Baby Birds!
Baby birds are so much fun but may also be stressful. There are a lot of things to remember and careful of when dealing with baby birds.
The Beginning Of A Family
Bonding, Mating and The Parents
Sometimes you can buy a bonded pair of birds and sometimes you may have to pair them up yourself. No matter which way they are mated, they will be protective of each other and will spend time with each other. Soon they should be preening each other too. Sometimes, if you have enough birds, a male and female will will pick each other. This pair will be closer than the other type.
When a male and female bird mate, you may not realize what is going on at first. The male will stand on top of the female.
When a male and female bird mate, you may not realize what is going on at first. The male will stand on top of the female.
Signs of an Egg Coming and The Care
The nesting box should be big enough that both mother and father can fit in comfortably and may turn around. The signs that the female is carrying eggs is a budging crest or chest area. The mother and father will also start pulling feathers on the belly for the nest. She also increase the amount of time she spends with the cuttle bone. She may also start taking baths more often. When you know the female is carrying eggs you need to be very careful with her and make sure she does not take any big falls. If she takes a hard enough fall the eggs may break inside her. If this happens the mother will very likely die. At this time you may also want to provide a nesting box. This could be a store bought box, a home-made box or just a shoe box. The nesting box should be big enough that both mother and father can fit in comfortably and may turn around. If you make your own box, remember to make the hole for them to get in big enough for them to go in smoothly. The hole also needs to be high enough that the baby can't get out but the parents can get in. You may also want to put a perch on the inside of the box; they may end up chewing it up or actually using it. It is also possible that they will only need a basket or bowl to lay eggs. There have been stories of birds laying eggs in the food dish or on the bottom of the cage. This is also a very important time for the father. He must prepare the nest if she lays the eggs before he has the nest done, he may reject the eggs. Since he must make the nest, you should provide materials for him to rip and move around. Some of the materials could be newspaper, paper towels, wood shavings or something similar. The stores also make an official nesting material that is fine to use too. Before you lay down any of the material, you may want to lay down some cardboard because later the nest will get quite messy. However, until the baby pooping on it's own, the nest will be very clean; the parents will keep it clean and will wait to poop until its out of the nesting area. Since they hold it for so long, the droppings will become much bigger than usual and will probably start smelling pretty bad too. They will also start doing this before the the eggs are laid so this is a good sign of what is coming.
Roosting and The Eggs
Once one egg has been laid, the mother will wait a couple days before laying another. The majority of the birds will lay between 2 and 4 eggs but it may depend on the type of bird If the parents don't sit on the eggs right away don't worry; they do not usually lay on them until a couple eggs have been laid. The eggs will be fine for nine days without them sitting on them. Once they start sitting on the eggs, the baby inside will develop and since the eggs are laid so far apart, they don't want them to hatch to far ahead of the others. Don't be surprised if the father does not help out very much. The majority of the types of birds, the father won't help, however, some like the Cockatiel will take half the work and some will let a different bird take care of their babies completely like the Sun Conure. The warmer you keep your house during this time, the faster the eggs will hatch. The time it takes for the eggs to hatch will again depend on which bird you have. The parents will periodically turn the eggs so that they will develop correctly. The parents will also know if an egg is infertile and will roll it off to the side.
The Option of Incubating
You may want to incubate instead of letting the parents do it or you may have the type of bird that does not take care of the eggs or young. However, if you don't know what your doing or don't have the supplies already, it might not be a good option. This process may either be risky for the eggs and take time to figure out, or it may be expensive, possibly even both. The eggs must be a certain temperature to develop and birds run at a much higher temp than we do. However, you also don't want to have the temp too high and cook the egg.
Hatching
The eggs will not hatch all at the same time. Since they was laid at different times, then they will hatch at a different time too. After the first chick has hatched, the parent must still sit on the other eggs while taking care of the hatched chicks. When you first see the freshly hatched chicks, you will not think it looks much like a bird. When is chicks are hatched, they will have their eyes closed and relies completely on the parents. The parents will begin to eat a lot more so that they may feed all of the chicks once they hatch. This requires the parent to digest the food and then regurgitate the food for the baby; this can be a very messy process.
The Chicks and First Feathers
For the first several weeks the chicks will only eat and sleep. During this stage the chicks are developing and getting stronger. They are also beginning to open their eyes and grow feathers.They will also develop at different times because they were laid and hatched at different times. So one may be better developed than the others and one will be the runt. You will need keep an eye on the chicks developing. If you notice the feathers being pulled, you may need to pull the chick or change the parents diet. When feathers are being pulled, you need to make sure it is not mites. Often parents will pull feathers in effort to get rid of the mites. If it is not mites, you might want to offer a source of sodium to the parents. Often when the parents are low on sodium they will break the pin feathers to get the blood because it is a high source of sodium. If this does not help then you may have to pull the chick and take care of it; the parent may just like pulling feathers. The reason behind this be that the parent is bored, isn't getting enough attention and is taking it out on the baby, or the parent was raised that way and thinks its just what you're supposed to do. It is recommended not to take the chicks out for 2 to 3 weeks. However, the longer you leave the chicks in with the parents, the better the chicks develops. You may also want to leave the chicks in with the parents until it's time to wean the chicks. When deciding whether or not to pull the chick out you may want to weigh the benefits and the problems. If you have parents that are tame and trust you, you may be able to keep the chick with parents and still handle the baby daily. Although, some breeders get worried that the parents may reject the chick after that. However, if the parents are not tame enough for you to try this, you may end up with a bird that is scared of people and needs a lot of work before it's ready to be handled. This is why many people pull the chicks and hand feed.
The Option To Hand-Feed
This requires a lot of work and a lot of you're time, so consider this before having baby birds; they may look cute and cuddly but you must be committed to take care of this baby if need be. Remember these birds have a much higher temperature that people do and they need to maintain that temperature. When feeding the chicks, you must make sure the food is warm enough that they can digest the food but not too hot that the food burns the chick.
Juveniles
Weaning
A Curious Young Bird
Wings: Clip or no clip, that is the question
There is much controversy over clipping wings, it is even more difficult with babies. You don't want to lose your new baby bird but you want it to have healthy muscles and wings. When the chick is developing, it's important that it gets balance and confidence. It is usually recommended to allow the chicks to have their wings until they gain their balance and confidence. Although, you can imagine the terror if the chick would get out, so while the chick has it's wings, make sure that it cannot get outside. Letting the chick have it's wings allows the bird to develop strong, healthy wing muscles.
Sexing your new baby bird
Sadly in many birds there is no way to tell the sex of your bird until they get older. Most birds you can tell the sex by the color of its feathers. One way that some people figure out the sex of the bird is to pull one of the tail feathers to see its adult coloring. Another way people figure out the sex early is by behavior. Often the females are more acrobatic while young and the males are more musical. The problem with this is that it is not a fact that females cannot talk, it is just less likely. Usually, you just have to wait until the baby's first molt, then the adult color will come in. When the chick develops it's first feathers, it will take the appearance of the mother. When the chick goes through it's first molt, the adult coloring will come in and you will be able to tell it's sex. If the bird is female, then it will keep the mother's coloring. If the bird is male, the coloring will change. The male color may be the same as the father's, unless it has a different color mutation.