Baby Parakeets! Birthed by my Parakeets.. a few pics!

At my house, we bought two parakeets maybe four years back. They were both female, to prevent any breeding between the 'keets. And than, about three months back, my friend from school who just graduated his BA was moving into an apartment who's roomates were not fond of waking up to screaming 'keets at 7:00 AM everyday.. (you do get used to it after a while) but he refused to bring them in to Petco or Petsmart where you have no idea who is adopting them.. so, yeah. They ended up with me, getting an upgraded cage and more cash to spend on food, toys, supplements, etc.

I didn't mind. They were awesome colors and from day one interacted very well with the others. Cool stuff!

We were under the belief both of them were female, as my friend was told by the store he bought them from. But a bright yellow one, with some of the beak markings of a girl, turned out to be male.


Yup, his 'keet came and knocked up my 'keet. But it's okay. He is being a great father. Always in the nest with the mother feeding her or his babies, and the mother stays huddled over them about 23 hours out of the day. Tough job for the mama.

Since parakeets are NOT meant to breed in this cold weather, we have had to make some changes to keep them alive thee last two weeks (turning up the heat in the house to a constant 70, plus a space heater pointed at the corner their cage is in and a humidifier, plus misting them with cool water a few times a day.

Two out of the five eggs she laid were fertile and therefore hatched. The others will not hatch, and the mother will soon throw them out of the nest. But just a few minutes ago from posting this, I finally happened to be walking by the cage at my parents house and saw the mother out cleaning herself, and was able to grab my keychain light and snap three pics of the babies before she retreated into the nest.

Enjoy

They are all huddled up against each other


The one on the left is a couple days older than the one on the right, and you can see the difference in the little dimples that will soon be their full coat of feathers


One can open his eyes now, ones are still sealed shut

Pretty cool, eh? ;D ;D