Please advise with baby love birds & parents

[sheryberry]

Hello fellow bird lovers,
I have a question.. my paired lovebirds hatched 3 out of 7 eggs. 2 birds born a day apart a month ago, & the last chick looks to be about a week old.
After hearing a few days of squawing by the babies I noticed the parents plucking the 2 older babies feathers out and appears as though eating the feathers?. I removed the 2 with success to hand feed & the parents couldn't have cared less. Perfect. They were 4 weeks old. I Put them in a brooder around the corner.
Problem.. a day later I noticed the newest bald baby bird is shivering in the nest all alone , Lilly, the mother, doesn't bother too much with it & now wants out all the time like Marshall. Marshall, being the dad went in the nest to feed a couple times but was pretty much left on its own. Then I saw the parents breeding again, so will be another clutch of eggs. After that I figured I should remove the last littlest baby & put it with its siblings. Feedings are going well, but the parents are so mad! They are chirping excessively looking for their babies! What do I do? Put them back with parents? Just put back baby? Just keep hiding the birds & reintegrate them later? Ahh this is my 1st time with baby birds. All babies seem healthy and warm but what do I do about the angry searching parents & secret baby feedings going on in my bedroom!? Do I give the parents access to the babies?
Please help
Thankyou

 

[Shezbug]

@Zara

 

[Zara]

Hello,

What you have there is back to back clutches. They laid their clutch of eggs, brooded them, and then 3 weeks later started a new clutch. Seems like the parents did ok with the first two, not realising, but with the arrival of the new chick, they have given the elders the boot.
You did the right thing removing the elder chicks.

As for the little guy, I would just continue to hand raise yourself. It's not ideal, but the chick was in the nest and they weren't taking care of him.
This is the chicks best chance for survival.

 

[sheryberry]

Hello,

What you have there is back to back clutches. They laid their clutch of eggs, brooded them, and then 3 weeks later started a new clutch. Seems like the parents did ok with the first two, not realising, but with the arrival of the new chick, they have given the elders the boot.
You did the right thing removing the elder chicks.

As for the little guy, I would just continue to hand raise yourself. It's not ideal, but the chick was in the nest and they weren't taking care of him.
This is the chicks best chance for survival.

Thankyou so much for your reply! That explains why the 3rd chick is so far behind the other 2! I put the 3 chicks together but it now looks like the oldest 2 don't care about him, push & peck him away, so do I need to raise the baby away from siblings?

 

[sheryberry]

Thankyou so much for your reply! That explains why the 3rd chick is so far behind the other 2! I put the 3 chicks together but it now looks like the oldest 2 don't care about him, push & peck him away, so do I need to raise the baby away from siblings?

And also, when do I separate the 2 siblings in a cage from each other? I have a hunch 1 is male & 1 is female... just based on behavior ( 1 fussed with nesting material & the other doesn't)

 

[sheryberry]

Hello,

What you have there is back to back clutches. They laid their clutch of eggs, brooded them, and then 3 weeks later started a new clutch. Seems like the parents did ok with the first two, not realising, but with the arrival of the new chick, they have given the elders the boot.
You did the right thing removing the elder chicks.

As for the little guy, I would just continue to hand raise yourself. It's not ideal, but the chick was in the nest and they weren't taking care of him.
This is the chicks best chance for survival.

To prevent more clutches what do you suggest? Move male out of cage? For how long? Am I able to keep this family of lovebirds in separate cages but together in the same house? Or will they still be lonesome? My son & daughter each want their very own lovebird to bond with & train, & I've got the runt along with the parents. How can I make this work?
Thankyou kindly,

 

[Zara]

Thankyou so much for your reply! That explains why the 3rd chick is so far behind the other 2! I put the 3 chicks together but it now looks like the oldest 2 don't care about him, push & peck him away, so do I need to raise the baby away from siblings?

If they are hurting him, then yes.
You can ball up a clean small sock (a childs sock if you can or a trainer sock), tie it tight to make a "buddy" for him to snuggle up to.

