Advice on bonded pair who have eggs

[Miko_the_birb]

Sometimes the humans have to come first. Sorry not sorry. It’s not a decision I’ve come to lightly like returning a shirt like you said.

 

[Miko_the_birb]

I’ve also tried to prepare myself to let both of them go so they can stay together. I still strongly feel like they will eventually be fine separated but part of me still does not want to give up on Duckie. it’s not and easy decision at all and to be treated like I don’t care about my birds is incredibly unfair

 

[kme3388]

I don’t think anyone thinks you are a crappy person. Both @DonnaBudgie @texsize and myself know that people innocently purchase or adopt parrots/birds that don’t exactly go according to plan. It’s not always apparent how noisy, messy, and destructive they can be. Parrots are a great thought as a pet until they’re not. I myself never recommend any of them in captivity. Conures are like mini macaws. For a small parrot they are snippy, and quite challenging. I try to talk everyone out of parrots. Dogs & cats are in my opinion easier. Parrots arent very friendly unless they are handled on a regular basis. I don’t know how many people I’ve tried to help, and they tell me they take their parrot out all of the time. I open the cage door, and realize I’m dealing with a very scared, timid, wild bird whos never been handled. Then they fess up that they take their parrot out once a year. That’s why the parrot isn’t friendly. I don’t judge I just try to help. They really do take up your life, and they are time consuming. Then you have to add in hormones, puberty, diet, exercise, and everything else. Birds are perplexing to keep in captivity.

 

[kme3388]

I have yet to meet a vet, zoologist, shelter, or sanctuary who highly recommends parrots as pets. You stated above that parrots aren’t your life. My macaw would be like adopting a 3-5 year old child. It’s not healthy for him to sit in a cage. He thrives off interaction. They are very highly intelligent. Anyone with these birds would tell you that you aren’t going to have a personal life. I would NEVER recommend them as pets unless you want something attached at your hip. I can’t go out on a Friday night, and leave my parrots in their cages. I’m a nerd anyway! It is what it is.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I don’t think anyone thinks you are a crappy person. Both @DonnaBudgie @texsize and myself know that people innocently purchase or adopt parrots/birds that don’t exactly go according to plan. It’s not always apparent how noisy, messy, and destructive they can be. Parrots are a great thought as a pet until they’re not. I myself never recommend any of them in captivity. Conures are like mini macaws. For a small parrot they are snippy, and quite challenging. I try to talk everyone out of parrots. Dogs & cats are in my opinion easier. Parrots arent very friendly unless they are handled on a regular basis. I don’t know how many people I’ve tried to help, and they tell me they take their parrot out all of the time. I open the cage door, and realize I’m dealing with a very scared, timid, wild bird whos never been handled. Then they fess up that they take their parrot out once a year. That’s why the parrot isn’t friendly. I don’t judge I just try to help. They really do take up your life, and they are time consuming. Then you have to add in hormones, puberty, diet, exercise, and everything else. Birds are perplexing to keep in captivity.

One of the problems with people and parrots is that people get a very unrealistic picture of what it's like to own a parrot, especially GCCs, by watching all those YouTube and TikTok videos showing amazingly tame friendly parrots ¹being handled like they were puppies or kittens. Most of these videos are of baby parrots that have not yet reached puberty. Baby parrots are always sweet, cuddly, affectionate and irresistible. Adult birds are rarely like that. And a baby GCC can be bought for only a few hundred $$. Then they grow up and people wonder what to their sweet baby! Or they think it would be even more fun to have two! Throw in hormones AND a member of the opposite sex and their sweet baby is now like a rebellious teenager in love and in lust, intent on making babies of their own!

