HI all!!

I have a YS and Cinamon Gcc pair that for me has always been good parents. They are both 3yo and this is their fourth clutch since they were 12 months old. Iv had them from when they were babies (they were babies of another two pairs that i have). They raised their 1st and 3rd clutchs both of 6 babies perfectly until bubs fledged and weaned. the 2nd clutch i pulled for handrearing but intended to leave this clutch (4th) with mum and dad as there are a number of beautiful pineapples in the clutch which i wanted to retain for breeding. But alas! Mum and dad seem to have stopped feeding the bubs! this is their first clutch for this season they double clutched on their first season but i didnt let them last season. Iv come accross birds that, just like some humans, dont make good parents and id thought id weasled those birds out of my aviaries. This doesnt make sense because these birds have preformed with flying colors three times before. I could understand if they were tired from having previous clutches this season but this is their first. They get loads of freash veg and fruit, soaked and sprouted seed, wholemeal toast, brown rice (cooked) they are on Vetafarm Breeder pellets and get Avical soaked into their seed once a week (Avical is a calcium and iodine suppliment) and their cuttle bone and iodine bells (which they dont touch) and they also get their mutivitamin and mineral supps in their water twice weekly. Honestly mum and dad are flourishing. they are nice big birds with stunning color, bright and allert eyes and very active. Why would they just stop feeding this clutch of six babies all of a sudden. the oldest baby is approx 4-5 weeks with the youngest at about 3 weeks old. the youngest one is completely empty. I didnt want to pull these ones espesially now that the oldest one is so old its going to be hard to feed the older ones. Does anyone have any thing to share as to why this could be happening?

They could want to go to nest again...that is the reason why some parents stop feeding the chicks, or start plucking them. I'm afraid if they don't feed the chicks, you are going to have to pull for handfeeding. I'd start with the youngest two and see if the parents resume feeding.

I agree with Carrie Anne.


Could something have disturbed them to the point that they were frightened off the nest?

I'm assuming you want parent fed babies as breeders because you feel they make better parents...I'm not sure that is truly proven to be true, because many hand raised babies go on to be excellent parents.

Yes i believe you might have been right Andies Mom. It has been storming here since last night and they are in an outdoor aviary. perhaps the noise wind and rain has spooked the parents. Luckily i checked about 10 mins ago and found that the parents had resumed feeding. i guess i was just so alarmed to peek in and find totally empty babies! The other thing i was pondering was that because its such a large clutch the oldest baby is nearly 5 weeks old and would be starting to "slim down" for fledging where as the youngest is still only 3 weeks or so.
It would really have worried me if i had to pull the babies for hand rearing but i wanted to leave them because my two brooders are just about full and its a large clutch so i was just going to let them stay parent reared but as most of you know i chose let them breed so if the responsilbility comes a callin of course i would pull them and surfice in order to save the little bublets!!

I can assure i will be keeping a very close eye on them from now on and make sure that mummy and daddy dont have any mishaps again!

Thanks all

When we had our two cockatiel they had babies and every time they would over preen them till they bleed so i use to handrear them.. I still don't know why they did that tho .

I had a pair that did this....and the reason why they do it is because they want to go to nest (breed) again. So they start plucking the chicks. Usually the parents are 'trained' into doing that because most people pull for handfeeding around 10 to 15 days. So if you got the pair from someone else, perhaps the previous owner pulled the chicks for handfeeding and thus 'trained' the parents to expect the chicks gone and out of the nest by 3 weeks.