[Claire_Moo]

Hi Everyone!

I have three chicks, parent raised but handled often. They're almost 3 weeks old. This is the first clutch where multiple chicks have made it and I have a question about fledglings and removing the nest box.

Today one of the chicks was brave enough to leave the box and walk itself into the bright wide world! As of yet, the other two haven't quite made it but are happy poking their heads out the nest door. Very cute 😊

My question is, should I wait until all three have fledged of their own accord before removing the nest box?

With the last clutch and one baby, when it fledged I removed the nest but gave it an open-roofed box on the floor of the cage with the parents. So it still had its own little small space to go back to if it wanted. I plan to do the same again for these 3 chicks.

Any thoughts? All 3 are comfortable out of the nest box when im handling them and happy to walk around and explore my sofa 🤣 I dont want to force them out but at the same time I dont want to leave the nest box on too long for obvious reasons!

TIA

 

[Robert Seale]

Here is what we did and we,ve had three successful clutches. As you know, let the parents do the feeding for the first three weeks. After that, we have a plastic see-thru box with air holes and bedding that we place the chicks in. THIS is when you start hand feeding them (with a syringe) three times a day for two weeks. after that, cut back to twice a day and introduce them to adult pellets. Some will ween faster than others but by six weeks, they should all be eating adult food. Yours sounds like there well on there way since there coming out of the nesting box. If you want to HAND tame them well, be sure and handle them as much as possible while still feeding with a syringe.

 

[Claire_Moo]

Thanks! I'm not going to hand feed at all, I don't need to luckily. Their first clutch I had to hand feed one baby and it's not something i'd repeat unless necessary! I handled the one that I didn't have to hand feed and it's super tame now

I will probably put both the big nest box and the small shelter area in the cage together until all three have left the box on their own. Number 2 of 3 has jumped out today, so only one more to go!

When they do fledge, I put them back in the box just to make sure they are ready to fledge. Once they've come out on their own a couple of times I won't place them back in the box but they have the shelter area until they get used to being out. I'm not going to separate them from the parents until they start weaning.