cockatiel chicks

[schavon2]

2 of the 3 eggs have hatched, and it doesn't look as if the 3rd is going to. momma has even pushed it away from the babies, who she is tending to religiously. i'm wondering if i should remove the infertile egg.
our only other experience with breeding produced 1 chick out of 3 eggs. it was shortly after i removed the 2 infertile eggs that the chick died. wonder if parents stopped tending to it because of the removal, or just a coincidence? it was their first clutch, and all that i've read indicates that first timers are not always successful. but i remember stories from when i was a kid about how you're never supposed to disrupt a bird's nest because they will abandon their young if it's distrubed. old wives tale? or just true for birds in the wild? or true for all birds?
knock on wood, so far so good with this clutch, so i don't want to do anything to screw it up.
i'm not going to hand feed these chicks, but will handle them a good bit. need to wait 'til they're hardier of course, they're so little and frail now...i figure after about 3 or 4 weeks?
would appreciate some thoughts from anyone who's bred cockatiels.
thanks

[Redstorm1721]

Well When I removed my cockatiel's eggs the first time,she kept laying. So I left them till their was no interest at all. But about 2 months ago,my mom was here, and I was telling her about a bird here, making a nest in the new bird house we got. She insisted that we get a chair and look! I was telling her if there was eggs maybe she would not go near it. Mom, being from a farm in the country, said " no that won't bother them" So I got a chair and looked in on them. The mother was sitting on the eggs. Right after that she left the nest and never came back? So maybe I would leave them for a bit. I don't think it a wifes tale? Gail

[schavon2]

i don't think she'll keep laying while she's tending to the 2 chicks, will she? she hasn't since she laid these.

the one infertile egg isn't stinking or anything, so i think i'll just live it in there. better to be safe than sorry.

[Shockadine]

When I bred the tiels, our last egg was infertile. I left it in there for warmth till the last fertile egg hatched, when the babies had each other to keep warm when mom was away. I didn't have any problems with her laying more eggs till she was separated from the babies, and that was because she was plucking there heads. If she isn't paying much attention to the egg, I think it would probably be ok to take the egg away.

I started handling the babies at 2 weeks for short amounts of time, because they're pin feathered at this age still need to be warm. I think it's nessesary to let them get used to people at a young age. They are all nice birds. One of them is still a little afraid of me though.

Well, I hope I helped a little. I only bred tiels once, so I'm still learning too. Congrats on the babies that hatched, and wish you and the babies good luck.

[schavon2]

i'll probably have to handle them in a week or so, if only to clean the nest box. but after our last time, finding the one chick dead after i'd removed the infertile egg, i'm real hesitant to do anything. i'll look the next time both mom and dad are out of the box (which isn't very often). if they've pushed the infertile egg away from the babies, i'll take it out.
thanks

[Shockadine]

I didn't really think of that, but yeah, you are going to have to take them out earlier, while you clean the box. They're poop machines. Sometimes I had to clean the box a couple times a day. It probably won't be as bad for you since theres only 2. And the babies seem to have a way of pooping on the walls of the box. How old are they now?

[schavon2]

no more than a week...i came home from our holiday on the sea to find them. we got home last tuesday. they're still VERY small, but nearly doubled in size from what they were when i first saw them.

this morning the infertile egg is pushed right up close beside them, so i don't want to remove it yet.