New grasskeet babies are here!

Red and Scarlet's first baby out of 5 has hatched today.  She's been sitting so tightly that I can't catch her out of the nest box and even when I peek in she's not coming out, so I did not want to disturb her too much - will try to get pictures as soon as she lets me :)

Coral and Blush has 4 fertile eggs being incubated - it'll be at least another couple of weeks before they hatch.  There are 5 eggs in the nest, but unfortunately 1 cracked.

My first ever nest of 6 gouldian eggs are infertile.  The pair that laid the eggs also laid all clear eggs last year, so I've split the pair in the hopes they will do better with different partners.  Not sure how well this will work since gouldians tend to bond pretty tightly.

The zebras are feeding their 4 babies - 2 out of 6 hatchlings died.  I think the pair is finally getting tired.

I've put my creamino society hen with 2 males who are supposed to be split to creamino.  Hopefully, we'll get some fertile eggs.

Further musical chairs with shaft tails.  The second pair I put in the breeding cage didn't seem interested at all so a 3rd pair has been switched in.

Quick update...

Looks like Red and Scarlet's (splendid pair) clutch of 5 eggs are all fertile.  Scarlet is sitting extra tight this round.  Good for the babies, but hard on me to catch her out of the nextbox in order to take a peek.  Coral and Blush have 3 eggs so far.  Usually the splendids lay eggs every day, but Blush has been laying very sporadicaly this round, sometimes laying as far apart as 2-3 days.  They are still mating, so hopefully a full clutch will be laid soon with most if not all being fertile.  Blush has at least started to sit majority of the time.  I'm not sure if the nest box being hung outside of the cage rather than in has anything to do with Blush's change in laying pattern, but with the configuration of the cages currently, it's going to have to be the way it is done.

Two eggs survive so far in the clutch of gouldian eggs that's been fostered to the societies.  The parents have started to lay again, hopefully will sit tighter this round.  I have another pair of goulds who appear quite bounded, but laid 2-3 rounds of clear eggs last year.  This year, they laid 6 eggs, so far not looking good - all still clear, but I'll give them a few more days as it has not been a full week since they started sitting tight.  If this clutch is still clear, I'm going to try to split the pair.  One of my best pairs from last year has 4 eggs in the nest so far.  Hopefully they'll do even better this year than last year.  I'm playing a bit of musical chairs with everyone else currently, trying to put together pairs that will give me the desired offspring can be difficult sometimes since the goulds themselves may not agree with my choices ^_^

Shaft tails look so adorable together, but once I put a loving pair into the breeding cage, not much happens.  Perhaps I need to wait a bit longer?  Since this is my first year with shaft tails, I am not as familiar with their behavior as with my other birds.

The 2 linnie eggs in the incubator is officially DIS now.  Cream Puff and Captain Turq have laid 3 more eggs - 1 fertile still, the last one laid looking like it'll be fertile, but the 3rd egg looking to be DIS.  Not sure if there is an issue with the egg not being sat on properly or genetics factors, so we'll have to see how this clutch proceed.  Indy (the colbalt male) and Blondie (the lutino hen) appear satisfied with just hanging out and eating daily - no indication that the nest box I've put up for them even registered as something to explore.  All well.  Somethings can't be forced.  I finally got to see the linnie's bat-like position when enjoying a "rain shower".  Apparently, I have to get the droplet size just right on my sprayer for them to enjoy it like a tropical downpour. 

I just received my white chested blue split to lutino male splendid and albino hen.  They look quite healthy.  Big hopes for them once they get old enough to breed.  I am also getting a pair of rubino bourkes - received my male so far, the hen will hopefully soon follow.  I will try to get pictures of my birds up soon, but check out a fabulous example from http://www.piknersparrots.com/large_image/neofema/90.jpg -

Baby count

This is probably the earliest I've put gouldians into pairs to breed compared to previous years.  Several hens have shown readiness by turning charcoal black on the beaks.  Other hens are not quite as ready yet.  This is good, since it allows me to stagger the use of the breeding cages.  The first pair to lay a complete clutch sat well for 2 days then abandoned for some reason.  I had to give their 5 eggs to the societies to foster - maybe 1-2 eggs with signs of life; won't know for sure how many DIS due to being left cold and how many can recover until a few days later.  The pair looks to be interested in the nest box still; hopefully they will do better the second time around.  Another pair has 4 eggs so far; should be 5 by tomorrow and hopefully the parents will start to sit tight soon as well.  Everyone else has shown some interest in the nests, but no further activity.  

