We have a pair of cockatiels with 3 week old babies. Their nesting box is in a safe spot on the floor under a bench. I’m wondering if it’s ok to move the whole nesting box with babies into their big cage so the whole family is in a better spot. I wouldn’t even touch the chicks. Would that cause the parents to ignore them? I don’t want to take any chances since they’re doing such a good job of raising the babies so far.
Hi,
Moving the nest box will almost always result in the parents abandoning the chicks. When you say the box is on the floor, do you mean it is not in a cage? Because this is going to be a problem when the chicks start leaving the box. I’m not sure what to suggest because you can’t let the chicks just be loose – they will harm themselves and it will be very hard to wean them. If you know how to hand feed, you can move them and if the parents abandon them, you will have to hand feed them. I really don’t know what your other options might be since I don’t know exactly what you mean about where the box is. But when chicks leave the box, they tend to just jump out and they can be clumsy, so you can image it’s not a good set up if they will not be confined.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
