4 babies! A good problem to have, but I need guidance please.

[LennytheLinnie]

Hello all! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I was happy when my Linnie girl Cersei began to lay a total of 7 eggs! 2 were unfertile, and one unfortunately did not make it. We left on a planned trip and returned to hatching babies. We all got sick one by one soon after. Out of 7 of us (5 kids), my husband and I were the worse and took the longest to fully recover. I missed the window to band the babies and recently found some open bands I could work with. The positive, I believe, is they were completely undisturbed and did what God built them to do. My babies did a great job as parents, but I don't want to leave the babies in too long and have mom get frustrated. They are at 5/6 weeks right now. Any advice, help, support, is greatly appreciated. At what point would I separate them, now?! I have a ton more questions and even more beautiful pics

Thanks in advance
Melissa

 

[srirachaseahawk]

I believe that it’s safe to pull them as early as two weeks, provided you have the right equipment and knowledge (brooder, feeding patterns, etc.)

The green one is an absolute gem.

 

[LinnieGirl]

Congratulations on the babies! They look good. Do you have a picture of the parents? All of the babies appear to be greywing.
There’s no need to, and it would be unwise to ,take the babies away from the parents at this age. They would be extremely difficult to transition to handfeeding now. Parents will continue to feed them for a while while they wean. When ypu see the parents refusing to feed them and they’re eating on their own , then it’s safe to remove them. Usually sometime after 6 weeks.
you should be offering lots of soft foods now for them to eat. Vegetables, cooked grains, scrambled or hard boiled and chopped egg, fruit, and millet to get used to seeds. Dry egg food should be available at all times.

 

[LinnieGirl]

I believe that it’s safe to pull them as early as two weeks, provided you have the right equipment and knowledge (brooder, feeding patterns, etc.)

The green one is an absolute gem.

Its safe at two weeks only if you’re an experienced hand feeder. But these babies are now 4/5 weeks old. Babies at this age are even difficult for an experienced hand feeder. They are right at the edge of weaning and would be refusing formula.

 

[srirachaseahawk]

Seems reasonable to me

 

[LennytheLinnie]

Its safe at two weeks only if you’re an experienced hand feeder. But these babies are now 4/5 weeks old. Babies at this age are even difficult for an experienced hand feeder. They are right at the edge of weaning and would be refusing formula.

Yep, they most definitely refused the formula. I figured they would, so I had some on hand just incase. Gave them some seed on top of chop, a water dispenser on the bottom of their temp cage, and Some hulled millets. They went bananas! Ate it all. They were parent raised but whenever I had energy i would handle them most days no more than 10-15 min when they were old enough. So they adapted pretty quickly. Parents are tamed and only dad would get irritated but after awhile. Is a hard boiled ok for them at this age?

 

[LennytheLinnie]

Congratulations on the babies! They look good. Do you have a picture of the parents? All of the babies appear to be greywing.
There’s no need to, and it would be unwise to ,take the babies away from the parents at this age. They would be extremely difficult to transition to handfeeding now. Parents will continue to feed them for a while while they wean. When ypu see the parents refusing to feed them and they’re eating on their own , then it’s safe to remove them. Usually sometime after 6 weeks.
you should be offering lots of soft foods now for them to eat. Vegetables, cooked grains, scrambled or hard boiled and chopped egg, fruit, and millet to get used to seeds. Dry egg food should be available at all times.

Sorry, just saw this post. Dry egg food should be here tomorrow. When would I stop offering that? Or does that always continue? The parents are my profile pic. Also, greywings? Including the green one? I’ve looked into mutations/genetics and all and I’m not grasping it. I need someone to explain that to me like I’m 3. I promise I’m not stupid . I’ve checked out Eddies Aviary page as well. Do you or Eddie have any educational videos? YouTube maybe? I’ll be surprised if not. You both are very knowledgeable.
Thanks for the info! Greatly appreciated.

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

Sorry I am late to the party! Somehow this notification didn't come through. Congrats on the babies! Though technically an open band is better than no band, it doesn't really tell true age or breeder (some people take them off and reuse them on other birds!), and the open slit makes them more likely to snag on toys. I would just order some bands stat if the parents are going to re-clutch. You have a gaggle of greywing here, they are single factor looking, so that means male. There is a green in the picture that appears normal barred, and looks like a hen. Have any better pics? How did the weaning go? I would continue to offer spray millet and egg food until fully fledged along with your normal staple, and of course fresh, cooked, sprouted fare. I agree on the pulling to handfeed... you missed the window. Having a clutch of that size is nice as it usually keeps the hen from laying the next clutch within the box with the other babies, and staves off plucking. Some people pull part of the clutch to handfeed to not tire the hen if they wish to do back to back clutches, but pulling only part of them often causes the issues that I mentioned above. Congrats! If you have any available for sale, make a post in the classifieds. Though we are still growing membership, people may show up later and reach out to you. Then you can start a wait list like we are all burdened by. A good problem to have I guess

 

[LinnieGirl]

Yep, they most definitely refused the formula. I figured they would, so I had some on hand just incase. Gave them some seed on top of chop, a water dispenser on the bottom of their temp cage, and Some hulled millets. They went bananas! Ate it all. They were parent raised but whenever I had energy i would handle them most days no more than 10-15 min when they were old enough. So they adapted pretty quickly. Parents are tamed and only dad would get irritated but after awhile. Is a hard boiled ok for them at this age?

Yes, scrambled or hard boiled chopped egg are excellent for this age. Remove any uneaten egg after 3-4 hours and replace with fresh to prevent spoilage.

 

[Eddie's Aviary]

If you have a potato masher that has the small holes... mine LOVE hard boiled eggs all fluffed up with that. I toss in some sprouts, corn, shredded carrot and a sprinkle of Miracle Meal and they go bananas. Then you add a new veg (focus on the high vit A ones) every few days, they seem to take to them easily that way for me.