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I have a proven pair of breeding Cockatiels. Last fall they laid six eggs and all made it with me only having to learn how to hand feed the youngest alongside the parents because its siblings were roughly a week to a week and a half older than it. Jump to this spring, I tried using a bigger box because I noticed how cramped six babies, plus mom and dad were in the previous nesting box. Momma bird refused it and let her first egg drop to the cage bottom. I found it shortly after, with a small crack in it. I tried to put it in the new box, to see if it would get the mamma in it. It made Daddy cockatiel go into super dad mode, but shortly later, I find they had cracked the egg open fully and started eating it. Freaking out...I rushed to the store, bought a new classic nesting box and my husband and I set it up as the first box was. Our female accepted it right away and went in to start prepping it. A few days later we had our first egg in it. Since they only did six last clutch, we weren't expecting more than that. We ended up with 7 this clutch (8 counting the one that broke, from the female refusing the first box. But our female and male somehow cracked two more eggs, one had a chick inside. Causing it to hatch too early, and sadly it didn't make it...either its two older siblings stepped on it or the parents just ignored it...I am not sure. I removed the second cracked egg, and baby shortly after it stopped moving.
We were starting to get concerned at this point, because we weren't sure how the parents would react. All the sudden our female started laying more eggs (currently 3 new ones, taking us to 11 eggs this clutch. Counting the ones we lost.) We bought an incubator (a Brinsea Mini II EX) in hopes that if needed we could help the parents out. We are trying to find the correct information to have it set up correctly, if we have to separate the eggs. We are currently with two chicks just over a week old, one about a week, and one egg starting to pip, the final egg with a chick still seems to have more growing to do.
Not much in the three newest eggs as of yet. But for some reason while the daddy has been taking care of the chicks, the mother half lays on the eggs and just ignores the nest the rest of the time. She has even started to breed with the male again, instead of tending to the eggs. She keeps breeding with the male, when he steps out of the box, and we worry she is trying to do what she did last clutch. Where she started attacking her chicks who had just started to get their feathers, to move, so she could lay more eggs. We had to separate her to a secondary cage till the chicks had left the nest, and we could take the box down. We had her in slightly smaller cage right next to the main cage...she had even tried to get her mate to breed with her through the cage bars...which we found odd. We did put her back into the main cage, after the babies had left the nest and we were able to take the box down.
At this point in time...with three very young chicks, and at least two more on the way. We can not remove the nesting box, till it is okay to do so. We worry our female, is just more interested in breeding and tending to the eggs up to when the eggs start to hatch. Then she seems to want to start a new clutch right away.
After candling the oldest of the three newest eggs (laid on April 19, 2021), I have not seen any veins, but the egg and the two that proceeded it (laid on April 21 and April 23) look healthy...Not sure what is going on with them...after much research, I fear they might be infertile. The male has been doing a lot of the egg tending, and the female...has sort of given up or lost interest maybe. We have noticed they have been leaving the nesting box, for longer periods of time. Even though two eggs still need to be kept warm.
At this time we are looking for information on what to set our incubator to, and if we should separate the momma cockatiel like we did before. Our male is a SUPER dad cockatiel and steps right up to the plate and takes over a lot of the duties when our female (momma) just in a sense gives up. We really do not want to lose any of the babies, but at the same time...have our bases covered.
We were starting to get concerned at this point, because we weren't sure how the parents would react. All the sudden our female started laying more eggs (currently 3 new ones, taking us to 11 eggs this clutch. Counting the ones we lost.) We bought an incubator (a Brinsea Mini II EX) in hopes that if needed we could help the parents out. We are trying to find the correct information to have it set up correctly, if we have to separate the eggs. We are currently with two chicks just over a week old, one about a week, and one egg starting to pip, the final egg with a chick still seems to have more growing to do.
Not much in the three newest eggs as of yet. But for some reason while the daddy has been taking care of the chicks, the mother half lays on the eggs and just ignores the nest the rest of the time. She has even started to breed with the male again, instead of tending to the eggs. She keeps breeding with the male, when he steps out of the box, and we worry she is trying to do what she did last clutch. Where she started attacking her chicks who had just started to get their feathers, to move, so she could lay more eggs. We had to separate her to a secondary cage till the chicks had left the nest, and we could take the box down. We had her in slightly smaller cage right next to the main cage...she had even tried to get her mate to breed with her through the cage bars...which we found odd. We did put her back into the main cage, after the babies had left the nest and we were able to take the box down.
At this point in time...with three very young chicks, and at least two more on the way. We can not remove the nesting box, till it is okay to do so. We worry our female, is just more interested in breeding and tending to the eggs up to when the eggs start to hatch. Then she seems to want to start a new clutch right away.
After candling the oldest of the three newest eggs (laid on April 19, 2021), I have not seen any veins, but the egg and the two that proceeded it (laid on April 21 and April 23) look healthy...Not sure what is going on with them...after much research, I fear they might be infertile. The male has been doing a lot of the egg tending, and the female...has sort of given up or lost interest maybe. We have noticed they have been leaving the nesting box, for longer periods of time. Even though two eggs still need to be kept warm.
At this time we are looking for information on what to set our incubator to, and if we should separate the momma cockatiel like we did before. Our male is a SUPER dad cockatiel and steps right up to the plate and takes over a lot of the duties when our female (momma) just in a sense gives up. We really do not want to lose any of the babies, but at the same time...have our bases covered.
😣😩
