HELP!! My males killed 2 of my chicks!!

cocoschick · Post by **cocoschick** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:21 am

Hello, we had a clutch of three eggs due to hatch, we looked in the aivary yesterday morning to find egg shells on the floor below the box, on looking in the box they're was only 1 half eaten chick & 1 whole unhatched egg, i'm presuming the other chick was fully consumed! our female was still sitting on the unhatched egg, i placed my male inside his old cage inside the aivary so he can still feed my female through his cage. this morning the last egg has hatched & the female is sitting on her live chick, has anyone heard of this before? & can the female raise her last chick this way? this is our 1st attempt breeding our male was a tame house bird & our female (turquoise blue) an aivary bird we bought our male (lutino) when he was 2 yrs old.

Recio · Post by **Recio** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:53 am

Hi cocoschick;

I think the best you can do is to take your male out the aviary till the time the chick will be weaned. The mother is able to feed the chick without any problem. Just verify the temperature and how long the mother is out the nestbox, since the chick is alone, without feathers and the mother needs to go out for feeding.
Some times we do not see dead chicks because they are under the nest material. Did you verify if it was the case?

Good luck

cocoschick · Post by **cocoschick** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:12 am

Thanks Recio,
when we removed the dead chick we had a good look around for the other & found nothing. I have my male caged inside the aviary he can't get near the nesting box at all, he is however still feeding my female through the cage. My female seems to be doing a great job i had a look at the chick & it's crop has food in it! I also have a brooder warm on hand just incase although I hope it doesn't come to that for at least a couple of weeks.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!