The smallest of the clutch of four Princess Parrot chicks simply got too far behind its bigger siblings. My Plan was to top him up with hand rearing formula to give him a leg up but he just got too far behind and found him pushed to the side cold with his eyes closed. I pulled him out and put him in my heated hand rearing box and fed him the formula and he picked up nicely on the first day. However the second day was different story with him not readily feeding and I had to force him to eat to a degree. Unfortunately he didn't live out the day. The picture below shows the comparison in size between the smallest and his siblings. Oddly I witnessed one of the bigger chicks feeding the smallest although it may have just bee a simulation of what its parents feeding.
It has been a very successful year getting four different breeds of bird to produce young but if that wasn't enough two have decided to have there second clutch for the year. The Red Rumped female was laying new eggs in the nesting box even before all the young had left the box and by the egg fragment I believe she may have hatched the first of her second clutch.
Meanwhile the King Quail female found a new nesting location as soon as her previous chicks were of an independent size and she has produced another four chicks. The chicks are an exact replica of the previous clutch; one silver and three normal coloured.
