sobkowich
12-08-2011, 09:09 PM
This is my first time dealing with parents and chicks, so I'm not sure what to do or even if it's normal, but here's the situation.
I have a pair of peach-face lovebirds, both around 2 years old. They had their first clutch at the end of October, only one egg actually hatched. We took the baby out of the nest after around 3 weeks, because the baby had splay legs. We treated it, I hand-fed the baby until just recently, he's now refusing the formula in favor of pellets and seed.
The problem is that now that the little guy has gotten big enough to fly and get around on his own, his parents seem to be taking every chance they can get to attack, bite, and be violent in general to the baby.
It's sad, because every time the little guy sees or hears either his mom or dad, he starts calling out to them, but they either both ignore him, or fly to him just to lunge, attack or try to kill him, it seems.
Is this because we took him out of the nest? I didn't really have much of a choice, as the parents were plucking the little guy, and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
when I introduced the mother to the father in august, they fought a little sometimes, but nothing like this. If I leave the baby's cage door open and let the parents out at the same time, then the parents (usually the dad) will go into the baby's cage, and start eating his food. And since the baby just recently got his bandages off from the splay leg hobble, he's not 100% stable on his feet and he get's knocked around pretty good. Then when the dad leaves (Or the mom also), it's almost as if the little guy is crying, whimpering and acting sad.
I know part of the behavior is because the parents have a new clutch they are currently laying, and they get protective over it. but this is not happening near the nest-box, and it's mostly the father, not the mother.
Will this behavior stop when the new clutch is done? or will they never get along because they feel that I favored one over the other?
Makes me sad :(
I have a pair of peach-face lovebirds, both around 2 years old. They had their first clutch at the end of October, only one egg actually hatched. We took the baby out of the nest after around 3 weeks, because the baby had splay legs. We treated it, I hand-fed the baby until just recently, he's now refusing the formula in favor of pellets and seed.
The problem is that now that the little guy has gotten big enough to fly and get around on his own, his parents seem to be taking every chance they can get to attack, bite, and be violent in general to the baby.
It's sad, because every time the little guy sees or hears either his mom or dad, he starts calling out to them, but they either both ignore him, or fly to him just to lunge, attack or try to kill him, it seems.
Is this because we took him out of the nest? I didn't really have much of a choice, as the parents were plucking the little guy, and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
when I introduced the mother to the father in august, they fought a little sometimes, but nothing like this. If I leave the baby's cage door open and let the parents out at the same time, then the parents (usually the dad) will go into the baby's cage, and start eating his food. And since the baby just recently got his bandages off from the splay leg hobble, he's not 100% stable on his feet and he get's knocked around pretty good. Then when the dad leaves (Or the mom also), it's almost as if the little guy is crying, whimpering and acting sad.
I know part of the behavior is because the parents have a new clutch they are currently laying, and they get protective over it. but this is not happening near the nest-box, and it's mostly the father, not the mother.
Will this behavior stop when the new clutch is done? or will they never get along because they feel that I favored one over the other?
Makes me sad :(