Parakeet Observation with Egg Food

He'd eaten a lot of this before I took the picture.
He's not even a father, he just likes egg food.

When I added Lady Gouldian finches to my flock, a breeder recommended giving them egg food. Since we make a lot at once, this year for the first time we're giving it to all parakeet varieties as well as the finches.

I've observed that many of the egg shells left after their babies hatch are still there. In the past, I assume they ate them for the extra calcium since egg shells were seldom present except after an immediate hatch.

This year, all the hens are leaving shells in the nest. They just push them aside. The egg food is probably providing them with all the calcium they need. It should also be noted that the father birds are gobbling up the egg food as soon as it goes into their cage. The first day it was given to them they viewed it warily, but now look forward to it fresh every morning.





My favorite male Bourke, Sweetheart.


Bourke and Splendid males feed their mates, who in turn feed the young. After the young leave the nest, fathers take over much of the feeding for about two or three weeks. Splendid males may feed babies while in the nest, however, it's unusual for a Bourke male to do so. With Gouldian finches, both parents feed the young in the nest. Typically, both attend to them during the day, but only mothers at night.

Egg food:
Boiled chicken eggs, including shell, cooled
Dry bread crumbs
Blend together in a blender until shells are ground up
If too wet, it can be dried on a cookie sheet in a low oven
Excess can be stored in the refrigerator for approximately a week.

Last time we blended in mixed vegetables, which kept it moist. The birds seem to love it, moist or dry. Inverted jar lids make excellent serving bowls for small portions that need to be replaced often. Don't leave egg food to go bad. If you leave it in the cage, remove anything that remains by the end of the day, or sooner. Some sites recommend not leaving it longer than an hour. If you live in a hot climate, that is good advice.

Six baby Lady Gouldian finches, 3 wks old tomorrow
 and full of egg food.

Peace and Blessings!

Bourke Questions and Answers

Flame feeding Fuchia through opening into her nest box.
When this was taken their five eggs had all recently hatched.
Quite a brood for them to keep fed.

Shawn wrote to say he raises budgies and cockatiels, and is unfamiliar with Bourkes. He sent the list of questions below. Although most have been answered in earlier posts, I'll address them here all together.

01. What are the foods for Bourkes?

• Bourkes will eat anything that a Budgie eats. Parakeet seed is their primary diet. However, mine also love fresh greens like spinach, kale, lettuce, broccoli, etc. They also like most vegetables, such as cooked corn, peas, carrots and green beans. Always have sources of calcium available, such as cuttlebone and mineral block.

Four cages with nest boxes attached outside.
These rectangular cages are 18"x30"x18".
Skirts help control scattered seeds.

02. What about the cage size for Bourkes?

• Bourkes need to fly and can't do so in a tall narrow cage. Their cage should be oblong or rectangular.  My smallest cages are 30 inches long, 18 inches high and 18 inches deep 18"x30"x18". One pair per cage except when their young are present with them. Aviaries or flights of any larger size are beneficial too and can accommodate more then two birds.

A larger cage that is three feet high, 30 inches wide and 18 inches deep.
Some of this year's young Bourkes share it while waiting to be sold.

03. Did the parents feed the babies like as Budgerigars?

• Male Bourkes typically check out a new nest box to ensure it's safe before a hen ventures inside for the first time. After she settles in, my male birds seldom go back into it (although other people's have). Male Bourkes will feed the female while she's on her eggs. She in turn feeds the young when they hatch. She seldom leaves the nest except to deficate. Males often sit outside the door as if keeping watch, and feed her through the entrance. Once the babies are two to three weeks old, experienced hens begin to spend more time outside the box, allowing the young to keep each other warm.
• Fathers begin to also feed their young once the babies are feathered and able to reach the entrance to the nest box. They will often be fed through the entrance until they leave the nest. Parents continue to feed their young after they are outside the nest box. This lasts at least two weeks or longer.

Flame & Fuchsia's five babies in a nest box
that is barely big enough as the babies grow bigger.