The zebras are living up to their reputations still.  After raising 2 clutches already, the hen promptly laid 6 more fertile eggs, the first baby hatching today.  I will have to try to pull the nest ASAP this time.  Given my lack of space, I may be offering up all the babies as well as the parents up for sale once this round is done.  I'm afraid they are just a bit too prolific for me.

The linnies Captain Turq (turquoise male) and Cream Puff (creamino hen)'s 2 eggs I have in the incubator are DIS unfortunately.  Not sure if it's a temperature or humidity issue, but the development didn't seem normal beyond the 1st few days.  Fortunately, they have laid 2 more eggs, that both appear to be fertile.  I'll have a few weeks to decide whether I will hand feed or not - probably will, to try to have a couple of tame pets since I don't really need any more breeders currently.

 The splendid grasskeet pair whom I've named Red (the male who has added a few red feathers to his belly after molting this year) and Scarlet (my best hen with poor vision in one eye due to an infection early on in life - more on this later) has laid 5 eggs, 4 of which, at last count, were fertile.  Scarlet was given to me by her breeder when I went to pick up Red.  Wanting to only start with 1 pair of splendids, I had already picked up another hen, Blush, earlier on.  Red was born and weaned later.  When I went to pick up red, the breeder asked me if I would take Scarlet for free since she's developed an eye infection and would likely be blind in that eye.  While this is unlikely to affect her ability to breed, it would make selling her much more difficult, and I was trusted enough to see I can help her.  Scarlet healed with topical and internal antibiotics, but did develop scaring on her left eye, which does have decreased vision.  Now, with 2 hens and 1 male, I decided to get another male to make 2 pairs.  Coral was bought from a different breeder to keep the blood lines separate.  Thinking Scarlet may not be the first choice mate due to her disability was completely wrong on my part.  Red chose Scarlet without reservation.  Although he was younger than everyone else, he was the dominant male.  Coral and Blush have done well with raising their own clutches as well, but never quite as good as Red and Scarlet.  Coral and Blush have started some mating behavior, but so far no eggs yet.  If they also lay a clutch soon, the youngsters will be at least a month behind in development.

I have also put a pair of shaft tails together so see if they are willing to breed.  My favorite mutation is the creamino (or white).  I also like the normals and the "creams", which are a lovely light caramel color.  They have a very boisterous personality and love to snuggle and groom each other.  They seem to be in general peaceful with each other, but appear to prefer to snuggle in pairs.

The societies sneaked a clutch in during the summer, producing 3 pied fawn babies, 2 of which are crested.  A buyer has requested them earlier, but if they are no longer wanted, I'm thinking of keeping them as fosters since they come from my good clean foster line, and I did lose their elder by a few generations, one of my best foster males earlier this summer.  He was probably older than I think, and became ill suddenly, and unfortunately did not respond to any treatment - I think it was simply his time.  My attempt to breed for creamino societies is halted for now.  After 2 clutches of clear eggs from my creamino hen and a split male, I am letting them rest.  The male may be a bit too young yet.  I may need to put them to foster duties as well, but may let the creamino hen try with a different male in a couple of weeks.

New start - breeding season begins!

As weather is finally turning cooler - as in low 90s F instead of over 100 F, I have started to set up gouldian pairs, and the scarlet chested grasskeets are also demanding nest boxes.  They show their desire by displacing all the seeds from their cups, looking for appropriate nesting sites.  The shaft tails looks to be ready as well, but as I do not have enough breeding cages for everyone, they will have to wait their turn as I am concentrating on gouldians first.  My gouldian pet projects for this season will include trying to breed more redline individuals as well as my continuing effort to successfully breed yellow, blue, and silver mutations.  My pink bourkes are too young to worry about nesting yet.  Since my poor yellow turquoisine hen died, my 2 new yellow turq hens are both too young to breed yet.  Their older mates will have to be patient for one more year, I'm afraid.  

