their cage at all times. You don't need to put it in the nest-box, they'll both take turns sitting on the babies and eating, so just make sure there is always a large dish of seeds in their cage at all times, along with lots of dark, leafy greens and veggies.

You also must have both a Cuddlebone and a Mineral Block hanging in their cage at all times, so that they are getting plenty of Calcium, especially the mother. She'll likely start laying eggs again pretty quickly after she finishes weaning these babies, so she needs plenty of Calcium to prevent egg-binding. You can buy a Cuddlebone at pretty much any Walmart, who also sells Mineral Blocks too, or any Petco/Petsmart. And buying a bag of Qwiko Egg-Food at Petco is a good idea too, and making sure there is a small dish of that in the cage for the parents every day until they are done feeding the babies is a good idea.

As far as handling the babies, once they hit 3 weeks old you can start blocking off the nest-box when you see both parents out of it, use a piece of cardboard or something similar once you see them both out of the nest-box, so that they can't get back in while you're handling the babies. At 3 weeks you must be extremely careful and gentle, and only handle them once or twice a day each for 15 minutes or so. And then each week you increase the time you handle them/hold them/pet them, but you can't keep them outside of the nest-box for "an hour" until they are fully-feathered with their mature feathers, not just their down. Without their mature feathers they cannot regulate their body-temperatures, and that won't happen until they are around 6 weeks old. At that point they will also be starting to wean and also be ready to fledge, so a good rule to follow is once you see the babies starting to venture out of the nest-box on their own, then you can take them out for a longer time period. But in-order to hand-tame them you do want to start just holding them, petting them, and talking to them once daily, every single day, for 15 minutes each. Again, be very careful as they are going to be very fragile at 3 weeks old...Best to sit in a chair while holding them because if you drop them they'll likely die of internal bleeding.

You may also want to think about weaning the babies onto a healthy, natural-flavored pellet instead of just a seed-mix, because it's difficult for people to switch Budgies over to pellets if they are weaned onto seed-mix. Buy placing a big bowl of a healthy, natural flavored pellets (no fruit flavored pellets, too much sugar) inside of the cage when they start weaning you'll encourage them to wean onto them early, and of course you must also make sure they have access to fresh veggies while weaning too. Budgies usually start weaning around 5-6 weeks old, and are usually fully weaned between 8-10 weeks old.

When the babies are fully weaned and completely out of the nest-box, remove it immediately. It's likely you'll find an egg in the bottom of the cage or in a food dish soon after the babies wean. If you do, do NOT put the nest-box back in the cage! Instead, you need to remove the egg immediately when you see it, boil it on the stove for 20 minutes, let it cool, and then put it right back in the cage on the bottom grate. You'll need to do this immediately to each new egg that she lays, so pay close attention checking the bottom of the cage and the food dishes twice a day, once in the morning and then again at night. She won't start laying on the eggs in the bottom of the cage until she lays at least 2 or 3 of them, but make sure that you are boiling each individual egg as soon as you see it laid and then just placing each one back on the bottom of the cage together (NO NESTING MATERIAL/BEDDING AT ALL!)...just lay the boiled eggs right directly on the grate on the bottom of the cage. Once the female realizes that they aren't going to hatch she'll stop laying on them, and then you can just remove them and throw them away once you're sure she's no longer laying on them. Hopefully this will knock her out of breeding-season and stop the egg-laying. Never put a nest-box or any type of nesting material/bedding/wood chips/ boxes/"huts"/tents/blankets or towels, etc. in their cage again, as all of these encourage their hormones and she'll only start laying eggs again...And just be sure for the future to simply boil any eggs you find in the cage and then place them on the bottom for her to lay on and eventually get bored with, then pitch them.

Although I highly recommend pellets, I also kinda don't. My birds loved them, but my birdies got super inactive and kinda fat with pellets, even though 80% of their diet is veggies. They spend all day flying around their room, but on pellets, they were extremely inactive. I switched them back onto a good brand seed mix and they were nice and active again. I was using Roudybush. My macaw, of course, gets pellets. For larger birds like macaws, I highly recommend pellets. But smaller parrots do good on seeds with the proper amount of veggies.



Petunia Cockatiel
Echo Cockatiel
Oz Cockatiel
Coconut Budgie
Mituna Lovebird
Sollux Lovebird
Jaden Green cheek
Diamond B&G macaw

It's a good point that you made, because it totally depends on both the Brand and specifically the TYPE of pellets you wean your babies onto, or that you feed your adult birds...There are a lot of pellets out there, actually the majority of them, that are loaded with so much sugar that the end-resulting fat accumulation in their bodies/livers is every bit as much if not more than that resulting from feeding a junky seed-mix!!!

Unfortunately most pellets made for Budgies are "fruit-flavored" pellets (meaning the pellets that are made the correct size for Budgies)...A lot of bird pellet companies don't even make a pellet small enough for Budgies or Parrotlets. And the #1 pellet that is fed to Budgies is unfortunately made by Kaytee and is a "fruit" pellet that is full of sugar, and you're correct that these "fruit-flavored" pellets, along with the "nut-flavored" pellets (a fairly new product but becoming more and more popular) contain so much sugar, fat, carbs, etc. that they present the same risk for the birds who eat them developing Fatty Liver Disease, Diabetes, and of course, Obesity and Fatty-Tumors (Lipomas and Xanthomas).

