Egg Swap thoughts...

[huntress]

I have my Lovie on three fertile eggs out of four. She peeled her second clutch too early in her excitement (which is not uncommon for newer moms) OK, I have a roesey Bourkes on clear eggs and shes not wanting to give them up. Both clutches were laid about the same time. DO I swap the eggs and put the fertile ones under the Bourkes hen to insure they dont get peeled to early OR do I give the lovies a second chance therefor hopefully increasing their expirience??? The first babies were wonderful (4)

OOR OR ORor......Do I give the Bourkes TWO of the fertile eggs and let the Lovie keep one.

[birdsnreps]

hmmmm i really think your lovies need to learn to be good parents. it will save you alot of grief in the future, and it will prob save you alot of time if they learn to feed them as opposed to you feeding every half hour around the clock after they hatch. that being said, you could let them learn with just one of the eggs, your last option :) that one sounds pretty good to me :)

[huntress]

Thats what I was thinking. They did awsome with their first clutch. It was the second she got weird on me. They fed good. She was an awsome mommy.

[birdsnreps]

yea...new parents are like that. i had one pair of tiels who killed their first few babies, i think they got scared of them when they actually hatched, cause they sat tight on the eggs the entire time. after that, they fed the following clutch like old pros....then the clutch after that, they didnt feed at all :( now, they are on their newest clutch, and sitting tight, so far one egg is fertile i switched out her mate less than 2 weeks ago, and they already have this new clutch!! this new male has never fed babies before, but the hen has, so im hoping they are good parents this time....

[huntress]

Well I did it and so far no one seems to care. I wonder if the Bourkes hen wonders why the eggs got bigger? LOL. I gave her the twoto hatch the soonest. Her male is too young and inexpirienced apparently for successful mating but he tends to her and feeds her and sometimes sits with her in the nest so maybe this will stimulate him for the next clutch. I took two of her little eggs and put them in with the lovie. Everybody is sitting tight now so lets hope for the best. Either way next weekend i will warm up the brooder just in case and get the formula out of the freezer and make sure everything is working. I dont want to have to feed new hatches but if I do - I do.

[birdsnreps]

LOL, ive had the cockatiels feed meyers babies for me, i stuck the much larger meyers eggs in with the tiels and they had no problems sitting and feeding those meyers for us :) meyers babies also act much different than tiels, i think they were a little confused, but they still fed them anyway :) ive even had the tiels feed a mixed clutch for me before, they sat on a few meyers eggs and a few of their own with no probs