Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject: Babies left die
I pulled a baby out of a friends nesting box to hand rare. When I went to get it out there were ants everywhere and one dead baby in the box. I cleaned as many ants away as possible and took the dead one out. After taking the baby the two remaining died. Can anyone tell me was it my fault they died, because I played with the nest? My friends seem to think this is why it happened. I did offer to hand rare all of them because of the ants, but they said it would be ok. I now have a breeding pair of red Kakariki's and do not want to make the same mistake. I did not know whether one type is more protective then the other, when it comes to playing with their babies.
The birds that died were yellow crown Kaki's, I don't know if that makes a difference.
Cheers!
Wendo
Hi Wendo i would say at a guess the other babies were probably eatin alive by the ants. The parents probably lost interest in the babies when the ants arrived. I have seen this happen before and i have removed the babies to handraise and remove the nest box as well and left it out until the ants left. Cheers Kevin
Can anyone tell me was it my fault they died, because I played with the nest?
And adding to Cats post....
And refered to many times in the forums here by serveral very experianced breeders....
We have removed chicks for sever days, then returned and the parants carry on
Moved nesting boxes to to new avaairies with out problems
look at my avatar to the left ny mt name....
We add eggs from different species and they are raised...
The issue of abandonment is not interferance but one of the parents feeling insecure...
ie 1st time parents can occasional abandon if a nesting box is continually opened suddenly each day and chicks/eggs played with over many days.
Especially if the parents have not got used to ppl around...this is normally shown that when entering the flight they go high into a far cnr and stay there.
My blunt opinion of your actions...you DID RIGHT even if the parents are flighty
My blunt opinion of their reaction to your actions....they dont know what they are talking about....their words are coming out the wrong hole.
You where in a loose loose situation where even if you did hand feed the chances are there was already enough damage to the remaining chicks they where going to die anyway.
Ppl who ask for help in a aready 'dicky' situation then blame the person who helps really get up my nose.
Call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel...and we know what a shovel is used to move. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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