Hey everyone! OK so I have a parakeet issue...My brother's female parakeet, Carla, started laying eggs and she has been sitting on them. She has hatched them out before. Now, on her 3rd or 4th time trying to hatch out eggs in her life, all but one didn't make it. One of the eggs is still alive (I candled it), but the others all went bad for some reason and I tossed them out. Well, I had been sure that all the eggs were no good because she stopped sitting on them today. But now I know one is still alive and going to hatch in a day or so, but she's still not sitting on it. In fact, she has been caught trying to destroy it! I guess she thinks it's no longer any good, so she's trying to get rid of it so she can start a new batch of eggs to sit on. She has done it before, too. When she's done sitting and all the eggs that are suppose to hatch did hatch, she'll use her beak to crack them and destroy them to make room for the new babies. But now, she's trying to get rid of one that is still alive! What should I do? I can't make her sit on it if she doesn't have the urge to, and I don't have any other parakeets that are broody right now. I'm tempted to try and hatch it out myself and raise it, because even though I've never actually done it, I know how to and I have the supplies; baby bird feed, feeding syringes, etc. and I could probably research online how to incubate parakeet eggs. I have an incubator, and I could quickly make a temporary one if needed. BUT, I also understand the hard work and time it takes to feed and care for a baby bird. When they first hatch, baby parakeets need to be fed about every two hours, and their beaks are so small that you need to use a toothpick at first until they're big enough for a syringe. Not only do you need to figure out how to feed them properly, which I know how to do anyways, but it takes so much time and commitment. I have school and I'm gone for about 7 hours, plus cross country practice for another two hours each day after school. So, really, unless I had someone who could check up on the baby every couple of hours to feed it, etc...which I don't...then it wouldn't work. But still, I can't not do anything about it. Carla obviously has no interest in sitting on that egg, and it's getting colder the longer she doesn't sit on it. And I hate the thought of just letting it die and not being able to do anything about it! If you have any advice, please let me know! Thanks!
its a really hard thing to hand raise a baby parakeet from day one, iv done it you can do it but the first week they need to be fed every 30 min round the clock then it in decreases to an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours...etc and they can get crop burn, sour crop and allot of bad thing can o wrong hand feeding if you don't think you can do it you should think about terminating the egg, or find a breeder around you and see if they can tack the egg hatch it. you can use a thin tea spoon to feed them till the can eat from a syringe
You see, time is the problem. I don't have time to feed them every 30 minutes when I'm at school. UPDATE: Carla cracked the egg so I took it out and it's under a light, it bled a little and it's been about two hours and it's still alive. I'm leaving to my mom's house right now and I have no idea what to do with it! Thanks!
Well, I had to leave to my mom's house and so I had to put the egg back in the cage with Carla...and just hope she would realize there's a baby in it, still alive, so she won't destroy it! Last time I saw it, I could see the chick's tiny little beak moving around in the egg. Looks like it was trying to pip through the hole that Carla had already caused. It looked like there was some blood still, so I don't know if it was ready yet or not...No idea how old it is. But it's been long enough that it should be hatching pretty soon. So, I did the only thing I could; I put it back with Carla. She wouldn't sit on it. I just hope she will accept it again and her motherly instincts will kick in. She's a great brooder and mother, but just sometimes if the eggs don't make it, her instinct will tell her to destroy all of them and start a new batch. But I guess she doesn't realize that maybe not all of the eggs need to be destroyed, and some are still alive! We'll see what happens.
Thanks everyone! I appreciate it. If I wasn't in school, I would seriously consider keeping that egg warm in an incubator until it hatches, and then raising it, because I have enough time during the summer. But it's not summer, so I can't.