04. Is it possible to rare up the babies without Hand Feeding?

• I think you're asking abour rearing or raising babies by their parents. Most parent Bourke parakeets successfully raise all their young. However, there are occasional exceptions. When my Normal Bourke, Willow, and her mate were very young, she would hatch four eggs but reject the two youngest. In her case, I learned to watch carefully and if a newly hatched bird wasn't being fed, I pulled him to hand feed. Only one of her babies ever starved, and it happened before I knew what she was capable of. Later, as a mature hen, she did raise four babies many times.
• I don't know why this would make a difference, but my hand fed, tame hens have never abandoned any of their offspring even while very young themselves and with large clutches.

A nest box with a slide-up side opening.
This one was used by parents, Bonnie and Clyde.

05. Size of the Nest Box for Bourkes?

• For instructions and size of nest boxes, see the "Pages" tabs above and click on "Building Nest Boxes."
• Size is subjective. I've had several pairs raise their young in former cockatiel nest boxes. They did well and probably enjoyed the extra space. Another hen had a much smaller parakeet-sized nest box and reared five babies in it successfully. However, I cleaned it twice before they were weaned. It was very crowded with six birds in the box, so the pine shavings had to be replaced to avoid unpleasant odors and keep the babies from getting their feet stuck together from an excess of feces. For this reason, a box that is too big is better than one that is too small.
• There is one major difference between raising Bourkes and/or Splendids versus raising budgerigars and/or cockatiels. Bourkes and Splendids like pine shavings, or something similar, in the bottom of their nest box. Budgies and cockatiels don't need them. I give my birds about an inch of pine shavings in the bottom of the box (never use cedar - it is too aromatic). They will scratch around and make an indentation for themselves.

Two breeding successes.
White faces with pink eyes: Opaline, fallow Bourkes.

I hope this is useful to many of you. If you have other suggestions, don't hesitate to comment below.

Peace & Blessings to you and your Birds.

Swallows

Our baby swallows are still in the boxes outside my back porch. I love hearing them chirp. There are several in each box. This morning as I watched, I noticed that the parents not only carry food into their young, they also carry out droppings. They do all they can to keep the nest clean. Isn't that wonderful? 

These babies are fully feathered and nearly ready to vacate the nest. So, at full-size it has to be more work to keep the nest clean. Bigger birds, bigger droppings. It's no wonder parent birds begin to lose weight as their youngsters continue to grow.

The bird at right is a baby sticking his head outside the nest box. I tried to get a photo of his parents feeding him, but my camera isn't as fast as a flying swallow. 

We have bird seed feeders for other birds, but offer nothing but bird houses for the swallows. I'm thinking it might be nice to raise meal worms again and offer them to the swallows when they return next year. I used to grow meal worms in a large enclosed canister full of corn meal. The worms pupated and became beetles that reproduced and I always had a ready supply of live food for the finches I was raising. Haven't raised meal worms for many, many years, but it is tempting to do so. Then again, swallows do such a good job of ridding us of mosquitoes, do I want to feed them something else?

If you want to raise meal worms too, below are a couple of sites that give directions. Keep in mind, that I did well with one big container for everything. Just reached in to scoop around for the worms when I wanted them to feed the birds. They were always plentiful. I left the beetle and pupaes alone. The eggs were virtually invisible in the corn meal.

http://mealwormstore.com/raising_mealworms.php

http://www.efinch.com/mealworms/mealworm.htm

Bourke Pairing & Nest Boxes ... Question from Noah

Noah asks: "I had a question about a pair of my bourkes and was hoping you'd be able to help.

Around 5 months ago my wife and I bought a pair of bourkes from a bird fair. We were told they were a proven pair and had just recently come off eggs (chicks taken for hand-feeding). Their age is said to be 2 years. Well, in the 5 months we've had them, we have not even seen any mating tendencies between them. They have a nest box and a constant stream of fresh foods we give them daily but they don’t touch ANY of the fresh foods.

Long story short, I'm confused. Cant quite figure out how or what I need to do to get them 'going' if they were said to be a proven pair. That, or we got lied to. If needed, I'll snap some pictures. Both are rosies.

Thank you! And my wife and I love your blog."

Noah, Thank you for the compliment. You made my day! My first pair came from a bird show too, but that’s another story.

If your pair is truly only two years old, that’s a perfect age for reproducing. However, there is the potential that the breeder wanted to rid him or herself of an older pair who were no longer productive. Sad, but possible.