***So the bottom-line to feeding your birds a staple diet of pellets instead of a seed-mix staple is that they need to be a low-fat, low-sugar, low-carbohydrate pellet that is high in protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Usually these healthy pellets that will not put your bird at risk for Obesity, Fatty Liver Disease, Diabetes, etc. are labeled as either "Natural-flavor", or in the case of some brands like Harrison's, they aren't given a flavor at all, as ALL of the pellets that Harrison's and others (such as Tops) produce are the same flavor, which could be described as being "Natural-flavored"...And both Harrison's and Tops make a Budgie-sized pellet diet that is fantastic for your birds...

The other new thing I'm seeing more of are "Veggie-flavored" pellets, specifically Zupreem has made an entire line of "Veggie-flavored" pellets...At first glance this sounds like a great alternative to both their "Fruit" and "Nut" flavored pellets that both contain way too much sugar and fat to be healthy...However, after reading the ingredients and nutritional-analysis of the Zupreem "Veggie-flavored" pellets, I quickly came to the conclusion that they contain the same high amount of sugar that their "Fruit" and "Nut" pellets contain...so it's best to stick to "Natural" flavored.....

 

[EllenD]

I put some pressure on it with a cloth and the bleeding seems to decrease so I put it back in the nest box. I just checked and it definitely improved. I’m not sure how the little got injured but my vet told me sometimes pin feathers bleed and if the baby is not bleeding constantly then I’ll have to try something else. But for now, things seem to be under control. I did not know taking care of birds would be this hard and scary lol they’re so fragile

I just now saw that one of your babies had some bleeding from it's wing...That can happen from their pin-feathers being picked at, or them being picked-at in general, by their parents or their siblings in the nest-box. I've seen that happen quite a few times, and as long as it is a one-time-thing then they should be fine as long as you got the bleeding stopped and it didn't start-up again (obviously a baby Budgie has little to no blood to lose at all)...However, if you see this happen again to that same baby or any of the babies, then it's a sign that the parents or one of siblings are being aggressive towards one or more of them, and it's best to try to watch them to figure out what is going on.

Usually when this happens it's one particular baby that gets "picked-at" and not all of them, and usually it's one or both of the parents, or one particular sibling that is doing it (in my experience it's usually the parents, and there is probably a reason they are doing it to one baby in-particular, but we usually never understand what their reasons are)...In cases where this happens more than once to the same baby, the best thing to do is to monitor that particular baby very closely to make sure that they aren't seriously injured, because usually this type of behavior escalates unfortunately...You don't want them to seriously injure or kill the baby, sometimes they just do it and we don't know why...

So keep a close eye on them all for any new wounds, specifically the baby that was already found bleeding/wounded, and keep a box of corn-starch right next to the cage/nest-box at all times, so that you can grab it and quickly douse any of the babies in it to stop any bleeding immediately...Corn-Starch works fantastically to clot/stop bleeding from their skin and their toenails, even very heavy bleeding, and it isn't painful for them at all when used on their skin like all of the different "Styptic" powders and liquids are,
such as "Qwik-Stop", which is great for bleeding toenails but burns like fire when used on the skin. So if it ever happens again, simply take the Corn-Starch and dump it directly on the bleeding wound, and see if it clots the bleeding without any pressure...If it continues to bleed through the Corn-Starch, then you have to take a towel and apply direct-pressure right on top of the Corn-Starch that is poured onto the wound, and keep direct pressure on the Corn-Starch/wound for a good few minutes before checking again if it has stopped; this will usually stop the bleeding within a few minutes.

 

[Yasmine]

Hi everyone I need some advice. To the babies are doing amazing! They are now learning to eat for themselves and are just the best. Very friendly and don’t mind being handled at all. However, I checked the nesting box today and there is a new egg. I really don’t know what to do now. I removed it, boiled it and cooled it down and put it back. But now do I remove the nesting box. The babies are out but occasionally one will hop right back in. I’m just confused and a little worried

 

[ChristaNL]

LOL, you have some *very* enthousiastc parents.

It is not uncommon that "mum" will start a new clutch while "dad" is still outside feeding the first batch of chicks ...
Being prey-animals they need to breed like crazy when the season is right to stay ahead of predators ... but since they are no longer in the wild, living very safe lives with you... Very well done in boiling that egg!

(I think you feel you have enough budgies for now, right? It was wonderfull you adopted the 2, and now you have about 5?.. surprise, surprise ...
Oh, the young ones are able to start their own production within a year some start trying at 7-8 months, so be prepared...)

Removing the nestbox is probably a very good idea.

 

[LordTriggs]

I would remove the nest box now that the babies are out and perching, the box being there can keep mom in breeding mode indefinitely so I will shut it off now

 

[Yasmine]

Okay thanks. I’ll remove it today