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| susan |
we established a large outdoor aviary last year with 3 couples of
young budgies and were pleased when our first batch of 3 eggs hatched
and are now flying about happily. A 2nd batch of 3 was hatched by
another female in another nest box a few days ago. On checking them
this morning the first female was found with blood on her breast
having killed all 3 chicks!!
how can this be explained? is it a case of the female killing in
order to guard her own genetic line ? did she want the nest to lay
another of her own batch? ...although there was a nest box free.
is this a common occurence?
will she do it again?
did we do anything wrong?
susan
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| Myrrrh |
Susan,
It is not the best idea to breed in an open aviary. Females are aggressive
to each other and other broods. This ranges from throwing out each others
eggs, attacking each other(our experience) to killing chicks. Build
seperate breeding cages. Ours are Made of wire and wood, 3'3" long, 16"
wide and 16"high. Ours is built as one unit.
The back is one piece of perforated board for ventilation, the three side
are wire mesh not ckicken wire . We used 16 gauge. A door with mesh panel
in the middle, and a tray that comes out for easy cleanning. Some
breeders suggest a four foot breeding cage, with a bigger nesting box than
what is available commerically. This helps in not having the parents feel
crowded and attacking their babies once the chicks are spending time
outside the breeder box. Watch also for males killing their babies. Our
experience was 3 times too late b efore we realized he was killing the
oldest ckick. The first time, a chick head-down in the water dish, second
head-down in the feeding dish, third, a badly mauled and bleeding baby who
died that day. We sold him as a pet. Hope this helps
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