Hi,
I know you are trying to do what is best for the birds, and that is very good. I’m actually surprised these birds are still alive with such extreme heat, much less breeding! Outside birds should not be provided with a nest box once the temperatures are above about 30 degrees Celcius. The nest box gets even hotter inside, and once there are chicks, the body heat raises the temperature to dangerous or deadly levels. If it gets too hot, the chicks and parents will die. I’m not sure what to suggest because if you move them now, the parents will abandon the chicks and remaining eggs. Hopefully they can survive, but I’ve known parents and chicks to die from less heat than yours are in right now.
As for diet, I’ll be honest, but this was something that should have been addressed long before eggs were even laid. The parents should be eating a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets – a seed diet does not provide adequate nutrition. They should also be eating leafy greens, chopped veggies and some fruit. For breeding they should get a daily egg food. Since these birds are outside, I would recommend a dry commercial egg food as fresh cooked egg is going to spoil very quickly. The parents will feed these foods to the chicks, and will need more food added throughout the day.
For working with the chick, I think this is going to have to wait until it is weaned and you can move it inside. If you try to interact with it outside, it may overheat or the parents may get stressed and overheat. Birds will die from heat much quicker than from cold. They have very little natural means to cool down – they are designed to be able to stay warm if needed.
I hope this all works out, but for the future, these temperatures are not suited for these birds and they definitely should not be breeding in that type of heat.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
