are there any birds that could kill my cockatiels babies

:mrgreen: hey my friend has a massive avairy with lots of species of birds. Her cockatiels have started having eggs and one hatched! But then over the night the baby was found with bite marks all over it. Are there any breeds of birds that would do this to them. I suspect the Kakarakies because they always hover around the nesting box. Out of this list of birds are there any that would attack a baby: Cockatiels, Budgies, Princess Parrots, Finches, Kakarakies, Lovebirds, Quails[/b]

 

HI the likely suspects are the budgies, I had an aviary with cockatiels and budgies in and my budgies killed 3 out of 4 of my baby cockatiels.

Budgies are very agressive during the breeding season and will fight larger birds for there nesting site if there are any eggs in the nest they will throw them out of the nest, If there is chicks in the nest they usually kill them.

If your friend wants to successfully breed all these birds then his/her best chance is seperating the birds during the breeding season once there chicks are 6-8 weeks old then they can all be put back in the aviary.

Or i would remove the budgies and see if it happens again.
Finches will not attack another species of bird and some do not make very good parents, Quails live on the floor and can not fly so therefore they can also be ruled out.

Kakarakis and lovebirds can also be suspect as these too become aggressive during the breeding season.

When having different species of birds in an aviary and you plan on breeding then its best to place 2 nest boxes for each pair in the aviary at the same height this will reduce fighting for the best nesting site.

Other than that its a case of seperating the birds into there own species and see how things go.
My money lies on the budgies being the ones that have killed them.

The only other suspect is the parents young cockatiels or ones that have never raised chicks before could have done it, Since birds peck there chicks to get them to eat what could have happened is because a chick has not responded to the parents then they have kept on picking at it to the point they have killed it.
Also if the chick has become chilled and died then the parents will pick at it to try and get it out of the nest.

Mike

 

thanks teh budgies were hanging around the box a bit as well. My friend thinks it might have been the female cockatiel because she is a really bad parent. It also happened during the night. My friend has about 5 nesting boxes all the same height.

 

How many breeding pairs of birds does your friend have as there should be 2 nests for each pair.

If your friend thinks that the female cockatiel is the one that killed the chicks then it is best if this female is caged on her own with no mate.
Chances are is if she has killed the baby then she will do it again with her next clutch....

Mike