eastern rosella hatchling deaths

[TPR]

Hello!
I have 2 pairs of eastern rosellas (rubino- lutino), both pairs have laid eggs for the first time, however, the cockbird ( I think) of one pair has killed the just hatched babies ( 2 days old hatchlings), is this possible? What should I do to prevent this from happening the next time? Please advice.

[Wolf]

The only answer that I can think of to stop this behavior is to remove the male and see if this solves the problem.
Parrots in the wild generally spend at least three months after hatching with the parent birds, which we don't allow. This means that the resulting offspring never get to learn parenting skills from their parents as they would in the wild. This is a common problem with captive bred and raised parrots, a think that rarely occurs in the wild.

[TPR]

Thanks! I was very disturbed. Are you suggesting that the next time when the eggs are about to hatch the male should be housed separately? Will the female manage her brood on it's own? Alternatively, should I prevent this pair from breeding at all? Please clarify .
Thanks

[liz]

It takes two parents to feed and care for the babies. I would just keep them from nesting again.
If there is a slip up you would need to separate him at time of hatching and assist the female with care. Either help with the feedings 3 times a day or give her soft foods that she can regurgitate right away. I used cooked oatmeal, scrambled eggs and unsweetened applesauce.

[Pajarita]

What I am going to say will sound harsh to you but, unfortunately, it's the truth: it was something you did or did not do. Now, I don't know what that 'something' was because I don't know what you did or did not do but these things only happen when the male bird is so stressed out that he feels that the babies will be better dead because the number one prime directive for any species on earth is to procreate and a parent would never kill its offspring unless something was really, really, really wrong.

Now, I don't breed parrots but I've bred canaries for 25 years and can assure you that, when it comes to breeding in captivity, both the success and the failure of it is all up to us. I'll give you an example: male cockatoos were famous for hurting and even killing the females during breeding season to the point that, in order for them to breed successfully, breeders would routinely break their jaw bone in half so the split beak (which never healed, of course) would not allow them to apply the pressure necessary for the bite to be fatal. This was accepted for many years as something that just happened but people starting learning more about birds and started going to nature to observe the behaviors of the wild birds so as to compare - and you know what they found out? That the reason this was happening was because the cockatoo hens 'finish' their breeding conditioning by watching the male build the nest and as in captivity breeding pairs were given metal nests (the wood ones got demolished), a huge number of them never quite got to the high conditioning required so they were not allowing the males to cover them and the males, getting extremely frustrated with the females because they were overly-hormonal, would attack them. See what I mean? It wasn't the birds' fault, it was the humans doing something wrong. And, every single time something goes wrong with breeding (and I am talking chronic layers, eggbinding, sickly babies, high mortality, low fertility, DIS, etc) is ALWAYS something we do or don't do.

So, re-evaluate your husbandry completely and be super objective about it and I am sure you will figure out what it was that failed and made the bird think that his babies were better off dead.

[TPR]

Wow! I'm learning some amazing facts, thank you.
Is it possible for the wonderful and passionate people of this forum to suggest what human factors would stress out a Cockbird so much so as to act this way? Because I am devoted to these birds and unable to figure out what I'm doing or not doing to stress my birdies. Is it because I peek into their nesting box once in 2 days?

[Pajarita]

Well, that's pretty impossible to answer because it could be a million different things:
- that the male is overly hormonal to the point of constant pain
- that the food/nest/housing/set-up/light or light schedule is not adequate
- that the babies were sick or born with a genetic defect (parent birds kill the babies that are not going to make it and trying to save these babies is almost always futile -I learned that the hard way!)
- that either or both parents are not in 100% perfect health (they could get normal blood work results but be depleted of reserves from prior overbreeding)
- that the male is too young
etc etc etc

Basically, you need to look for the source of high stress, either physical or emotional, and you will find the answer.

[TPR]

Thanks. Will work on it harder and get back with the outcome.
Meanwhile, I shall be eagerly looking for more suggestions from this forum .