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Cages
to foster Pin-tailed Parrot Finches are all wire, suspended (46cm wide
x 36cm high x 30cm deep), [18" wide x 14" high x 12" deep].
Bottom trays are internal so they can be raised during fledging.
Seed
capacity when not breeding means cages are self-sustaining for
a week
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Nest
boxes are 13cm [5"] half-fronted
white plastic cubes.
Coconut fibre only nesting material.
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Lighting
is normal fluorescent.
Watering is automatic, 6 times a day.
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All
cock trios versus Bengalese duos
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Trios seem more reliable
than duos especially at the critical stage of the first day or two after
fledging.
Previously we resorted
to hand feeding newly fledged Pin-tailed youngsters for 3 or 4 days
until the Bengalese took over their duty.
This
appears to have been due to less than totally robust youngsters.
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With additional
vitamins, probiotics, additives and protein boosted soft food this problem
has mostly disappeared, with trios anyway.
All-cocks
trios are more controllable than mixed trios, which can start laying when
the Pin-tailed aren't at their prolific best.
Sitting Bengalese cocks
have even taken over 2-day old Pin-tailed chicks when the Pin-tailed adults
had secretly built a nest and hatch eggs unbeknown to me.
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Creating
'clucky' Bengalese
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Cock Bengalese can
be relied upon to go 'clucky' within 4 days.
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Place
1 china egg daily in nest box for four or five consecutive mornings.
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Virgin
Bengalese
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A crucial element
appears to be that the Bengalese are young and have not raised any Bengalese
themselves. I will not raise any Bengalese within earshot of the
foster Bengalese.
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This is probably unnecessarily
extreme.
Bengalese as young as
3-months have proved enthusiastic and efficient foster parents.
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Splitting
nests
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If the parent
Pin-tailed are fully fit and laying their maximum 7 eggs of which 6
will be fertile, I prefer to split the eggs between two trios of foster
Bengalese to give all youngsters the best possible chance.
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In
the first few days after hatching the chicks can be moved so that one
foster trio has the most robust and the other foster trio the smaller,
less robust. This way the smaller Pin-tailed chicks, given good
attention and food, usually have a good chance of surviving.
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A
description of Feeding fostered Pin-tailed
Parrot Finch chicks is on the
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