Babies Arriving!

[JuSkabirbma]

Hi Everyone!

It's so exciting! My very first gcc egg hatched early this morning! I have two breeders nearby that have been answering all my questions and giving me lots of tips and into, but I was just wondering if any breeders out there wanted to give me a little rundown of what they do. The more information the better! I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything and am doing the absolute best I can for these precious babies! Thank you all so much in advance!

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Are you planning on having mom and dad raise them? If you are going to pull how old will they be when you do that?
Make sure that you have hand feeding supplies and a brooder available in case mom and dad are not good parents. Sometimes first time parents don't do well with the babies. It's great that you have breeders nearby who can help you.

 

[JuSkabirbma]

I am going to pull them when the youngest is about 2 weeks. I have hand feeding supplies and brooder supplies ready but I haven't put the brooder together yet. What are your thoughts on keeping the best box clean? Some people say to just add bedding every so often and some say to take the babies out and clean them and put them back.

 

[melissasparrots]

If its a smallish clutch and you are pulling at 2 weeks, just leaving it a mess is a safer bet. Better a dirty nest than parents abandoning baby. Also, the kind of mess they make after 2 weeks in captivity is nothing like the kind of mess they would make in the wild after 5-6 weeks in the same hole. I would recommend setting up your brooder though as you never know when you'll need to jump in and help.

 

[JuSkabirbma]

If its a smallish clutch and you are pulling at 2 weeks, just leaving it a mess is a safer bet. Better a dirty nest than parents abandoning baby. Also, the kind of mess they make after 2 weeks in captivity is nothing like the kind of mess they would make in the wild after 5-6 weeks in the same hole. I would recommend setting up your brooder though as you never know when you'll need to jump in and help.

There are 4 more eggs, but I don't know how many of those are fertile. They must have eaten one of the eggs because there were 6 at one point.

 

[iamwhoiam]

How old are the eggs and did you candle them? I agree with @melissasparrots regarding the nest box.
What are you planning on lining the brooder with and what are you going to hand feed them?

 

[JuSkabirbma]

How old are the eggs and did you candle them? I agree with @melissasparrots regarding the nest box.
What are you planning on lining the brooder with and what are you going to hand feed them?

I only managed to candle the first 2 which are both hatched as of this evening. Mommy Juno is taking very good care of them. The breeders I have been consulting with told me to use puppy pads and a shelf liner for the brooder. I don't feel that confident about the puppy pads though. Wouldn't the gel absorbent stuff in them be bad for birds? I was plannig on using the Tropican formula but turns out the only one I can get here in a size that wasn't crazy unreasonable was the Kaytee one, so that's what I got.

 

[Temi's Tavern]

Congrats on the babies. I dont think puppy pads would be too great either, I have seen many breeders use paper towels, have you considered those?

 

[melissasparrots]

I use paper towels over pine shavings and change the paper towels a couple times a day. I change the pine shavings every few days. Babies can swallow pine shavings although its not common. One of those things that if you breed birds long enough you'll run into it and it can be deadly. But, coming into close contact with the heating pad can be deadly too and more likely to be. So, I compromise with paper towels over pine shavings. A few shavings get kicked around, but for the most part the towels keep the babies away from them until they are older.

 

[iamwhoiam]

I used layers of paper towels in the brooder. Easy to clean. I placed the heating pad under 1/2 of the brooder so that if the babies got too warm they could move to a cooler section. I pulled my babies at about 3-6 weeks of age but those were red-bellied parrots. I did try doing partial hand feeding with one clutch where I would feed one meal and let the parents feed the babies the other meals. I started doing that when the babies were 3 weeks old. It worked well for a while and then got too confusing so I finally pulled those babies at 6 wks. of age.

 

[JuSkabirbma]

Congrats on the babies. I dont think puppy pads would be too great either, I have seen many breeders use paper towels, have you considered those?

Thanks! I was thinking maybe cardboard bedding and paper towels.