BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds More about my baby budgies day 2 of hand raising.

What a terrible day :( All of my babies died!!! Last night Baby C was starting to look unwell, and since Baby B had started losing weight (before it died) I have been weighing all of the babies before and after each feed to keep track of how much they were eating and if they were gaining weight. Well Baby C slowly started losing weight so this morning I called the only avian vet in town and booked them in to see him. Baby C had to be put to sleep. And the vet gave Babies A and D 2 lots of antibiotics to bring home, at this stage Baby A and D were doing so well, gaining weight and looking healthy and chirping and moving around the tub. When it was their feeding time I followed the Vet's instructions and administered the required 0.01ml of each antibiotic with a little water after each lot to wash it down and then fed them. Almost instantly their little crops plumped up with air/gas, I massaged it out gently and watched in horror as it filled up again whilst I was holding the bird. i called the Vet straight away and told him what was happening, he scoffed at me and declared that he has never seen or heard of a bird having an allergic reaction to antibiotics. (BS) Within 2 hours they were both dead. I am very heart broken, I had grown quite attached to my little babies. I regret 'wasting' $100.00 to take my babies to the Vet and I most certainly regret giving them the antibiotics. Mavis - Sorry I haven't replied to you earlier I have been so busy. I did get your email thank you it was very helpful. I couldn't figure out at the time how to reply so I left it in my 'to do later' list. (sorry) Birdie - Hi thanks for that,I have noticed my budgies don't abide by the rules lol. I have been making some bird toys for my budgies :) Spotty, Angel, Ghost, and Ari. Thank you every one for your help and advice. Now that I have found this great forum I won't be too far away, I'm going to try to take some pictures of my birds to post.

I am so sorry about your babies. Don't forget the page I made for you is yours and I can upload more photos at any time.

Diana

Sorry to hear that baby B did not make it. You've done an amazing job at handfeeding to have 3 survive.

It would be nice if we could predict for sure what the mom would do if bred again - but we can't. It is quite possible that she would do exactly the same thing - but it is equally possible that she would successfully raise a clutch the second try. I had cockatiels that took 3 clutches before they got the idea and raised their chicks. They didn't throw the babies out of the nest though - just pushed them aside in the box once they were hatched.

Budgies have no problem in changing mates. I used to keep a flock of budgies in a large flight and would take out pairs to breed (usually 3 pairs at a time) in a smaller flight. I would watch them to see who was pairing up with who before removing the 3 pairs. It was not uncommon for the birds to change mates even after they were set up.

Oh no - I didn't scroll down far enough to see your last post! I am so sorry to read about the loss of all the babies

Many years ago it was said to not feed newborns for 12 hours but many died. The parents feed them in a short time so I do also. One pair of quaker parrots here don't feed so I take them when they are dried then feed every 1 1/2 to 2 hours around the clock for at least a week. Usually I would pull at 10 days old and feed 5 times a day and not at night. I don't leave with parents when handfeeding knowing they can get upset system if both feed. I put them in a handy dandy brooder also known as a plastic drawer with heater pad and other supplies. I've not handfed keets with most parents doing great with them. They can be taken at 5 to 6 weeks old and be tamed within 10 minutes to stepping up. By now your guys/gals will be well on the way to being weaned Wishing you lots of happy thoughts. LindaC

((( hugs )))

5-6 weeks of age for a baby budgie is too young to be given to strangers (especially if a young child is involved), IMHO. They aren't fully weaned until between 6-8 weeks. I hope you are not still doing that?

I'm new here and haven't had to burp baby budgies; however, on another forum on which I post and there are many, many British breeders they speak often of having to use a crop needles (sterilized, of course) to gently puncture the crop to let the air out. They then add some type of balm to cover the puncture. The Brits are real fanatics about their budgies and put an extremely amount of time into their care, as most are breeders on that particular forum. Don't know if this post will be read, but if so, maybe you could Google "air in the crop." Don't think I'm allowed to give you the link to this forum. Most sites look down on that behavior. BTW, I have 6 budgies and have cared for birds all of my life, wild and tame. New to the forum and looking forward to learning from you all.