Yay it worked ! (First baby jumbo coturnix)

[HarpiBirdHatch25]

Yay! First baby out jumbo coturnix!

Congrats! happy for u! The baby so lovely!I am incubate zebra finch eggs first time, but soon anytime will hatch, and I so excited but they so tiny, and I never hand feed them since parents abandoned the eggs . Hope I can do something to feed them, and not sure about you can use the incubator as a brooder since they so tiny? Not chicken eggs or big sizes.

 

[terriergal]

Photos of the feet/toes may help, but if the toes are curled then you can try taping them flat for a day to see if that corrects them.

I'd also recommend you giving the chick B-Complex. Dissolve 1/4 tablet into a very small amount of water, then give her a couple of drops several times throughout the day. Do this for a few days.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fixing-chicks-curled-toes.1325785/

I have regular cage bird vitamins that are supposed to go in water, which has B2 / riboflavin
this one
https://www.chewy.com/quiko-multivi...3822?utm_source=app-share&utm_campaign=123822

I also have a rescue supplement (Poly-aid / Survive from vetafarm) but doesn’t seem really urgent enough for that.

The first one that I taped is getting along great with his/her little duck feet, but it seems like I had to tape almost everyone on at least one foot. The rest hatched overnight and today so I am up to 10. A few are not terribly coordinated with the first aid paper tape “flippers” but they seem energetic enough overall.

I am a little bit wondering about these poops from one of them though, kind of dark greenish but does remind me of meconium from a human baby (they’re on game bird starter ground up to about 2mm max size)

 

[terriergal]

Congrats! happy for u! The baby so lovely!I am incubate zebra finch eggs first time, but soon anytime will hatch, and I so excited but they so tiny, and I never hand feed them since parents abandoned the eggs . Hope I can do something to feed them, and not sure about you can use the incubator as a brooder since they so tiny? Not chicken eggs or big sizes.

Oh yes, I’ve done that too. It’s very difficult, if not impossible. Not impossible if they abandon them in the last couple of days before hatching so you don’t have to worry about turning them. you can put them in a pill jar lined with tissue, with holes drilled in the top and put them next to your body all day long and all night long, like tucked in a bra… so your body can keep them warm. As long as you don’t do any kind of vigorous activity, they should be ok (they will be better than being abandoned. I guess is what I’m trying to say.) but if at all you can let the mother do the work I would let the mother do the work. Those eggs and babies are so delicate that mom and dad do the best job.

If you want hand fed finches, then I would occasionally feed them after they’ve gotten big enough to accept a syringe with a teat infuser cannula at least, without too much fuss…(when they get bigger, you can take that off) just before their eyes open.

I think in general it would be very difficult to put something as delicate as a finch egg in an incubator until lockdown when you don’t have to worry about them being turned. (I’ve tried when mine abandoned theirs).

The only thing I have found that comes close to being appropriate is a hovabator with one of those egg turners that rocks back-and-forth. For an incubator that rotates to turn, you might be able to find someone who created an insert on Etsy that is specific for small finch or button quail eggs that might work. But I would honestly be hesitant to use any kind of a rotating turner because of the possibility of the egg being caught and pulled underneath the insert and crushed.

It is possible that somebody has made one. I’m just not aware of it. But I would look on Etsy, people are making all kinds of stuff with 3-D printing. I would probably want Finch eggs to be kept very close to the center of the incubator so they don’t spin quite as much with each turn. Because they are so small.

And keeping humidity at the right level levels for Finch eggs is so hard because the shells are so thin that detrimental changes in humidity can happen very quickly.

Also, I use a size 0 paintbrush, or a flat toothpick (you might do OK with a regular round too thick, but the flat ones worked better for me and I can’t find them anymore for some reason ) for feeding newly hatched finches for the first few days and you have to wash& sanitize it every time you’re done, in hydrogen peroxide or something and allowed to dry for the next feeding. It helps to keep a couple of them on hand so you can have a clean one ready.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have regular cage bird vitamins that are supposed to go in water, which has B2 / riboflavin
this one
https://www.chewy.com/quiko-multivi...3822?utm_source=app-share&utm_campaign=123822

I also have a rescue supplement (Poly-aid / Survive from vetafarm) but doesn’t seem really urgent enough for that.

The first one that I taped is getting along great with his/her little duck feet, but it seems like I had to tape almost everyone on at least one foot. The rest hatched overnight and today so I am up to 10. A few are not terribly coordinated with the first aid paper tape “flippers” but they seem energetic enough overall.

I am a little bit wondering about these poops from one of them though, kind of dark greenish but does remind me of meconium from a human baby (they’re on game bird starter ground up to about 2mm max size)

The feet should correct in about a day or two, so hopefully you can take the tape off soon.

I'd give the vitamins and see if that helps.