There was a surprising hen in my society cage - I thought I had removed all the hens in an attempt to decrease the amount of society breeding since I keep them mainly for fostering purposes.  She has produced 3 babies recently - unfortuantely, I still don't know who she is :)  It can be really difficult to tell gender in societies especially when there is a small troupe of them.  The zebras are behaving as they are reputed to be - crazy good breeders.  I was a bit late in taking away their nest box since the latest babies are still being weaned, and now there are 5 more eggs in the box.  I really will have to be more vigilant next time around.

One pair of linnies laid 2 eggs which they did not sit on, so these 2 are in the incubator I mentioned buying previously.  There should be about 2 more weeks of incubation before we'll have to see if the babies will hatch out successfully.  If the incubator does it's work, then the real work will begin in 2 weeks - handfeeding from the start can be very rewarding, but very tiring as well since new chicks will need food at least every 1-2 hours.  I would have preferred chicks to be at least 1-2 weeks old before having to handfeed, both for ability to space out feedings more, but more importantly, it is also much easier in terms of the babies survival if they get some immunity from their parents.  I do have a new handfeeding formula that has a lot of probiotics to be mixed with my old formula; hopefully this will help.

As for the waxbills, I'll be waiting a bit longer.  Some of them are still molting and no one seems particularly eager to breed yet, which is good, since I will have to rotate the usage of the breeding cages somewhat this year.

Linnies

Finally gotten around to take some pictures of my "new" lineolated parakeets.  They are very cute and colorful.  In general, very quiet - the males like to have a 2 minute shouting match with each other in the morning, but this is not very loud nor unpleasant.

 Here's one pair - the yellow one is the lutino hen and the other a colbalt male.

 This is a turquoise male.

 And his mate is a creamino hen.

These little parrots are a bit different than my usual finches and grasskeets, and I'm still adapting to providing the right food and conditions for them, but in general, they just eat more fruits with their veggies and they like them in bigger chunks than the usual salad I provide for my other birds.  I am also trying to sprout various beans and larger seeds for them, which they have started to enjoy.  

Not much going on

Not much is going on except my on-going struggle to treat my yellow turquoisine hen.  She's been on another round of antibiotics for her sinusitis without much improvement.  I think my crop feeding helps her, but the symptoms of the sinusitis has not shown much change.  I am intending on trying a more holistic approach with her next.  Will try using some essential oils that have shown benefit in birds to see if we can clear up the sinusitis this way since traditional antibiotics has been a bust so far.

I did get a couple pairs of lineolated parakeets.  They are bit different than the finches and grasskeets I'm use to but very pretty and cute.  Will try to post pictures soon.

new birds

Just wanted to update on how the birds are doing and a few new birds to my collection.  To the right is a black headed purple breasted normal green back male gouldian from the past breeding season.  He has very nice and rich colorings.  A red faced parrot finch is in the background.

Above are some pictures of the society and zebra babies.  They are starting to get their adult colorings.  The society is chocolate euro self.  There is a gray and a CFW zebra baby.

A "cream" shaft tail hen - not a creamino, but also lack the grayish coloring of a fawn and isabelle mutation.  Planning on breeding some shaft tails this season.

Here's my silver gouldian baby of the past breeding season.  She is black headed and white breasted.  A purple grenadier hen is in the background.

Here's one of my new birds - a pink rosy bourke grasskeet.  This is the male of the pair I believe - he has a pale yellow green blue rump, but I think he's the male because he is the singer of the two.

Here's the pink rosy bourke hen.  She has a pink rump and doesn't nearly sing as much.

Here're the 2 of them together.

This is my new young yellow turquoisine hen.  She was born this year, so should be very young without her full colors yet.  She is suppose to have a red belly.

Here's one of my male scarlet chested grasskeets.  Note he has gotten a few red feathers on his belly as he is going through a molt.  I doubt he will be a full red fronted scarlet chest, but it's interesting to see him still getting more colors as he is getting to 3 years of age.