News(archive)
Bad (?) Behavior
I have a pair that always lets one chick die at fledging.
It's really interesting. It's the pair I wrote about because they make me (kind of) a great great grandmother - Danny and Anna. When I look at my records they always lose one chick around fledging time. It doesn't matter if they have four chicks or just two - one is always lost. Sometimes it was behind in development, and sometimes not, so I don't think that it was a case of the birds understanding that something was wrong. It's almost like they look at the chicks and go - "Um, not you....." Last time they had three chicks, and all three looked equally healthy. One begged constantly, though, and appeared to be ignored, and sure enough died a couple of days after fledging. I made a half-hearted attempt to hand feed, because I thought that they MUST be feeding - just not when I was looking. Too little, too late. The current chick is one of two, and this time does appear to always have been behind in development. One chick is sleek and fat, and actually fledged today. This little tyke looks to be about a week behind - feathered but still funky-looking, and obviously not ready to fledge nor to feed himself. He's always LOUDLY begging, though. Is something wrong to delay his development, or is he just underfed? I decided to actually learn from past experience this time to see if I can save it, since I know that the parents really aren't sneaking him food when I'm not looking. I really debated whether to leave him with his family, but ended up moving him to a cage with societies where I can reach him more easily (his nest in the family cage is a bugger to get into). I also hoped that the societies might take pity on him, though so far no go. I'm mixing egg yolk and dried eggfood with water and feeding him with a banding tool (my favorite method of hand feeding), and he's chowing down. Hopefully I didn't make the move too late, and he'll thrive with regular feedings.
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