06/12/2026
We got a little surprise this morning. We knew we had the two budgie babies that hatched out over a week ago from a first-time mama, but when we checked the nest box this morning, we found a tiny little baby that hatched overnight, and all three babies were very, very cool, pretty much motionless, and had empty crops. So, off to the brooder they went to get warmed up. After warming for about 30 minutes or so and becoming active again, they all had their first handfeed (and seemingly the first feed at all for the tiny one). All are nice and toasty and resting comfortably now. We separated the tiny little kid from its older siblings to eliminate the risk of getting trampled. There is just such an age and size difference. The delayed hatching of the tiny kiddo could be why mama abandoned the nest. She did a great job with the first two, but seemingly the third one was just too much for this first-time mama. No worries. That's why we're prepared to incubate when necessary and handraise from Day 1 when necessary.
