magnificent 7

Looked in on the clutch of 5 this morning when mama bird came out for mealworms.  The 4 hatchlings were in their usual huddle with the last egg all by itself near the entrance.  It felt a bit cold to touch, so fearing the worst, I candled the egg to see if the chick had died.  Fortunately, there was still movement with a few more cracks in the shell than yesterday.  After almost a whole day trying to get out of the shell and apparently being cast aside, I decided to help the chick out of the shell by gently enlarging the already existing cracks.  The chick looks well formed and started wiggling around immediately.  I placed it still in half of the shell into the chick huddle.  Hopefully, it too will be fed like the other 4.  Since there are so many hatched chicks in this clutch, will need to monitor the younger ones carefully to make sure they are being adequately fed.  If not, then will likely need supplemental feeds or pulling for handfeeding.  As for the clutch of 4, 2 hatched so far with 2 more eggs to go.  Not seeing too much movements in the eggs though, but hopefully they are still ok and will hatch as well.

5 babies and hopefully 4 more to go

A 4th baby joins the 3 already hatch from the clutch of 5 splendid grasskeets, and 1 baby from the clutch of 4 has finally hatched.  Everyone seems well fed so far which hopefully will continue.  

Unfortunately, my female yellow turquoisine appears to be sick.  At first I thought she may be egg bound, but perhaps not.  No watery stool to suggest diarrhea, so I have been giving her Amoxicillin for possible respiratory infection since she was making some rattling noises.  Her energy level seems a bit better but is eating absolutely nothing, so I am crop feeding meds, fluids, and starting tonight some very runny baby formula.  Hopefully I'll be able to get an appointment with an avian vet tomorrow :(

baby pictures

These are my 2 baby gouldian finches being fostered with societies.  They are doing very well so far.  Should be yellow headed normals - not sure about breast color.

Here are some older juveniles from last fall/winter who are going through their first molt.

In the middle is my silver baby of the year - I think it's a girl so far with black head and white breast.  It's so hard to tell how far she's gone through her molt when she's completely white.  Her sister/brother (I think probably sister since no singing yet) to her right is black headed white breasted yellow.  Older normal black headed juveniles on either side.  With the warmer weather, everyone is molting hard.

Just wanted to throw in a picture of my bearded iris.

 This is a picture of the clutch of 4 scarlet chested grasskeets.  Notice the 5th infertile egg of more translucent yellow color that is on the most right position compared with the more solid white coloring of the fertile eggs.

T

This is one of the babies from the 3 hatched babies from the clutch of 5.  They are 1-2 days old now.  Parents still feeding well.  The picture on the right is the baby showing me it's fuzzy butt :D

3rd splendid baby is here!

The 3rd baby of the clutch of 5 just hatched this evening.  It was still a bit wet when I looked in.  It's 2 older siblings by one day has food in their crops, so mom and dad have been doing a good job.  Two more eggs to go for this nest.  The clutch of 4 from the other pair are looking good.  A couple of the eggs look close to hatching as well.  Can't wait!

New Splendid babies are here!

2 brand new splendid grasskeet babies just hatched out of a clutch of 5. The other 3 should be hatching in the next day or two. The pictures show the 2 babies, one of which is still a bit wet, and also a fertile egg - see the visible vessel. The hens are more likely to leave the nest right before bedtime to stock up on food, which is when I usually try to sneek a peek.

Happy to report that it's five fertile eggs with one pair of scarlet chested parakeets and FOUR, not just three, fertile eggs with the other pair. The 4th egg was laid and brooded later than the 1st three, so I will have to monitor to make sure if and when it hatches, the baby is well fed. Another pair of gouldians is apparently laying their 3rd clutch while still feeding their one baby from the 2nd clutch without me realizing. I am doing some supplemental hand feeding with their lone fledgling since while she is still getting fed, I'm not sure she is getting enough feeding.

spring is here!

Spring is finally here in north Texas. The tulips and hyacinth were beautiful, and now the azeleas, peonies, lilac, and bearded irises are flowering. The gouldian babies are starting to color out. Most of the breeding is coming to an end, but one pair of goudians who had a good first clutch, unfortunately lost the second clutch, started their third clutch before I realized what was happening. They are sitting on 3 fertile eggs currently. Since they didn't really raise their second clutch and the pair still looks quite good, I'm letting them go ahead with this third clutch. The scarlet chests are working on their second clutch of babies, their first clutch was started in Nov. 2009. So far one pair with 5 fertile eggs and the other pair with 3 fertile eggs. The hens are sitting very tightly - I really have a hard time catching them out of the nest so haven't gotten to look at the eggs except a few days ago. The image above is of the 2 fathers when they were younger. My scarlets loves mealworms and their veggies. Although I haven't heard of them needing live food, they started eating the worms that I was providing for my cordon blues and parrot finches. I guess the additional protein helps with their breeding. Now I just need my turquosines grasskeets to start "earning their keep"! :D