 

[Miko_the_birb]

I don’t think anyone thinks you are a crappy person. Both @DonnaBudgie @texsize and myself know that people innocently purchase or adopt parrots/birds that don’t exactly go according to plan. It’s not always apparent how noisy, messy, and destructive they can be. Parrots are a great thought as a pet until they’re not. I myself never recommend any of them in captivity. Conures are like mini macaws. For a small parrot they are snippy, and quite challenging. I try to talk everyone out of parrots. Dogs & cats are in my opinion easier. Parrots arent very friendly unless they are handled on a regular basis. I don’t know how many people I’ve tried to help, and they tell me they take their parrot out all of the time. I open the cage door, and realize I’m dealing with a very scared, timid, wild bird whos never been handled. Then they fess up that they take their parrot out once a year. That’s why the parrot isn’t friendly. I don’t judge I just try to help. They really do take up your life, and they are time consuming. Then you have to add in hormones, puberty, diet, exercise, and everything else. Birds are perplexing to keep in captivity.

I did my research years and knew full well they would be noisy. We take them out daily they’re out most of the day. Miko interacts with us. It’s the fact that Duckie had never come around to begin with (and not for lack of me trying) I’ve tried separation so I could bond with him. At some point the screaming/calling gets to be too much everyone has a tolerance level mine is pretty high. I can handle noise. Screaming thru the vents in the house no (& yes these smarty pants figured that they could hear each other thru the vent system) and it’s impossible to keep them away from the vents. So I was left w: no choice but to let them stay together and Duckie went from please don’t touch me to if you come near Miko or this cage I’ll kill you (ok hormones he was right at puberty age i get it it will pass.. it got worse and worse I couldn’t deal with it and then the mating started.. I had decided to surrender him but then she started laying eggs. Number 5 just arrived today. I’m still mentally emotionally trying to figure out a way to keep both. Do I try side by side cages? Will they scream at each other ? Will Miko still lay eggs? (Obviously unfertilized) no matter what decision I make I feel like I’m making a mistake I care deeply for these birds if I didn’t I would’ve gotten rid of Duckie months ago

 

[DonnaBudgie]

With 5 eggs and incubation not yet begun it sounds like you have plenty of time to decide what to do. There's more sense in stressing any more about it now. You need to keep Ducky until those chicks are weaned and they haven't even hatched yet, so you're looking at a few months. I'd try to enjoy the experience of having baby parrots. You said you're going to let the parents raise the chicks, right? Ducky has a critical role to play as he feeds her and shares the duty of feeding chicks. She will need his help, especially with such a large clutch.

I hope they let you handle the babies (at a few weeks old) after they hatch. You should handle them several times a day beginning at two to three weeks old. It's easy to rehome sweet tame baby GCCs. Wild ones are not as desirable.

Make sure the parents' diet is varied and food is plentiful. The parents eat a lot of food while raising chicks.

 

[Miko_the_birb]

With 5 eggs and incubation not yet begun it sounds like you have plenty of time to decide what to do. There's more sense in stressing any more about it now. You need to keep Ducky until those chicks are weaned and they haven't even hatched yet, so you're looking at a few months. I'd try to enjoy the experience of having baby parrots. You said you're going to let the parents raise the chicks, right? Ducky has a critical role to play as he feeds her and shares the duty of feeding chicks. She will need his help, especially with such a large clutch.

I hope they let you handle the babies (at a few weeks old) after they hatch. You should handle them several times a day beginning at two to three weeks old. It's easy to rehome sweet tame baby GCCs. Wild ones are not as desirable.

Make sure the parents' diet is varied and food is plentiful. The parents eat a lot of food while raising chicks.

I’m happily surprised he is currently letting me take the bowls in and out. He certainly lets me know when it’s low lol. The rescue I was planning on surrendering him to call me after she had the first egg and I was like well we may have to wait bc if she’s going to have chicks then he’s gotta stay.

 

[texsize]

DonnaBudgie has it nailed.
You have time and most parrot parents (so far as I know) both help raise the babies.

It was a real joy (mixed with heartache) raising baby birds.
I made numerous mistakes but …
IDK how similar cockatiels and conure’s are.
But as soon as my first clutch of babies we nearly fledged my parrot couple started making the second clutch.

