Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 1/6/2008

Question
Hi!
I am very new to the entire concept of parakeet pregnancy and hatching baby keets. I have a set of parakeets (1 male age 6 and 1 female age 3). About three nights ago I found some small eggs on the bottom of the cage. I have never had a bird to lay eggs so I am not very competent in this area or birds. I have several questions I hope u can help me with.

First of all, DO I HAVE TO BUY/MAKE A NESTING BOX??? She has already been sitting on the eggs on the bottom of the cage and it seems as if she is fine with it.

Secondly, IS IT NORMAL FOR HER TO LAY ON THE EGGS ONLY FOR VERY SHORT PERIODS OF TIME? I've noticed that she doesn't lay on the eggs constantly like I would assume. She doesn't lay on them very much at all yet. Keep in mind she has only had the eggs for 3 days.

Thirdly, I didn't touch the eggs with my hands but I moved them onto some crumbled newspaper in the corner of her cage using a folded piece of paper so they would all be in one spot for her to lay. IS THAT OKAY TO DO? I didn't touch them at all with my hands.

WHAT EXTRA MATERIALS DO I NEED TO BUY FOR THE NEWLY HATCHED BABY KEETS AND THE MOTHER??? I want to make sure they are cared for well and grow healthily.

When the babies are born, I've heard that it is best to start hand taming them at a very young age like that. HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT B4 I BEGIN PICKING UP THE NEW KEETS AND ATTEMPTING TO TRAIN THEM???

Any other information you can give towards my current situation would help me greatly. I appreciate any help you can extend. Thank you so much for your time. I hope to hear from you very soon!

Answer
Hi, April,

I found your question(s) in the question pool this morning.  Evidently, the person you sent your question(s) to originally could not answer for some reason.

It's too late to install a nesting box if the bird has already laid the eggs on the cage bottom.  Yes, a nesting box should have been installed PRIOR to the bird laying eggs.  She is not fine with this setup if she is not incubating them 24/7.  She's putting up with a less-than-ideal situation.

How many eggs have been laid?  Birds normally don't start incubating until the second egg has been laid.  Then the female will incubate them constantly except when she needs to defecate, eat or drink.  However, daddy keet is supposed to feed the female beak-to-beak while she incubates the eggs.

It's OK that you moved the eggs without touching them, however, the parent birds may not like what you have done.  

The parents will care for any babies.  You should provide a cuttlebone in order to provide supplemental calcium.  Hopefully, you are feeding your adults a healthy, nutritious diet of a variety of good foods so they can feed their offspring well (and so they are healthy enough to provide for themselves, as well as their offspring).  You can buy egg biscuits, etc., to help, but if they are being fed properly (seed is not a proper diet), you shouldn't have to provide any additional foods.

In order for baby birds to imprint on humans and become tame and handleable, they need to be handfed by their human.  Find out more about this on my website:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.  www.birdchannel.com is also a good website.  However, you will have to handle the babies in order to clean the area around them of their feces, etc.  The problem you are going to run into is that these eggs/babies are on the cage bottom and not in a nesting box.  Lots of problems will crop up as a result.  Mom keet may not be able to keep them warm enough, babies may fall through the cage wire on the bottom, the eggs may not be incubated properly, etc.  If/when hatchlings arrive, wait a couple of days to allow them to grow a bit, then you can handle them VERY CAREFULLY for short periods of time.

Chrys