Unfortunately, one of the older scarlet chested chicks died, so now there are just 4 babies that have hatched from Red and Scarlet. I am unsure of what happened since the chick had food in it's crop. Today another chick had an empty crop and was shivering. Perhaps there is an infection going through. I handfed the babies with some antibiotics and handfeeding formula. Hopefully whatever is going around will be stopped without further losses. Blush is sitting tight on her 4 fertile eggs.
The 2 gouldian babies fostered to societies are doing great and growing fast. I've put together a few new pairs of gouldians to replace the pairs that have just been staring at each other without much happening. The parents of the fostered babies have 4 more fertile eggs in the nest, and my best pair from last year have 5 fertile eggs. Interestingly, one of my best BH pairs from the past 2 years seem reluctant to breed this year - perhaps the hen is just not ready yet. I'll probably put them back into the flight cages for a few more weeks then try again.
The shaft tails are more interested in sitting on top of the nest than doing anything in it. They are all young birds just getting to be about 1 year old - perhaps that is the reason for no interest in breeding? I did put up some nests in the big flight cage where the purple grenadiers and some of the RH parrot finches and yellow faced stars and a couple pairs of the shaft tails are. Everyone seem to be somewhat interested in the nests. We shall see if anyone actually does something more productive than roosting in the nests.
The mealworms have arrived, so the waxbills will be slowly re-introduced to some live food for their breeding season. So far, the keets and gouldians have been as interested in eating them as everyone else. Perhaps I should have ordered more...
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