baby budgies - hand rearing, anyone done it?

[s111111111gh]

Longs story short - we put our 4 budgies into an aviary, with some breeding boxes to "sell" the idea to the kids.

Two loads of chicks, not a one survived - the hen was useless mother and didn't feed them. Shame.

So, another batch of eggs, and the other hen went broody - so I cleverly swapped eggs under her in the hope she'd feed the chicks.

We now have three ugly beautiful wee prawns - all doing well!

But, they'll need to come in for the winter - they'll be too wee to manage outside?

So, the oldest one is a week old, youngest is 2 days, 4 eggs still to go.

I'm hoping the weather stays warm until they are about 3 weeks old, when they could come inside and I'd try hand rearing them? They'd make better pets if that way anyway, easier to rehome.

Never done it, mind. Anyone got some top tips? Alternatively - anyone want a budgie prawn?

[Coffeenowplease]

Id love a prawn - I use budgie talk forum for advice. here its very good.

[gussiegrips]

Thanks, Coffee.

It's all a bit of a disaster - the hen threw two chicks out the next as soon as they got their fluffy feathers. Very odd. I thought the first one had maybe accidentally crawled out, but, nope.

So, I lifted the third one yesterday - it's 3 weeks old and the feathers are coming through on it's head.

It's gone from weighing 37g to 31 today, and is reluctant to eat the feed I bought. Poor wee thing, it cheeps in it's little box and sounds positively plaintive.

But, I'm feeding it very watered down feed every two hours (formula says every 4, so I figured less but more often would be ok) and am hoping it settles down today.

Not like I have anything else to be doing with my time...hmph.

See if this one dies too? Nightmare, kids are trying Very Hard not to give it a name - and I've caught them planning how to teach it to skateboard. So, no pressure then...

[Coffeenowplease]

Aww poor little things.

:( Keep trying. It is possible to teach skateboarding - there are some clips on you tube..

[Coffeenowplease]

Aww poor little things. Hope he makes it. Bless him.

You might just be able to teach it to skateboard. There are some good clips on you tube about that.