Cockatiels Eggs...

[Just Hatch duck]

Hi, i have two 3 week old chicks in the nest box and just recently they've laid 5 eggs, will the older chicks harm the younger ones or should i separate?

 

[JaeG]

The biggest risk may be the parent birds, especially the cock bird, pushing the older chicks out of the nest despite the fact that they are too young to fledge. He could attack them so keep a close eye on them. If possible have some hand rearing formula on hand just in case you need to take over feeding the older chicks.

I had a friend who this happened to and the cock actually scalped one of the older babies. Thankfully they were in an aviary with older, more experienced birds (it was that pairs first time) so an older male thankfully took over the feeding of that chick.

 

[Just Hatch duck]

well I've only got two in the cage and this is there first time too, my older couple is next to them also... but I've never had to hand feed before i started hand taming at 3 weeks and put them back in the cage so ill have to do my research with feeding them. thanks a lot

 

[JaeG]

It's not hard if you need to hand feed. A bent spoon is easiest and they seem to take to it pretty quick. They are such sweet babies. I've been hand rearing some our friend didn't want to keep for breeding - we're only keeping 4!