Finches Settling In

The finches are settling in well, constantly beeping and chatting away!

They're in a Hagen Vision cage with a couple of nests and seem to like it so far...

Zebra Finches

We've had the Diamond Doves since 2009 but lost one recently so just have a single female.

I went to Birmingham Reptiles & Pets where we got Hughie the tortoise, just for a look, and came back with these...

A trio of Zebra Finches.

They've settled in with the dove already and make really cute beeping noises.

Diamond Dove Chick - Growing Up!

Have got some photos of our 3rd Diamond Dove chick :)
Still can't believe how fast they grow!
7 days old...

 9 days old...

 11 days old, next to egg for comparison...

 ...and next to Mom...

 18 days old and nearly fully grown...

 ... next to Dad...

 29 days old...

 Dove egg next to a £1 coin to see size!

Dove chick

The doves have hatched another dove chick this afternoon :)

There is still 1 more egg to go, so hopefully that hatches too 8)

More Doves

Its all starting again.
The last chicks were around for a week, and then one morning I came down and one had died, later on the other died aswell - I think they were too cold because they were big and only had 1 adult sitting on them.

Judy has laid another 2 eggs ... again, they are fertile ... again.
I like having her hatch them, but if they keep dying I might have to start thinking about taking the eggs away as its such a shame to put all that effort into hatching the chicks and then abandoning them :/

We'll see what happens this time!

Spoke to soon

.... one of the Dove eggs was cracked on the bottom of the cage.
They may have accidently dropped it, or sometimes they know an egg is infertile and kick it out.
They can do it because if they sit on the eggs, get off, then get back off, an infertile egg will cool down much quicker than a fertile egg. So they will kick out an egg if they think its infertile.


Don't count your doves before they hatch ;)

The story starts again ...

The Doves have laid 2 more eggs, I noticed the second one yesterday.
Going by past experiences they won't hatch so I'm not getting hopeful yet!

So far they've all been fertile but not able to hatch or the parents have got bored and the chicks have got too cold and so died - except the one which hatched.
I think its a girl now because the ceres around her eyes are small, but they could just be not fully developed yet.

If the eggs do hatch I think I'll sell them, ideally I'd get another unrelated breeding pair so I can have 2 blood lines and sell one chick from each pair off as breeding pairs, but as Richard and Judy are unrelated, they'll be ok as sometimes breeders do hatch from related pairs to improve bloodlines.

Another DIS :(

Another Diamond Dove chick dead in shell, Judy left it and I left her to see if she'd get back on but she didn't, its a couple of days overdue.
I opened it, and the air sac was really big, but not pipped. There was a perfect little chick inside, fully developed but hadn't hatched for some reason.
Its the 3rd time a chick has developed and not hatched so I don't know whats going on with them. They aren't growing too big for the shell, and the shell can't be too thick so I don't really know what has happened :(

Egg candling

I've just candled the egg to see if it was alive because I though it was dead, and everything looks good :)
Judy is sitting on it fine, keeping it warm.
When I candled it the air sac looks a bit big, but that should be ok. The chick was moving inside the shell!
I still think its amazing that a chick can develop out of something as simple as an egg, and then know what to do to get out and survive.

Diamond Dove Egg

:(
I was candling the egg today and accidently made a crack in the end of the egg.
The shells are so thin and the eggs so small that I was concetrating on not dropping it that I pushed the candlee too hard against it.
Fortunately (if there is a fortunately) it was on the end with the air sac, so I sealed the hole with some uncoloured nail varnish and hopefully it will stop any bacteria getting in.
I've read about people using nail varnish, melted candle wax and ever sellotape to fill in cracks on eggs, but because this is such a small egg I'm not sure if it'll work.

It was fertile because I could see tiny little veins growing on the inside.
Good luck chick!

Eggs

The doves have laid another egg and have been sitting on it for a few days. I've candled it really quickly and I can see veins, meaning its fertile and so hopefully it'll hatch. I'll try and get some photos of the fertile egg later :D


I sent some quail eggs out today for someone to try and hatch!!
It felt a bit strange to think back to when I got my little eggs, hatched them and raised them and now they'll have babies of their own and will never see them! Thats one of the good things about eggs, you can send them to another part of the country and introduce new bloodlines really easily.

Tiny Egg

I've just candled the tiny egg and it is clear. I've taken it off them so they don't sit on it for no reason.
Thats it on top of a 5p coin, its tiny.

Tiny Egg

Judy has laid a tiny egg in the nest. It's about half the size of all the other eggs, and because its so small I doubt it will successfully hatch.
I'll let them keep it though.

Update

The last eggs didn't hatch. Judy laid another egg so there were 3, then a few days later they all fell out of the nest onto the floor and went cold. One was cracked, so I pulled it open and there was a tiny chick in it even with little feathers! So I know they are fertile, just unlucky :/
She laid another egg the day before yesterday and last night it cracked while she was sitting on it so she was covered in yolk. I washed and disinfected the whole cage and nest and made sure she was cleaner.
I think she might get a lack of calcium if she keeps laying like this, so I've made sure they always have grit and cuttlefish, so hopefully will be ok.

Matilda + Theodore the chickens went walkies next door today. I looked through the gap in the fence and they were on the lawn eating all the grass!

MORE Dove Eggs

I've got back from a week in Skye this week, and there are 2 more eggs in the nest being incubated, I've taken out the older ones and left them sitting on the 2 freshest eggs.

Its been hard to keep up, but I think this is the 10th egg, with only one hatching into a chick so far because the first few cracked, then they lost interest etc.
The chick is still with them, but I still don't know wether it is a male or female, as it still isn't fully developed, and it is halping Judy to incubate the egg.

4 eggs

Richard + Judy are sitting on 4 eggs!
The first was laid 2 weeks ago, the second 12 days ago and the new 2 have only been there a few days. I've candled them and this time written on in pencil the order they were laid. The first 2 are fertile and look like they're developing, the 3rd is starting to develop and the 4th is clear which means it is either newly laid and not started to develop, or it is infertile.
It looks like they might end up with 3 chicks! The 1st chick is helping them to hatch them and they are fighting yet, so I'll leave it in the same cage for a bit.

2nd Egg

Judy has laid the second egg in the nest today, so she will probably start sitting on them soon.

I still don't know the sex of the baby so haven't named it, but its still living with the parents and still growing.

ANOTHER egg

Richard and Judy have laid ANOTHER egg, and they still have the chick with them. They aren't sitting on it yet, but I presume they will.
I'll probably take the baby off and keep it, as it as so tame, and then sell the next ones which hatch as we don't have room for them.

Chick - 12 days old

The Diamond Dove chick is 12 days old today, and has grown loads and doesn't look funny anymore :D It was on the bottom of the cage this morning, and I had him/her out for a bit, and it was just sitting on me, then it flew across to the cage! So I put it back in the bottom, then moved it back up to the nest where it stayed.




I still don't know what sex it is, so it remains nameless.

Chick - 8 days old

The chick is 8 days old, and its grown loads in size and got more feathers in a few days.

The egg it hatched out of.