Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 5/12/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hello. My 2 parakeets have recently been breeding quite a lot. A few months ago my female parakeet laid some eggs and after a few weeks one of them out of about 4 hatched, but about 2 days later the baby died. They had laid about 2 more clutches of eggs since that time, and every
time atleast one egg hatches, but a few days later the babies always have died. We have been giving them fresh seeds, eggs, and broccoli in their food dish everyday, and we have kept the heat on so the room is not too
cold, but not too warm for the babies either. Right now there is another clutch of eggs she is currently sitting on (i know its not good for the female to lay too many clutches of eggs for health reasons, but they
have been mating non stop!!) and I was wondering if you had any idea why the babies are dying. Is there a certain food we should be giving them? I think the reason is that the babies are not getting food, but I am
not sure. Would it be good to put food inside the nesting box? I really want the babies to survive this time around so if you have any suggests that would be very nice! Thanks!
ANSWER: Hi, Kelly.

How old are your parent birds?  I don't think lack of food is the reason the babies are dying.  Baby birds survive the first 24-48 hours on the yolk sac they absorb just prior to hatching, even if the female isn't feeding.  If your birds are laying clutches of eggs where only 1 baby is hatching, then the baby dies a couple days later, then something is wrong with viability of the eggs to begin with.  It would help to know how many of these eggs are fertile/not fertile to begin with by candling them 7-10 days after incubation begins.  It's one thing if eggs aren't fertile to begin with and another thing if eggs are fertile, but don't hatch.  

If your adult birds are on an all-seed diet, they may not be healthy enough to produce viable eggs.  Seeds are high in fat, low in nutritional value.  Eggs are good and so is broccoli, but are they eating these foods at all or on a regular basis?  If you only offer these foods when they have eggs/babies, it's not enough.  Also, if they don't receive these foods on a regular basis, they may not eat these foods at all, since birds won't eat food they don't recognize as food.

Babies not hatching or dying soon after hatching could also be due to sickly or unhealthy babies...the babies could be dying in the shell at some point during development.  Have you opened up any unhatched eggs to see what's going on inside, i.e., if they are liquid or if a partially-developed baby is inside?  This is key for trying to determine what's going on.  A developing embryo can acquire bacterial or other contamination while inside the egg and, thus, the babies die before hatching.

There's  no reason to put food inside the nesting box because the female bird regurgitates food in order to feed the babies...babies don't eat seed, etc., until they are old enough to do so.  The male feeds the female while she cares for the eggs/babies.  

If you know for sure the female isn't feeding her offspring after the first 24 hours, then I would recommend you learn how to handfeed babies using a handfeeding syringe and handfeeding formula so you can step in if/when any babies aren't getting fed.

It could also be that your birds are overbreeding.  Take the nesting box down, limit the available light to your birds to 8-10 hours per day and give the adult birds a rest from breeding for about a year.  While they are at rest, put them on a healthier diet.  

You can also take the adult birds and unhatched eggs/dead babies to a certified avian veterinarian for examination to see if the vet can determine what's going on.  A bird vet can also give your female a hormone shot to prevent her from laying for a while.

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello..I have another question. So 2 of my parakeet's eggs hatched..when the first one hatched, we waited a couple of days to see if the mother would take care of it. As always, she didnt, and we could tell because it wasnt growing at all and its crop was empty all the time, so she wasnt feeding it. We decided to try and feed it ourselves (we started about 3 days after it had already hatched). We mixed up some hard boiled egg yolk and water, making it liquidy for the bird and used a dropper, and it ate it..We fed it like this in the morning, afternoon, evening, and before bed. Then another egg hatched, but by this time we bought some formula recommended for baby chicks. The first baby died just 2 days ago, 5 days after it had hatched. We still have the second one, and we are trying to now feed it every 2-3 hrs, with the formula we bought. Could it have been we werent feeding the first one often enough, and maybe not the right food in the beginning (until we bought the formula)? The temperature in the room has been about 65 degrees and the inside of the box was a bit dirty because i havent had a chance to clean it out for she has been in there constantly. We have raised the temperature in the room, cleaned out the box, and are feeding this new baby more often in hopes of it surviving. However, it is not getting any bigger. Do you know any possible reasons for this?
So...my 2 questions were do you know why the first baby might have died? and why isnt the newer one getting bigger?

One more thing..in the new baby, every 2 hrs when we try to feed it, its crop doesnt seem to be emptied, and it still looks half full. Is this a problem?

Sorry for such a long question! i highly appreciated your responses. Thanks!

Answer
Hi again, Kelly.

What you need to do is completely remove this baby from the parents and raise it yourself.  This means you need to take a 5 or 10-gallon fish aquarium or something else that would retain heat, put a heating pad underneath it, put Rubbermaid drawer liner in the bottom with a little bit of pine shavings over the drawer liner, and house the baby in this make-shift brooder.  The temperature inside this "brooder" must stay 98 degrees F at all times (until the baby has enough feathers to keep itself warm).  You'll need to handfeed this baby every 4 hours, except during the night.

The first baby may have died from malnutrition and exposure.  If the baby wasn't being kept warm enough and properly fed/nourished, there was no chance for survival.  Could also have had some type of illness if the female wasn't feeding it.  Momma bird knows if a baby is ill and they often won't feed their sick babies because they know they aren't going to survive.  Also, if your adult keets aren't old enough, they may not know what to do.

Handfeeding formula must be FED to a baby at 102-104 degrees F.  If the formula isn't hot enough, the baby's body can't metabolize the food.  This will result in crop slow down or crop stasis.  This is likely why food is still in the 2d babies crop when it's time to feed again.  If this condition persists today, you'll need to take this baby to a certified avian vet for a medical examination or the baby could die.  In the meantime, when the baby's food is still in the crop and if it's firm or hard, you should put some warm water (also at 102-104 deg F) in the crop and massage the crop very gently to loosen up the food in the crop.  You may have to do this several times over several hours.  This action may help the food to process.  If it doesn't, this condition should be considered serious.  Don't continue to feed the baby formula if the formula isn't being metabolized or you will just compound the problem.  Try making the handfeeding formula a bit thinner until the baby is able to process food better.  You can also try feeding something like Ensure Plus for people (vanilla) versus the handfeeding formula, just until you can get rid of the crop stasis problem.  Instead of plain water to massage the crop, use Pedialyte for human infants.  Pedialyte has electrolytes in it which might help the baby's survival (use plain water until you can get some Pedialyte).  

If the baby still doesn't grow, it may be sick.  Keet babies usually grow by leaps and bounds.  It could also be the type of handfeeding formula you are using.  I've always had best success with Kaytee Exact handfeeding formula.  Are you feeding enough at each feeding?  The crop should be filled at each feeding.  You know you've overfed if handfeeding formula starts to back up into the neck of the baby (you can see where the formula is through the skin of the crop).  If this baby is about 5 days old, you should be feeding about 5-10 cc's at each feeding (depending on how big the baby is).  

Chrys