If all are hatching with feet issues, then humidity may have been off. I'm not a hatching troubleshooter but if a problem is quite consistent across the board, then it's either humidity (too much/too little) or possible a genetic defect. Time will tell as you hatch more and see if your next batches have toe issues.

Green poop is normal for the first few poops. Once they are eating/drinking, then it should become more of a normal color.

 

[Quailwhatdoyaknow]

Congrats! I picked up my
First coturnix on Tuesday of this past week. They are 7 days old today. These birds are so cool

 

[terriergal]

as far as it being humidity, it shouldn’t have been a problem, but we had a discrepancy between the Bluetooth/wireless hockey puck monitor we had in there and the one that is included in the incubator … so we weren’t sure which one was more accurate. Also, not really sure how to calibrate either one to make sure of that. But we are certainly going to look into it for next time.

We ended up with 10 total hatching out of 18 eggs, 4 we discarded early because they were showing pretty clear about a week into the process. And then 4 just didn’t hatch. and picking them open, they just look like dead in shell chicks, one was starting to smell but I didn’t pierce through the membrane on the others, I only opened up the air sack and saw that nothing was moving through the membrane.

The last one to actually hatch really was struggling ever since, and eventually I just had my husband euthanize it a bit ago because it was only lying there suffering all the time. (I had marked its “slippers/flippers” with a marker so I knew which one it was).

There was one other one that was also not doing quite as well, although it was quite alert, it was having a hard time getting up anytime it got knocked over. So it took her heroic amount of energy for it to thermo regulate with the heat lamp and also get over to the food and water. But after I took off the toe straightening “flippers,” it eventually regained its equilibrium. I had to put it upright just a couple of times after that and now it’s running around with the others. It’s distinctive because on the left side of its cheek it has a tuft of longer feathers. Oddly enough, no tuft on the right side! Seems odd to me.

They all got their “flippers” taken off late morning today and are now running around like champs with the exception of the one that had had to be put down. I knew that handling them again was going to give them more stress, but I thought if I took the slippers off, the weakest two might actually have a little better chance to figure out how to use their legs/feet. And the one of them did. But that last one was too far gone.

One of these days if I have to, I will make some video of how I did the slippers because I think the way I did it turned out pretty good for the most part. It might be helpful to some people to have pictures/video rather than just text describing what I did.

I also made a mistake with the very first one in that I folded the tape over the end of its toes, rather than folding over from the side, so one of his toes got folded backwards right at the very tip. As a result it might lose that very tip of its toe, (ouch, sorry lil one!) but it’s doing great otherwise.

Oh, and I saw one try to eat through one of the feeding ports… so hopefully they will all start doing that soonand I can stop putting food in a dish to be scattered and pooped on everywhere!

 

[Quailwhatdoyaknow]

as far as it being humidity, it shouldn’t have been a problem, but we had a discrepancy between the Bluetooth/wireless hockey puck monitor we had in there and the one that is included in the incubator … so we weren’t sure which one was more accurate. Also, not really sure how to calibrate either one to make sure of that. But we are certainly going to look into it for next time.

We ended up with 10 total hatching out of 18 eggs, 4 we discarded early because they were showing pretty clear about a week into the process. And then 4 just didn’t hatch. and picking them open, they just look like dead in shell chicks, one was starting to smell but I didn’t pierce through the membrane on the others, I only opened up the air sack and saw that nothing was moving through the membrane.

The last one to actually hatch really was struggling ever since, and eventually I just had my husband euthanize it a bit ago because it was only lying there suffering all the time. (I had marked its “slippers/flippers” with a marker so I knew which one it was).

There was one other one that was also not doing quite as well, although it was quite alert, it was having a hard time getting up anytime it got knocked over. So it took her heroic amount of energy for it to thermo regulate with the heat lamp and also get over to the food and water. But after I took off the toe straightening “flippers,” it eventually regained its equilibrium. I had to put it upright just a couple of times after that and now it’s running around with the others. It’s distinctive because on the left side of its cheek it has a tuft of longer feathers. Oddly enough, no tuft on the right side! Seems odd to me.

They all got their “flippers” taken off late morning today and are now running around like champs with the exception of the one that had had to be put down. I knew that handling them again was going to give them more stress, but I thought if I took the slippers off, the weakest two might actually have a little better chance to figure out how to use their legs/feet. And the one of them did. But that last one was too far gone.

One of these days if I have to, I will make some video of how I did the slippers because I think the way I did it turned out pretty good for the most part. It might be helpful to some people to have pictures/video rather than just text describing what I did.

I also made a mistake with the very first one in that I folded the tape over the end of its toes, rather than folding over from the side, so one of his toes got folded backwards right at the very tip. As a result it might lose that very tip of its toe, (ouch, sorry lil one!) but it’s doing great otherwise.

