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Question:

December 27, 2021

Death of 1.5month old budgie


Hey recently a new baby budgie was born at our home .. he was very friendly with us as we interacted with him at a very young period.
His parents used to give food not always but still use to give food .. unlike our normal baby budgies this 1.5minth old baby which died never used to drink water , we havent seen him drinking water.. his father also used to attck this poor little baby because another egg hatched , few hours before his death that is ay midnight we took him and kept with us at the living room as usual with us , he always runs to any thing to lean his body and sleep at 3am i kept him in his pot with his mother , he slept for a while and was sitting on the pot outside i took him and kept him inside the pot again while i took him i saw him shievering dont know whether he was afraid because i took him ..and while putting him back his wing got stucked outside the pot like his body was inside the pot so i also out back hid wings inside the pot.. he was back with his mother… at morning next day at 9:30 when i woke up and went to see birds he was lying down inside the pot his mother didnt realised that he died his eyes was close.. his death happend between 4-9:30am .. also i noticed his one wing was down and one was high
Whats the possible reason for his death
I really want to know the reasonn


Answer:

Hi,

Unfortunately there is no way to know why it died without a Vet running tests. But you mentioned the pair already started another clutch? This should never be allowed for several reasons. The nest box needs to be removed as soon as the chicks leave it. The parents will still be feeding the chicks, but the nest box is no longer needed once the chicks have feathers and can leave it on their own. You want the parents to teach the chicks to eat and to keep feeding the chicks until the chicks are weaned. If you do not remove the box, the parents will start another clutch. This means they stop feeding the older chicks, and often those chicks starve to death. So it is possible this one simply starved to death. Not only do the parents need to wean their chicks, but the hen should not be laying eggs again so soon. It is very hard on her health, and if you don’t make her rest from laying eggs, she will end up dying. If you have been allowing them to have clutch after clutch, then each clutch of chicks will be less healthy, and this could be why the chick died. In the wild, they only breed one time a year. So it is important in captivity that you limit your pair to two clutches per year, with a 6 month rest in between. This is why you take away the nest box. So as soon as these new chicks leave the box, take the box away and do not give it back to the pair for at least 6 months. This will make the parents wean the chicks, and give the hen time to rest.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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