Babies from the past (pic heavy)

[Abby]

I was asked in another thread about babes that I've bred. Been on a bit of a hiatus for the past 6 months (part from my YS Babes) with aviary renovations etc going on but should have the 'tiels set up again very soon. Getting nagged for babes so gotta get off my bottom.

Anyways...some pics from past babies I've bred.
GCC babes (my Rebel girl is amongst these 3)


With my youngest son


3 brats all in a row


Teeny blue quakers


Had to bring the folks and babes inside one day, they just continued business as normal.


Getting bigger and cheekier


'tiel babe


last lot of 'tiel babes


great crests on these babes


One of my fav pics of the YS GCC's babes. One was a pineapple, the other a YS


Pretty babes all in a row.


That's a few anyway. Seem to have misplaces a stack of 'tiel photos in the world of photobucket so a bit grumpy with that.

[magdalena]

Awww I love the quackers!

[amanda143]

Awww bunch of sweeties! Do you hand feed them too?

[Valo's Moirana]

cuteness-overload....

[Abby]

Originally Posted by amanda143

Awww bunch of sweeties! Do you hand feed them too?

These guys were all hand raised. I prefer to wait until around the 3 week mark (less work for me and I feel that they get some great nutrition, paternal antibodies etc from the parents during that time) but have raised from 3 days old when there were issues with parents attacking each others babies. Seems my 'tiels are incapable of communal breeding.

As you can see my kids also get involved and really help with human socialising of the babes. They play, cuddle and teach them to "step up".

My oldest son has a pair of rainbow lorikeets so we're hoping that maybe we'll get some lorikeet babes this year. Suns will also be old enough to start breeding this year.

[amanda143]

I know what you mean about less work. I've about decided I don't want to hand feed anymore, although I love the interaction the schedules stink. I have been reading up more on "co-parenting" although I know some birds won't tolerate an intruder. Have you ever experimented with this?

[Abby]

Just at the early stages of co parenting. I was meant to do it with the YS babes. Took 3 for handraising and left 2 with the parents which I intended to co parent. Wanted to compare and contrast the end results within the same nest.

What I discovered was that if I'm going to co parent I need to put in alot more time with the parent raised babes then I did. My fault there. Size wise all the same but a few minutes every couple of days isn't sufficient for a similar result to handraised.

I'll repeat the exercise with the next lot of 'tiel babes and make sure that I do spend more time including bring the parent raised babes inside for play time.

I don't think co parenting for pet quality will work with all species or even some birds. There needs to be a real relationship between human and parents that evolves around trust andf even if you have that trust how much the pair will allow involvement. I certainly wouldn't want to try co parenting the babes of a hormonal, protective pair of 'toos.