Help: Lovebird 4 week old baby out of nest

[lovebird_friends]

Hi, I am new in breeding birds.

Recently my beautiful pair of par blue lovebirds hatched 4 eggs which are 4 weeks old now. I was expecting the chicks to come out of the nest after 8 weeks or so. However, today I noticed the smallest chick sitting outside the nest at the bottom of the cage. This got me worried. I have the following concerns:

1. Is it possible that the parents threw cherry out of the nest? The bird is the smallest out of all the chicks but seems to have good growth like other chicks.

2. Is it possible that the chick came out itself to explore?

I have since put it back on the nest with other siblings.

Some more information:-

a. The male lovebird was hand tamed however it is proving to be an excellent parent.
b. I noticed no plucking on any of the chicks


I am posting some pictures of the chick below so that you can see and tell if it looks sick or not. Any expert help will be useful to me.

https://imgur.com/T0itHpk
https://imgur.com/EXLXjnA
https://imgur.com/Bss2Amz

Thank you in advance,
Lovebird_Friend

 

[itzjbean]

First of all, take a deep breath! This sounds totally normal.

I breed cockatiels, and they take a bit longer to wean than lovebirds. It would be very naiive to think they would simply stay inside the nest for a whole 8 weeks! Usually baby cockatiels start coming out and climbing around 5 weeks old. So for a 4 week old lovebird to do this is normal and all part of weaning, aka the birds growing up! They don't just decide one day at 8 weeks old its time to eat on their own and leave the nest -- it's a weeks-long transition.

Highly unlikely the parents kicked her out of the nest. She likely just got very curious and tried to make a break for it, to taste some freedom. All birds go through this stage of wanting to leave the nest, and with lovebirds it is normal to happen around this time.

I put the babies back in the nest when I notice them out in the early weeks. They'll be happy to go back in, but that curiosity will take over again and soon they'll be back out of the nest. When this happens and chicks leave the nest, eventually ALL of them come out, I put them all back in the nest at bedtime. They'll sleep in the nest overnight but then in the morning will come back out.

Over time I continue to put the babies in the nest box every night until they all refuse to stay in it overnight. At this point I put a makeshift cardboard box nest on the bottom of the cage with some bedding as a transition nest -- they're basically learning to sleep on perches at this point. I keep the tranisition box in there a few days before removing their regular nestbox just so they won't be super startled when I remove the box, and they have something to climb around and sleep in case they regress. Mom and Dad should be continuing to feed them and they should be eating on their own soon!

Mom and Dad should be getting an excellent diet filled with great food, veggies and fruit, a good quality seed mix, sprouts, all of it! Especially mom bird, who laid those eggs and now needs some more calcium. Ensuring the parents have a proper diet ensures they can recover from raising babies as it is hard work and very hard on their bodies.

I would remove that nest box as soon as the babies are weaned to prevent more egg laying!

Baby is sooooo cute!!

 

[lovebird_friends]

First of all, take a deep breath! This sounds totally normal.

I breed cockatiels, and they take a bit longer to wean than lovebirds. It would be very naiive to think they would simply stay inside the nest for a whole 8 weeks! Usually baby cockatiels start coming out and climbing around 5 weeks old. So for a 4 week old lovebird to do this is normal and all part of weaning, aka the birds growing up! They don't just decide one day at 8 weeks old its time to eat on their own and leave the nest -- it's a weeks-long transition.

Highly unlikely the parents kicked her out of the nest. She likely just got very curious and tried to make a break for it, to taste some freedom. All birds go through this stage of wanting to leave the nest, and with lovebirds it is normal to happen around this time.

I put the babies back in the nest when I notice them out in the early weeks. They'll be happy to go back in, but that curiosity will take over again and soon they'll be back out of the nest. When this happens and chicks leave the nest, eventually ALL of them come out, I put them all back in the nest at bedtime. They'll sleep in the nest overnight but then in the morning will come back out.

Over time I continue to put the babies in the nest box every night until they all refuse to stay in it overnight. At this point I put a makeshift cardboard box nest on the bottom of the cage with some bedding as a transition nest -- they're basically learning to sleep on perches at this point. I keep the tranisition box in there a few days before removing their regular nestbox just so they won't be super startled when I remove the box, and they have something to climb around and sleep in case they regress. Mom and Dad should be continuing to feed them and they should be eating on their own soon!

Mom and Dad should be getting an excellent diet filled with great food, veggies and fruit, a good quality seed mix, sprouts, all of it! Especially mom bird, who laid those eggs and now needs some more calcium. Ensuring the parents have a proper diet ensures they can recover from raising babies as it is hard work and very hard on their bodies.

I would remove that nest box as soon as the babies are weaned to prevent more egg laying!

Baby is sooooo cute!!

Thank you very much this is very useful