Nothing to Lose by Trying

Abstract

April 22, 2003 - Little did I know when I read message 38664 on the Brotogeris chat group on YahooGroups, what an adventure I would enter. Yvonne Gomez came onto the list to tell us about a problem she was having with her Orange-chinned Parakeets (Brotogeris jugularis). The Orange-chinned Parakeet is also known as the Tovi Parakeet, Brown-shouldered Parakeet, and Bee Bee Parakeet.

Our California valley weather had been very unstable and we had gone from warm weather to cold in a matter of hours. Yvonne had gone out to feed her animals and noticed that her proven Orange-chinned hen was fluffed up and not looking well at all. The Orange-chinned hen was taken to the vet and Yvonne left her not knowing what was wrong with the hen.

Yvonne thought she would take the opportunity of the pair of birds being out of the flight to give it a real good cleaning. When she took down the nest box she discovered eggs. I am not sure what happened, but Yvonne told us she broke two of the five eggs. She took the remaining three eggs into the house and put them in her turtle incubator set at 86 degrees F. It was then she told us of her situation and I volunteered to put the three eggs underneath my Canary-winged Parakeets (Brotogeris versicolurus) whose eggs I knew were clear.

 

She was egg bound, had an enlarged liver and a bacterial infection. She also decided to take me up on the offer of fostering the 3 OC eggs under my Canary-winged Parakeets with no guarantees, but knew she had nothing to lose at this point.

April 24, 2003 - Today we were told of a horrible experience at the vet's office that would, however, have a happy ending. Yvonne had gone to pick up her little hen and somehow the bird escaped from the isolette unit it was in, flew out of the exam room,

through two opened doors into the waiting room where it crashed into a glass window. The bird fell onto the floor, eyes closed, limp and not moving. The vet quickly took the bird back into the examination room and put it on oxygen and started it on IV fluids.

Yvonne left the vets office not expecting to see her bird again. She called back to the vets office later that afternoon expecting to hear the worst, but she was pleasantly surprised to learn that when the bird flew into the window it moved the egg into a better position and the hen had laid the egg and was up, eating and fussing. The vet had Yvonne leave her there overnight to be watched at no additional charge. It was then I learned that I would be getting the fourth Orange-chinned eggs to care for.

April 25, 2003 - The hen went home from the vet's office and I met Yvonne and got the eggs from her around 1: l 5pm. I came home quickly and inspected the eggs and took pictures. I had Yvonne marked the eggs so we would know who was who when I added them into the Canary-winged nest box. When I got home I pulled all four of the Canary-winged's infertile eggs and replaced them with the Orange-chinned's eggs.

April 26, 2003 - I was very upset when I went out the next morning and discovered the Canary-winged hen had left the nest and eggs. She had been sit-

ting almost 30 days and had now given up the nest The eggs were cold and I was in a panic. I quickly started checking nest boxes and was relived when I found another Canary-winged had recently laid four eggs. I added the Orange-chinned eggs to her four, giving that poor hen eight eggs to care for. I checked the eggs later that day and the hen was doing the job and the eggs were all warm to the touch.

May 3, 2003 - I went out to candle the Orange-chinned eggs today, it had been eight days. I was very excited Lo see that the last egg (laid in the vet's office) was fertile (could tell by the marking). I was also disappointed that none of the other Orange-chinned eggs showed fertile nor did any of the Canary-winged eggs, but decided to leave all the eggs a few more clays. r was worried because the possibility three of the eggs had been left unincubatecl between I 0 to 14 clays before I got them.

May 5, 2003 - Today...

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