Oh, and I saw one try to eat through one of the feeding ports… so hopefully they will all start doing that soonand I can stop putting food in a dish to be scattered and pooped on everywhere!

They poop everywhere! Mine graduated from food on a paper towel to out of an actual chick feeder yesterday. I was tired of changing that paper towel as often as I had to due to poo! Sounds like you’re doing a great job!

 

[terriergal]

They poop everywhere! Mine graduated from food on a paper towel to out of an actual chick feeder yesterday. I was tired of changing that paper towel as often as I had to due to poo! Sounds like you’re doing a great job!

Oh thank you and as far as pooping everywhere — definitely!!. lol (but seriously it is the one thing I don’t like about birds is that they are so messy ! I do have finches and bred exotic finches for a while about 20 years ago but now I just have a couple males for color and song- even two or three finches is messy!) the first day I had a couple that had to sample some poops to see if they were foodstuffs but they quickly figured out “nope not so tasty.” So now I see them stop and eye a bit of poop stained food and think better of it & move on to a cleaner bit.

My wobbler still gets cast and stuck so I’ve had to right it one or two more times. Not sure what is up with that. Hopefully, after a few more days, it won’t be an issue anymore.

 

[Quailwhatdoyaknow]

Birds are messy…. I remember the first time I looked after a friends ducks and chickens. I was so disgusted without messy they were. Ducks are the worst! No matter how many times you clean the waterer they still think they can fit their whole body in a 2” wide space because there is some water…

 

[HarpiBirdHatch25]

Oh yes, I’ve done that too. It’s very difficult, if not impossible. Not impossible if they abandon them in the last couple of days before hatching so you don’t have to worry about turning them. you can put them in a pill jar lined with tissue, with holes drilled in the top and put them next to your body all day long and all night long, like tucked in a bra… so your body can keep them warm. As long as you don’t do any kind of vigorous activity, they should be ok (they will be better than being abandoned. I guess is what I’m trying to say.) but if at all you can let the mother do the work I would let the mother do the work. Those eggs and babies are so delicate that mom and dad do the best job.

If you want hand fed finches, then I would occasionally feed them after they’ve gotten big enough to accept a syringe with a teat infuser cannula at least, without too much fuss…(when they get bigger, you can take that off) just before their eyes open.

I think in general it would be very difficult to put something as delicate as a finch egg in an incubator until lockdown when you don’t have to worry about them being turned. (I’ve tried when mine abandoned theirs).

The only thing I have found that comes close to being appropriate is a hovabator with one of those egg turners that rocks back-and-forth. For an incubator that rotates to turn, you might be able to find someone who created an insert on Etsy that is specific for small finch or button quail eggs that might work. But I would honestly be hesitant to use any kind of a rotating turner because of the possibility of the egg being caught and pulled underneath the insert and crushed.

It is possible that somebody has made one. I’m just not aware of it. But I would look on Etsy, people are making all kinds of stuff with 3-D printing. I would probably want Finch eggs to be kept very close to the center of the incubator so they don’t spin quite as much with each turn. Because they are so small.

And keeping humidity at the right level levels for Finch eggs is so hard because the shells are so thin that detrimental changes in humidity can happen very quickly.

Also, I use a size 0 paintbrush, or a flat toothpick (you might do OK with a regular round too thick, but the flat ones worked better for me and I can’t find them anymore for some reason ) for feeding newly hatched finches for the first few days and you have to wash& sanitize it every time you’re done, in hydrogen peroxide or something and allowed to dry for the next feeding. It helps to keep a couple of them on hand so you can have a clean one ready.

Thank you for your kindness and replying. I do have an incubator which I put them just above the regular egg sizes, which just the little gaps on top near the center of the incubator. (See pic below)but since they so small like you said, the turner rotated the eggs randomly since not big like chicken eggs etc. I do have flat toothpick but the thing is when you have to manage to keep the right temperature before put in its mouth, and the syringe maybe keep warm better than then toothpick, the room temperature here only 60F, so by the time from the formula cup and to the finch beak maybe 50% dropped and I worry will suffocate the new hatch… I put the eggs back to parents but they not interest in and just play hopping out and I and put back to incubator again. Now one egg look like “lock down” with more dark in middle and moving and other ones look still red veins, so my humidity still 55-60% not sure if ok for the other eggs which not lock down period yet look like… so if I keep the lock down percentage 65-70% maybe not good for the other developing eggs that has red veins and some embryo development right?
Also when lock down currently only one egg in that stage like I said . If I take the orange mold off and should I leave the bottom there?( I mean the plastic which with holes on it ?) or maybe take both out since I am not sure turner meaning the orange part or both, and I heard you have to put kitchen liner on bottom, is that correct? This incubator has water come out from the bottom and not sure if the liner waterproof without get any moist on the ? Thank you so much in advance. Sorry I am a newbie to incubator hatching asked so many questions and next time I will improve and try do better!