Obi-Wan Pinobi
<font color=red>Jedi moderator who likes to live o
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2001
- Messages
- 9,424
Sometime late last night while we were engrossed in "24", Beaker and Kringle, our baby cockatiels somehow got out of the nesting box. Beaker will be 4 weeks old on Weds, and Kringle will be 4 weeks old on Saturday. Pee Wee, 4 weeks old next week, stayed behind in the nest, I guess because he is significantly smaller.
Mommy and Daddy bird have been fine with us handling the babies so DW MeanLaureen tried to return Beaker and Kringle to the nest. Mommy bird absolutely did NOT want those babies back in the nesting box, though and attacked Lauri when she tried to put Beaker back.
We were worried about the comfort of the babies since the cage has a grilled floor. We lined the bottom of the cage with cardboard and then newspaper and cut up a tshirt and made them a little "nest" and sat them in it. They promptly went to sleep.
We watched them until about 2am last night because we were worried that Mommy has decided to abandon them in favor of PeeWee. She wouldn't let daddy in the nesting box either though and that poor guy tried endlessly, every 5 minutes poking his head in the hole only to have her lay a smack down on him. LOL. Finally around 2am we did see him feed Kringle and Beaker so I'm hoping everything is okay.
So, for those of you that have raised a clutch of cockatiels, is this normal? Do mommy birds decide at one point that the babies need to be on their own and kick them out? If so, at what age? just shy of 4 weeks sounds so young.
Mommy and Daddy bird have been fine with us handling the babies so DW MeanLaureen tried to return Beaker and Kringle to the nest. Mommy bird absolutely did NOT want those babies back in the nesting box, though and attacked Lauri when she tried to put Beaker back.
We were worried about the comfort of the babies since the cage has a grilled floor. We lined the bottom of the cage with cardboard and then newspaper and cut up a tshirt and made them a little "nest" and sat them in it. They promptly went to sleep.
We watched them until about 2am last night because we were worried that Mommy has decided to abandon them in favor of PeeWee. She wouldn't let daddy in the nesting box either though and that poor guy tried endlessly, every 5 minutes poking his head in the hole only to have her lay a smack down on him. LOL. Finally around 2am we did see him feed Kringle and Beaker so I'm hoping everything is okay.
So, for those of you that have raised a clutch of cockatiels, is this normal? Do mommy birds decide at one point that the babies need to be on their own and kick them out? If so, at what age? just shy of 4 weeks sounds so young.