I had not expected that. I thought it would be months before they would be ready to breed again.

So you may need to be ready to separate them in separate cages unless you want to repeat the whole thing.

I think some birds are more seasonally driven to reproduce and some are more …… opportunistic
Breed when the conditions are right.

 

[Miko_the_birb]

Any clue as to when I can/should remove Duckie and and try him in his own cage and when approximately do i separate the babies from the parents assuming they’re weaned.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Texsize is so right! I wanted to take the nestbox away from my budgies after their first clutch and separate them but when the chicks were only four weeks old and still in the box, unweaned and unfledged they began to lay another clutch! Plus, the babies were in no rush to leave- they stayed with Mama and helped her incubate the eggs as dad fed all of them. When they finally left the box at over 5 weeks old, they decided to go back with Mama! They finally left for good after more than 6 weeks and a week after that the second clutch began to hatch. She had laid 10 more eggs, but I removed all but 4 and subbed dummies and two hatched. Two did not.
My mistake was not removing ALL the second clutch eggs as they were laid and subbing dummies, but my father out of state began having strokes so I had to travel back and forth to stay with Mom for 7 weeks on and off until Dad died. I missed the time windows to remove the eggs before significant development and I couldn't get myself to destroy partially developed chicks.
She did the same thing after the second clutch but this time she laid 11 eggs and got 11 dummy eggs until I took the box away and separated the winged rabbits for good!

Be prepared to have to intervene and hand feed the chicks. Purchase some commercially avaliable hand feeding formula to have on hand in case the parents reject any chicks. It's challenging to handfeed but with enough knowledge and preparation it can be safely done. I also recommend you purchase a small thermostatically controlled egg incubstor. I have two I bought on Amazon for about $50 each. They are critical for keeping the chicks warm but not TOO warm if you need to foster any of them. Worth every penny. I don't see how someone can handfeed and hand raise naked babies without one.

 

[texsize]

Texsize is so right! I wanted to take the nestbox away from my budgies after their first clutch and separate them but when the chicks were only four weeks old and still in the box, unweaned and unfledged they began to lay another clutch! Plus, the babies were in no rush to leave- they stayed with Mama and helped her incubate the eggs as dad fed all of them. When they finally left the box at over 5 weeks old, they decided to go back with Mama! They finally left for good after more than 6 weeks and a week after that the second clutch began to hatch. She had laid 10 more eggs, but I removed all but 4 and subbed dummies and two hatched. Two did not.
My mistake was not removing ALL the second clutch eggs as they were laid and subbing dummies, but my father out of state began having strokes so I had to travel back and forth to stay with Mom for 7 weeks on and off until Dad died. I missed the time windows to remove the eggs before significant development and I couldn't get myself to destroy partially developed chicks.
She did the same thing after the second clutch but this time she laid 11 eggs and got 11 dummy eggs until I took the box away and separated the winged rabbits for good!

Be prepared to have to intervene and hand feed the chicks. Purchase some commercially avaliable hand feeding formula to have on hand in case the parents reject any chicks. It's challenging to handfeed but with enough knowledge and preparation it can be safely done. I also recommend you purchase a small thermostatically controlled egg incubstor. I have two I bought on Amazon for about $50 each. They are critical for keeping the chicks warm but not TOO warm if you need to foster any of them. Worth every penny. I don't see how someone can handfeed and hand raise naked babies without one.

All of that is so true.

I had a different problem with my breeding pair.
They started pulling out the feathers of the babies (4) around the ears and neck.
Can’t remember how many weeks old this started but I had to separate every body from every body.
I was hand feeding and letting the parents feed them with human supervision.

My best guess it’s trying to force the young out of the nest ASAP so they can start another clutch.

That was the other reason for no more babies, they were bad parents.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Poor babies! I heard of budgies doing that too. My Mama budgie seemed to enjoy the company of her kids. They fed her after dad fed them and helped keep her 11 dummy eggs warm.