Sad news....

Written by George Thursday, 09 July 2009 19:00

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to assist in the hatching of a Blue Crown baby - It was a very scary moment. We were cleaning cages, and for some reason Jodie decided to peek in the nest box of our younger pair of Blue Crowns - they were feeding a baby who was hatched on the 29th of June. To her surprise she saw a half hatched baby set aside by the parents and upon taking the baby felt that it was too cold. She was surprised to see the feet move and then we went to an overdrive - and through Jodie's delicate and expert procedures of removing dry half hatched shells, the baby was born. We were thrilled beyond belief.

Sadly after a few days, the baby did not make it. Jodie was blaming herself, for we both had to make a choice after the baby was born to hand feed from day one or put the baby back with the parents. We decided on hand-feeding for I thought that would give the baby the best chance to survive. Sometimes we are wrong - or it was just not meant to be. Either way we were both sad. We buried the baby next to our beloved 'MAX' and had to endure some tough questions from our 5 year old, who was crying and asking lots of questions.

After almost 4 days, we are almost back to normal, but the brooder providing me with chilling reminder of how the sweet baby was taken away from us. We are finding solace in hand-feeding a clutch of 5 suns and 1 blue crown. I cannot wait for them to grow up a little bit - so we can taken them out and play.