moving on out

[bookworm0550]

i'm gonna buy the spice babies their own cage tomorrow since their parents are being a little abusive by toe biting them and whatnot. i always hear a baby in the nestbox whining cuz i know hermes is doing something to them. so when i get this new cage, do i still put dad in there w/ them? they are eating on their own, but they still beg a lot for food and he still feeds them. i don't know if i should put them in there right away either. they all sleep inside their nestbox. i don't want to remove them too soon. it's not like hermes is making them bleed or doing anything too horrible. it just sounds awful at times and her patience w/ them is pretty short.

[bookworm0550]

i moved the babies and chompers out. one of the babies refused to come out of the nestbox so we opened it and as he tried to get closer to his mom, she attacked him. so we took him out. right now they are all sleeping in one large happy hut and dad is in his own hut, but he's well behaved and not aggressive like he was when he was in the cage w/ hermes. she didn't even notice they were all gone. finally she came out and chirped at them, but soon went back into her nestbox. chompers wanted to go in w/ her, but she didn't seem to care as much.

[Chickobee]

You can put Chomper with the babies during the day so he can give them snacks and let him sleep with Hermes at night.

He is still teaching them what to eat and giving them occasional snacks while they transition to being fully weaned. As long as you are still seeing him feeding the babies he should be with them. He will definitely let them know when enough is enough and will stop feeding them when they beg. At that time he can go back into the cage with Hermes full time.

You did the right thing removing them from the cage with Hermes. You don't want to wait until she has seriously hurt one of them to make that decision. It's obvious that she has her next clutch on her mind and she wants these babies gone.

[linda040899]

This sounds like the best possible arrangement. The babies need dad, at least for now, during the day and he can spend his evenings with mom when the babies will be sleeping, or at least they should be!

The attitudes of parent birds never ceases to amaze me. Some parents are perfectly OK with older babies in the cage (and in the nest with mom!) while others want the cage back to themselves. You never know what's going to happen until you get to that moment in time, either.

[bookworm0550]

the babies still go into hermes's cage and into the nestbox and she's really aggressive to them, but i feel like they need to learn not to go in there. i used to take them out before she could do anything, but they would always go back in. right now, 3 of them are inside their cage just hanging out even though they can come out to play. hopefully, they'll learn soon that mom's cage is no place for them.