My sun conure laid 4 eggs, one hatched but then died...

[Hamzah_khan]

My sun conure is two years old and she has a mate who is 3 years old. A month ago she laid 4 eggs and yesterday one of them hatched. The baby was chirping and everything but then we woke up the next day, and it was covered with a little bit of the wood shavings that we use as their bed and it was dead. There is still three more unhatched eggs. Is there something we could do to save the next 4? These were her first eggs so I'm not sure what do. Any help would be awesome

[Weka]

Hello and welcome.

So sorry to hear about your situation. Sometimes not every chick in a clutch survives. Perhaps a member with breeding experience might be able to provide some advice. Could you describe the bird's cage, diet, and other environmental conditions?


Best wishes,

Weka

[Hamzah_khan]

Hello, ok well they are in a large enough cage and they have a breeding box. There are 3 eggs left, and they probably will hatch in the next couple days. I think the first one died because it wasnt fead by its parents. Whenever we woulc check up on it we couldnt see Mango (father) or Kiwi (mother) feeding it. Would it be ok if right when it is born we take it out and start to hand feed it? Kiwi always stayed with the baby and kept it under her wing to keep it warm, but i dont think she fead it. I was told that my parrots were hand fead that why they dont know that they need to feed their baby, so we will have to do it, is that true? Thanks

[Pajarita]

No, it's not. The parents feed the babies from instinct, they don't have to learn it although there is always a learning curve with experienced parents doing much, much better than first timers. Besides, handfeeding a chick from day one can be done but it requires feeding it all around the clock (day and night) because you have to feed minute amounts all the time, something very hard to do for humans and which would damage the baby's vision (you should not expose it to light, they need darkness to complete the development of their eyes). Besides, you don't know why they were not feeding the baby. Parents don't feed babies that are born with a serious genetic defect or too weak to make it so maybe that's the problem (do you know for a fact that your birds are not closely related?) so it's possible that they were doing the baby a favor by letting it die when it was newborn. Another reason for not feeding babies is that the parents are stressed out or feel there isn't enough food to go around (they will always choose themselves for survival so they can breed another time). Do they have special food for raising babies? Because you are supposed to provide them with three different types of soft food and it needs to be fresh twice or three times a day.

But I can tell you that you made a big mistake and that was putting two VERY young birds to breed. Your birds are the equivalent of a 12 year old girl and a 15 year old boy and nobody makes a good parent at that age. Experienced breeders always try to pair a good, proven parent with an inexperienced one so the young one learns from the older one (did you do any research before you decided to breed them?).

[Hamzah_khan]

http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/ha ... 0birds.htm

here it says that you start feeding around 5 am, and end at 10 pm, and feed every two hours. Thats not that bad. Will they eventually learn that they need to feed the babies, even if i remove the chicks? Kiwi lays on her egss, and kept the chick under her arm to keep it warm so would it be ok if i remove the baby to feed it and then give it back to her? (shes very tame and lets us touch her when she is on her eggs)
And yes i know 100% that they are not siblings. Both of my parrots are very healthy, and Kiwi seemed to know exactly what to do, since the first egg was layed she stayed on it, came out to eat and drink and then went back to her eggs. I think the only thing is that they dont know how to, or that they need to feed it. I have pellets and fruit flavoured food in their cage. What other food should i put for them? I know that isnt the reason since they have lots of food in their cage.
I got the father when he was very young, and then a year later boaght the female when she was also very young and they have been living together since. They have only started mating in the last couple of months.

If i remove the babies and hand feed them, will they still eventually learn that they need to feed the babies, or will taking the chicks away from them make them not learn to feed them themselves?

[Pajarita]

My dear sir, the link you provided saying that they have to be fed every two hours from 5 am to 10 pm is from 1998! It's completely obsolete, we've learned A LOT since then and one thing we learned is that bird parents feed even during the night (breeders have put cameras inside the nest boxes) although it is true that you need to allow the crop to empty completely once every 24 hours (this is to avoid sour crop).

Pellets are not good for babies, you need to provide them with different kinds of soft food, things like a commercial hatchling food, a pellet mash, grated hard boiled egg, polenta, cooked brown rice, cooked cous-cous, cooked oatmeal, stuff like that. I needs to be soft and it needs to be wet. And you need to put three different kinds in the cage every day, twice a day because it needs to be fresh all the time (can't dry out).

[Hamzah_khan]

hmm ok thanks for the help, i really appreciate it, though you were a little harsh Next hatching i will put a lot of soft food in it. That may have been the reason since the only things in there is hard.
Thanks again C:

[Hamzah_khan]

also i just want to say, im not just some random person trying to breed parrots without any prior knowledge. Ive been getting alot of help from a local breeder, and yes i have done research. Im sure all "experienced" breeders started out somewhere.

[Pajarita]

Yes, of course everybody needs to start somewhere but the right way to do it is with a couple of breeding seasons of experience under an experienced breeder (meaning, you don't breed your own birds but learn and practice with the breeder's birds under his/her close supervision -you clean cages, you feed, you observe, you ask questions, etc). Unfortunately, with the internet, people don't look for real mentors anymore, they rely on information from birdsites and questions asked in forums which can never compare to actual hands-on experience and might not even be right for all you know. And I don't know how experienced the breeder you are asking questions from is when he did not tell you not to breed such young birds or to give them breeding food, two basic rules all good and experienced breeders know about. Not all breeders are good, you know...

[Cedardave]

Well since critizing wont reslove your issue...We are experianced breeders of Macaws, greys ,quakers and conures.Indeed often first time parrents need to learn.So now lets assess a couple housekeeping items.If you have a humidifier..get it going.It will help avoid hatchling dehydration.Pellets while ok for adult birds wont cut it for babies.Find a hand feeding formula.Kaytee, harrisons...depending on where you live this will vary.Your best bet is likely a vet clinic that sells the best food.Your bird parents need to still have pellets for their health but cut back on them.Soft fruit and vegetables that can be quickly regurgitated into the newly hatched young is what you need?We use cantaloupe, honeydew,watermellon.Veggie green, use kale...you can also cut up carrots...make a mash in the blender adding a little water.These soft foods will be eaten by the parents and then passed onto the babies.Very inportant as heathy bacteria is passed this way from mom or dads stomach to babies...starts up the immune system and helps them get strong.Warm..humid..soft foods...constant monitoring....tada success.Pm me if you run into more trouble and need help.