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Post by wesimons on Dec 9, 2010 14:50:20 GMT -5
 Since last spring our baby's have been hatching and chirping, and then I find them dead and bloody. Our pair have been mating and lay clutches for 2 years in the spring and then in the fall. From the first clutch we have a survivor a male close to a year old. We have a large cage and have left him in there. At first I thought it was him, but today I saw our daddy pick up a baby and remove a leg. The chick was dead before that point. I have now moved both males to another cage, they are all having a fit. there are two more eggs in the nest box. What can I do? I went by the old do they have enough room, water, food. I examined the baby and all looked normal except where injured. When they where new parents they were so good nesting and feeding the baby's afterward now this! help
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Post by marieandchirpy on Dec 9, 2010 16:09:37 GMT -5
Since last spring our baby's have been hatching and chirping, and then I find them dead and bloody. Our pair have been mating and lay clutches for 2 years in the spring and then in the fall. From the first clutch we have a survivor a male close to a year old. We have a large cage and have left him in there. At first I thought it was him, but today I saw our daddy pick up a baby and remove a leg. The chick was dead before that point. I have now moved both males to another cage, they are all having a fit. there are two more eggs in the nest box. What can I do? I went by the old do they have enough room, water, food. I examined the baby and all looked normal except where injured. When they where new parents they were so good nesting and feeding the baby's afterward now this! help Take the remaining eggs and put them in an incubator. As for any surviving babies in the nest you will have to raise them yourself. Cockatiels can detect deformities in their young that we do not notice and attack them so they don't have to feed them. It's a survival thing. But if they've been attacking every clutch since last spring then you might have to stop breeding them. |
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Post by tametiels on Dec 9, 2010 21:11:04 GMT -5
Parents also often mutilate failure to thrive babies in an attempt to elicit a feeding response. They bite the tips of toes and wings in order to get the response. Some parents, after having to perform this clutch after clutch after clutch, become more aggressive with the babies. I think frustration kicks in as well. At some point the baby mutilation becomes a regular habit.
Another thing to consider is that the presence of another male cockatiel in the cage is causing heightened aggression in the parents which is misplaced on to the babies in the nest. Unless in expansive flights, breeding pairs at nest tend to become protective and territorial (as they should be). When their frustration builds at being unable to drive the intruding cockatiel (in this case their adult son from previous clutch) away from their chosen nest site, their babies often suffer the brunt of the misplaced energy. They do not understand it is impossible to drive away the "third wheel" from an enclosed environment (cage).
I have two suggestions above and beyond those MarieandChirpy offered:
1) Remove the older chick from the breeding cage when the parents are set-up to nest
2) If you do have failure to thrive/non-responsive babies often, take the parent birds in for a full work-up at vet before letting them reproduce.
A last note (question, actually): Do you have pedigrees/background information on your pair? sometimes failure to thrive babies are the result of breedings that are too close in family line. If over several breeding seasons you have few thriving hatchlings it could be your birds are closely related. This often happens when birds are purchased from retail locations. I am not saying this is the case, so please do not be alarmed....just posing the question.
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Post by marieandchirpy on Dec 9, 2010 21:35:59 GMT -5
Poor tiels. tametiels has very good advice.
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Post by wesimons on Dec 10, 2010 22:30:55 GMT -5
Thank you for the help. I will take them back to our vet, I had him check them over when we got them. Will a mated pair except another mate? When I allowed the males back in, it was so sad to watch the two of them greet each other and begin preening each other. The son went into another corner and was very quiet. When I seperated them they where all very vocal and agitated. I didnt intend to breed or sell their babys, but it is hard to watch this going on. Thank you again.
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Post by marieandchirpy on Dec 11, 2010 17:35:13 GMT -5
Thank you for the help. I will take them back to our vet, I had him check them over when we got them. Will a mated pair except another mate? When I allowed the males back in, it was so sad to watch the two of them greet each other and begin preening each other. The son went into another corner and was very quiet. When I seperated them they where all very vocal and agitated. I didnt intend to breed or sell their babys, but it is hard to watch this going on. Thank you again. If you are asking if they will accept another cagemate, a mated pair can become friends with another Cockatiel. |
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Post by dreamcatchers on Jan 7, 2011 13:51:16 GMT -5
Sorry for entering so late on this thread but - you didn't mention how old this pair was. Also, how many clutches have they laid before they started mutilating their babies and how many after? I believe that if you are seriously wanting this pair to mate and raise babies, then you will need to really analyze why the behavior is occurring. If you aren't interested in having babies, then remove the nestbox completely and any eggs that come along. Either way, you might try to separate them for several months. Keep them in cages so they can see and talk to each other but don't allow them to mate. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, it often allows young birds to settle into maturity and become better parents. I havd a hen who if allowed to produce more than one clutch a year, would break her eggs. She got so worked up as a momma, she could only handle the stress once a year. I kept her in my breeding program for a short while because she produced emeralds. She never outgrew the problem and once I had two good hens out of her to work into my program, I retired her. She is much happier as a pet.
As for accepting a new mate? Yes, you can get a single tiel to accept a new mate over time and with patience. If you are trying to do this with both birds of the original pair to accept new bonded mates, you will need to house them where they can not converse with each other. One pair I had years ago needed to be split. I offered them both new mates and neither would accept until I put one pair with a friend of mine and she took care of them for a year at her house. After that, I was able to bring both pairs back to my house.
Best of luck
Michelle
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Since last spring our baby's have been hatching and chirping, and then I find them dead and bloody. Our pair have been mating and lay clutches for 2 years in the spring and then in the fall. From the first clutch we have a survivor a male close to a year old. We have a large cage and have left him in there. At first I thought it was him, but today I saw our daddy pick up a baby and remove a leg. The chick was dead before that point. I have now moved both males to another cage, they are all having a fit. there are two more eggs in the nest box. What can I do? 