If they aren’t eating fresh foods, it might be they never had them before. My Bourkes don’t like fruit and I don’t know why. But, they love vegetables. Their favorite is fresh Kale sliced into small pieces. They also like fresh spinach, lettuce, corn, carrots, peas, and broccoli. Be sure seed is always present.

About Breeding: If they’ve been with you five months that should be more than enough time to get used to their surroundings and feel secure. Could they have been in an aviary before and moving to a cage bothers them? That seems unlikely, however.

My guess would be that it is something about the nest box that puts them off. Is the opening big enough? My swallow boxes outside have an opening big enough for swallows, but too small to allow a sparrow to enter. A Bourke wouldn’t be able to get into them either. Our parakeet boxes have round openings two inches across. Some of my Bourkes are even using cockatiel boxes because I had some available. Too big is better than too small.

Although I’ve known people who had a pair nest in a Quaker Oats box on the floor of their cage, most Bourkes prefer a box with its opening near the top of their cage. But, where there’s motivation, most anything will do. What your birds need is motivation. Smile.

Are you using pine shavings in the bottom of the box? About an inch to two inches thick is good. Do NOT use cedar shavings…the odor will put them off. Budgerigars don’t use shavings, but Bourkes and Splendids do.

If you have a successful pair the male should be feeding the female. He should also be investigating the box to be sure it is “safe” before she enters. In rare instances, a female will enter first if the male hasn’t been attentive enough. But, correct sequence of events is that he checks it out first.

Lastly, but MOST IMPORTANT: Are they getting enough light? Day length triggers the breeding response. They should have over 12 hours of day light each day, preferably 14-16 hours. Artificial light works too. Where I live in Southern Oregon it’s currently still light at 9pm and light again by 5am. Artificial lighting isn’t necessary as our birds are all near windows.

If you read my earlier blogs, last summer we had several visitors that upset our Bourkes and they didn’t breed. Hence, we used artificial lighting in the following fall and raised several clutches then. We turned lights on when we got up at 6am and they stayed on until the sun came up. In the evenings, the lights stayed on until 9 or 10pm. That triggered the birds to begin breeding.

Are your birds in a quiet place? They can get used to children or pets, but it might take a while if they were used to solitude before you bought them. Is the nest box secure enough that it doesn’t wobble?

Be sure your birds have calcium sources: cuttlebone and mineral block. I also like to give mine small amounts of Petamine breeding formula almost daily during breeding season. It’s a treat they love and should give them extra vitamins, etc.

I hope this helps. I’ll post later about my experience with my first pair from a bird show. It was much like yours. Good Luck!

Healthy Additions for your Bird’s Diet

I have a cage of tame Bourkes who get preferential treatment. Whenever we cook vegetables, they often get some, and I’m learning a lot from them.

Along with seeds, I’ve always offered my birds extra vegetables or fruit, usually raw. They favor most veggies over fresh fruit. (Go figure, I like fresh fruit myself). However, our birds seem to prefer cooked vegetables, over raw. An exception to this is Spinach or Kale, which are favorites. They also like lettuce, but it doesn’t have the same nutritional value. They love sweet corn, petite peas and steamed broccoli, just as we do. I also offer them bits of bread of any variety we’re having for lunch or dinner. They enjoy taking the treats from my fingers as much as I enjoy offering them.

Here’s a list of foods that will introduce more calcium into your bird’s diet – especially valuable for breeding hens, or young birds.

Calcium in mg From Highest to Lowest:
Turnip Greens 694
Mustard Greens 582
Cabbage (outside green leaves) 429
Chinese Cabbage 400
Kale 390

Kohlrabi 390

Broccoli Leaves 349
Chard 300
Beet Greens 188
Dandelion Greens 168

Spinach 156
Okra 144
Turnips 112
Broccoli Stem 111
Endive 104

Rutabaga 99
Carrots 90
Raspberries 82
Strawberries 68
Cantaloupe 64

Yellow Wax Beans 63
Green Beans 55
Watercress 53
Oranges or Tangerines 48
Parsley 46

Cabbage (inside white leaves) 46
Celery 44
Yams 44
Blackberries 43
Squash 36

Watermelon 33
Blueberries 33
Lettuce Dark Green Leaf 25
Guavas 15
Pears 15

Collards (cooked) 14
Apples 10