White-backed Mousebirds are hatching...

[srtiels]

Kristy, Hopefully soon a wonderful lady from the mousebird list will soon start to post...YAY!

Actaully I looked at the Momma birds band and her name is Double Stuff, like the Oreo cookie. They have 2 babies now. The 2nd was due yesterday, but in looking in the nest it appears there is a piece of white membrane...which I'm suspecting with out low humidity iyt may have had a difficult time hatching out. So later today I am going to have to candle eggs, because the other BN egg should have hatched out and it hasn't yet, so I hop the little fella is not trapped inside.

 

[Kristy]

Double Stuff I it.

Look at that one on his back, looks like he is sunbathing or something. At least it looks like he is on his back (in the last photo).

Those parents must eat a lot of foods to feed that hungry family.

 

[srtiels]

The one on it's back was wiggling around YES!...the parents go thru alot of food themselves, and with babies lots more. By the time these babies are 7-10 days old they will be feathered and fill up the nest.

 

[Kristy]

Forgot to ask, do you band your babies (sorry if you covered that already in a thread somewhere).

If so what age?

 

[srtiels]

Yes...my bands just came in yesterday. In fact I have been gathering past pix's to do a collage of banding a mousebird and info on sizes etc. That's my project later today.

 

[Kristy]

Well we know what you'll be doing later today.

Gathering up babies and a note pad to put on bands and jot down all the info.

Hubby gonna help, or is this an one woman job?

 

[srtiels]

Ah...I got my Banding Illustration done. Right now my mouser babies are too little, but soon... A also ordered a variety of syringes and various style tips for when I handfeed.

 

[southernbirds]

Hi lucky Mousebird lady...tomorrow morning it is going to be even colder. They sound like very hearty birds. But then again....I guess huddling together gives them allot of warmth. Your posts are very informative and so interesting. Between you, Missi, and Carole you guys are a hoot!!

 

[srtiels]

Now that the blue-naped baby is bigger I am not as worried about the weather. If the baby does get out of the nest (fingers crossed it doesn't) I have bedding on the cage floor, and I've been told the parents will go down and cover it. Plus I am up several times during the night and Daddy bird will most assurdly let me know if there is a problem. He now knows when I will be doing the baby pix's and hangs on the side of the cage flapping his wings for the 'OK, the baby is ready'

And the WB babies are bunched up in the basket nest. I have tiel babies in the nest, but they are getting feathered so will be fine.

 

[Missi]

NEAT banding illustration!!! I've often wondered why some birds have more than one band!!!

 

[waterfaller1]

That is great!

 

[srtiels]

Yes...with my mousers the pink is for the females and the blue for the males. BUT, I also have light and dark of both colors, which helps me at a glance to tell different pairs offspring. I'm going to have to do some with stripes on both colors for some future pairings.

This time with the WB I am hoping that there is more males than females because I have extra females, and need to hold back a male to balance them out. Especially for the Hussy that is fixtated on an unavailable male.

 

[Missi]

Susanne, BN are larger than WB, correct?

 

[waterfaller1]

Susanne says no, that BN's are bigger. To me the WB's looked bigger in person, but maybe it was just the big crest.

 

[srtiels]

The BN average about 10-20 grams more in body weight. But the WB tend to keep the crest more erect and they have longer tails.

 

[Kristy]

The "hussy"....

I hope you get the males you need from the babies

 

[srtiels]

The "hussy"....
------------------------

She Is! In my quest to fing unrelated WB mousers I found an ad for a young female in WI. I bought it, and while she is in the quarentine cage she spotted a male in the colony cage and started calling to him...NON-STOP! he was a daddy with babies in the nest. She would even solicit trying to get him to look her way...bad girl.

Finially I put her in with 3 young males and they hated her. Unfortunitely 2 of the males bonded and she tried to break it up, and the one male wupped her butt. so I moved her into the colony. The females kept her away from their males.

Several months ago I moved all the mousers outside to get good sun exposure, in a group cage. The Hussy remembered the young male that beat her up, and she pounced him and there was a major mousebird fight (a pix in the first mousebird thread) fight! She still wanted the other male but his boyfriend was not going to allow it.

Sometimes watching them it is like a soap opera

 

[Kristy]

I put her in with 3 young males and they hated her. Unfortunitely 2 of the males bonded and she tried to break it up, and the one male wupped her butt.
She still wanted the other male but his boyfriend was not going to allow it.

I am cracking up!!!

She lacks some social skills I think. lol

She really is something else?

So is she "all that", super pretty as she seems to think she is?

 

[srtiels]

Ah...the Hussy is a pretty mouser, and she knows it. I keep hoping she would fix her sights on 'The Bratty Baby' which was one of the first mousebird babies from Robin and Double Stuff. I may soon be breaking up the colony and pairing up a few to bond and cage breed to see how they do. Once done, back to the colony. So I've been working on my cigar box nests.

He's called The Bratty Baby because when he fledged he would beg all the mousers for food, and if they didn't share he would use his little foot and snatch the food from them...Bad boy!

 

[Kristy]

Perfect match the "Bratty Baby" and the "Hussy".

Those babies I want no part of.

Probably in reality they might have the sweetest babies of all.

Do some parents really raise sweeter babies than others??