No, this thread isn't about my greenwing macaws, but my female, Zelda, is back in the nest box and looks like she's going to lay at any time.
This past summer a retiring breeder offered me a collection of birds. I didn't have room for 14 big birds, but I did take some of them and helped find homes for others. One of the pairs I acquired was a bonded pair of red-fronted macaws. They had never been given a nest box because she was winding down her career and focusing on other things. We paid her a very small amount for them and set them up with a nice cage and a nest box. Both of them are beautiful. Very sweet, but mischievous. In December they started mating and were going at it like newlyweds. Five times a day, before sunrise until after sunset. This went on for a good 10 days and then she went into the box. My other pair had bred, but they were just on the edge of maturity and the eggs weren't fertile. They also bred outside of the regular season, but this is Arizona, not Bolivia. Anyway, in early January I got curious and took a peek into the nest where I discovered 2 eggs. With it being their very first breeding I was happy to see eggs, but not putting a lot of faith in them being fertile. I made some notes and looked at my calendar where I decided that *IF* they were fertile we should see hatching around February 5th. I overestimated because I didn't know exactly when she laid them so I gave her 30 days instead of 26 - 28. Yesterday I noticed the male had food crusted on his beak, so out of curiosity I took a peek in the nest - and I found two little baby macaws and one more egg. What a surprise. Not only did we manage to get 3 eggs, but we also had fertile eggs as well. This afternoon I was putting a pair of macaws into a carrier to get their nails trimmed and with all the fuss they made, everyone got fired up. Both of the red fronts came out of the box so I used that opportunity to get a picture of the inside while they were both out. The 3rd egg hatched sometime earlier today. Now I have three little red-fronted macaws in the box. I'm being realistic about it - the littlest one may not survive, but mom and dad are working really hard keeping them fed. The largest one looks to be a good week older than the smallest and I'm considering pulling it early so that the parents have one less mouth to feed. I'm trying to balance that with not disturbing them and having them abandon the others.
I didn't have this issue with Freya because she was an only child. I would hate to disrupt these two and have them abandon or hurt the other two chicks. I was planning on pulling them on the 14th because that would put the oldest at between 2 and 3 weeks of age.
Suggestions?
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