lovie chicks are now six weeks old but....

[lovielulan]

I have a couple of black masked blue chicks. They are six weeks old now. I have read that they should be eating on their own by then...well...mine have yet to come out of the nest box...and what worries me is that mom and dad are already mating again. Anyway...will it help if I take them out of the next box and leave them in the pet cage with mom and dad...should I do that and leave the nest box there...or just wait it out...

[bubble]

my last 2 babies didn't want to leave the box at 6 weeks, since mom and dad are mating again mom kick them out, lots of screaming and biting inside the box. i offered the parents another nesting box but still mom won't let them in the old or new. i had to take them out and put them in another cage. i gave them soft food and finely grind pellets, i also get daddy to go into their cage to feed them every 3 hours. it wasn't easy, i had to keep a close eye on them since they were not wean yet. at 7 weeks and separated from the parents for 10 days, they didn't go back to their parents' cage but dad was still feeding them a few times a day.
i think other members can give you better solution :)

[lovielulan]

Thanks so much for the reply...but let me get this straight...you put them in another cage completely and took dad away from mom every three hours and put him in the brand new cage with the chicks to feed them...I'm amazed that, not knowing the new cage, he'd do that so quickly...mine is not tame so I'd have to catch him first...and how do your grind the pellets? Maybe I should go get chick formula and do it myself...but that wouldn't teach them to wean would it?

[linda040899]

http://chats.upatsix.com/chats.php?do=read_msg&board=lovebird&msg_id=948&order=desc&cur_page=1
I found your question on Lovebird Chat this morning, just before I came here. The link is to my response. :)

[BarbieH]

I had a similar situation. I moved dad and the chicks to a different cage for weaning, and put the dad (Bosco) back in with the mom (Betty) for some time each day. I made sure Betty could see their cage, so even when Bosco wasn't with her, she could see him.

I did have to catch Bosco every time, which he did not like ... but it gave me plenty of practice handling my birds. :)

[bubble]

at 6 weeks it will be very hard to hand feed them, you can always give it a try. i put the pellets inside a plastic or paper bag and use a glass container to grind them, you can also make some birdie bread for them to try http://www.lovebirdsplus.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=16
my lovebirds are very tame and it's not hard to catch daddy, he would even try to get into the new cage himself for the babies.
i hope this help, let us know how it goes.