Bird-Breeding for dummies!!

Question
QUESTION: Our family cockatiel, Charlie, has mated with another bird, and we put the egg in a incubator.  I don't know much about cockatiel's, so I'm searching everything I can on the net.  I'm not sure if the egg wil even live, because it's been bumped quite a bit.  My first question, is about baby cockatiel food.  I don't know what to feed the baby! We don't have a local pet-store here, and our Wal-Mart doesn't have baby bird food.  I want to know, is there any way to make food for your baby? By maybe grinding up bird seeds, and boiling them? And my next question, I know I keep the bird in a card-board box, with up to three inches of straw or hay, but when do I take the baby out of the incubator? Right away, or do I wait? do I take the light from the incubator and put it in the box? How warm should the box be?


ANSWER: Hi,

As I have stated in my profile I am not a breeder. Question related to breeding should be directed towards other experts.

I will touch on some of your questions that I do have experience with.

First why did you remove the egg? Why not allow the parents to incubate and care for their baby? That's a lot less work for you and if you handle the baby regularly it will be people friendly. By removing the egg you will only stimulate the female to lay more eggs. Cockatiels are known for continuous egg laying which can lead to becoming egg bound and possibly death. With egg laying females you really want to limited the egg production.

As for diet. A healthy diet for cockatiels consists of pellets, fresh fruits and veggies, and some seed. An all seed diet is not healthy for any parrot. A baby raised on an all seed diet will not receive the nutrients it needs. This will lead to bone deformities and sometimes organ damage.

There are many high quality bird supply stores online where you can purchase healthy diets and other bird supplies. I have links to some of my favorites on my website.

You do not want to use material in a nest that promotes the growth of fungi or bacteria. Straw is an excellent source to grow fungi and bacteria very quickly. Within 24 hours wet straw can support the growth such things as asper which birds are highly suseptible. Aspergillosis is difficult and expensive to treat.

Like I said since I am not a breeder I can't offer much help with your other questions. I do have excellent educational resource links on my website as well. I encourage you to take a look.

Jennifer
www.feathersandscales.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello,

   I'm really sorry about not seeing that you weren't a breeder.  I missed that.  But thank you for your help! And as for your question why we took the egg out, well, Banjo's laid from 1-6 eggs at a time, but never sat on them! She just laid them.. Charlie however, did try to hatch them.. Unfortunately, it was to difficult for him, because he's such a people-person - he would come up to the cage to sing, and whistle, whenever someone walked by - so we ordered an incubator, then when she laid her next we put it in there.   Oh, one more thing; We don't know when she laid the egg exactly, but it could've been up to 3/4 days.. Would you know if that could be a problem?   
  
         Thanks for your help!
         Shiri

Answer
Hello again,

Not a problem - I'm glad to help when I can.

Have you "candled" the eggs to see if they are even fertile? My own cockatiel doesn't sit on the eggs when they are infertile. To do this you simply take the egg into a dark room and shine a light under the egg. You will see a shadow of what is inside.

I don't know how long a cockatiel egg can survive without incubation. This does vary by species. You may want to ask one of the breeder experts that question.

Jennifer
www.feathersandscales.com