And also, when do I separate the 2 siblings in a cage from each other? I have a hunch 1 is male & 1 is female... just based on behavior ( 1 fussed with nesting material & the other doesn't)

Are you keeping these birds? or finding new homes for them?
I had a similar situation, I actually wanted one chick to bond with my first (unrelated) male as they grew, but they actually ended up bonding together. Since the bond was made, I left them bonded and housed together. I am pretty confident that these birds will live with me until they die, unless I die first which I have no intention of doing! So with that in mind I felt ok leaving them as a couple and I remove all eggs. I'm very thorough with it as it is my responsibility. Many won't agree with that, and I understand - They would just separate the birds to be sure.
Lovebirds can live up to around 20 years old.
Ultimately if you are going to keep all of these birds in your home, you will end up letting them fly together, and it only take a couple of minutes to mate while you're not looking. So being housed separate or together doesn't mean much unless you don't intent on letting them out of the cage together ever.
Just food for thought.
If you do keep them all, buy plenty of dummy eggs, they will make your life with them so much easier!

To prevent more clutches what do you suggest? Move male out of cage? For how long?

No, just swap any eggs laid for dummy eggs. You can boil the eggs, allow to cool then put them back, but that involves getting in there twice, plus leaving the hen without her egg for a little while.
You can do things to lessen laying; rearranging the cage frequently, moving the food and water around, moving the cage, even just rotating it can help, Don't switch birds between actual cages, just move their stuff around inside their cage. Be sure that you have a nice LED lamp to brighten any grey days.

Am I able to keep this family of lovebirds in separate cages but together in the same house? Or will they still be lonesome? My son & daughter each want their very own lovebird to bond with & train, & I've got the runt along with the parents. How can I make this work?

I brushed on this above.
The best way to avoid accidental inbreeding, is to remove all eggs. It nips the problem in the bud. You could separate the birds, but you would have to really coordinate well, and set up some sort of rota for who gets out of cage time.
As for general housing, lovebirds should be housed one bird per cage, or one bonded pair per cage.
So mum and dad together, and the siblings separately in a cage of their own, unless you allow two of those siblings to bond and live together. So you will end up with 3 or 4 cages depending on the choice you make. If you haven't bought any additional cages, I recommend stacked cages, such a space saver! Wish I'd discovered them sooner. I have 7 birds in 4 cages - 3 pairs and a single little guy.

I've got the runt

He's not a runt, he's just younger. If they had been the same clutch, yes he would be the runt but also would unlikely survive. But he's just from a separate clutch. A baby

 

[Zara]

To prevent more clutches what do you suggest? Move male out of cage?

No, just swap any eggs laid for dummy eggs.

I just want to elaborate a little more...
The hen will lay eggs regardless of if she mated with her partner or not. So it's not like leaving them together means she will lay eggs and separating will stop the eggs, no, either way her little body has to make and lay those eggs. It is a huge strain on her, and she will be better laying if she is not stressed out because her partner has been taken away. Pellets will help keep her physically well, and her partner will keep her mentally well
And the light for grey days, and rearranging the cages will help reduce the eggs coming in the first place.

 

[sheryberry]

I just want to elaborate a little more...
The hen will lay eggs regardless of if she mated with her partner or not. So it's not like leaving them together means she will lay eggs and separating will stop the eggs, no, either way her little body has to make and lay those eggs. It is a huge strain on her, and she will be better laying if she is not stressed out because her partner has been taken away. Pellets will help keep her physically well, and her partner will keep her mentally well
And the light for grey days, and rearranging the cages will help reduce the eggs coming in the first place.

My goodness! What a wealth of information you've been! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and answer all of my questions and concerns, I really appreciate that
I do intend to keep them all at this time, see how it goes, & hopefully it goes well. I'll go buy some dummy eggs thank you! I will try all you've suggested, & maybe purchase one more cage...stackables...hmmmm...excellent idea... you've been most helpful. Thank you again