Hello everyone!

I am planning on taking pictures of the chicks daily so I can make a collage on it. But, from the looks of the parents, I don't think I will be able to...

Marshmallow is always on her eggs. She will come out rarely to eat and drink (note how I didn't say poop). I will have to be there to catch her out so I can take them out of their cage for playtime while I check on the eggs.

For some reason, when I am trying to get Marshmallow used to me (by knocking on the roof of the nest box and slowly opening the top) she started hissing at me, I didn't mind it until I check later to find her jumping at me with her tail fanned out. I am pretty nervous of bird bites especially since Marshmallow never bit me in her life so I am not sure if this will really hurt or not.

I heard that if the parents are not coming out, you can scoop them out with a kitchen spatula. So, I tried that and Marshmallow ran out of the nest. I then look at her and I see that scariest face from her.

Her face was MAD, her beak was wide open ready to kill me, he wings were spread out wide!!! Her hisses sounded like a snake and them she was slowly walking towards me (with that position) and I just let her in the nest.

After, I tried again but this time, I closed the entrance of the nest box and she spend about 10 seconds doing that position but than have up. I then opened the cage door and I thought she was going to attack me but she just perched on me and asked for scratches.

I really want this to be a great experience for the three of us.

I know it's normal for them to protect their nest but what happens when they have chicks? How can I check on them? They are just going to be worse than what they are doing now.

Update on egg#1, I see swimming veins lol

I guess you'll have to take it slowly...
I know nothing of breeding...but scooping her
up in a spatula isn't such a good idea...
Id wait to for Tielfan or some one who has breed
birds to give you advise before you do anything else.. sorry I cant advise...

I know nothing of breeding...but scooping her
up in a spatula isn't such a good idea...



Tielfan has recommended scooping the birds.

I always scoop with my hand. I think I'd be likely to damage the eggs with a spatula, but there are people on TC who use this method and say it works. If I needed hand protection, I would put on a glove and scoop with my gloved hand. I'm not keen on grabbing a bird with a glove, but you're not grabbing here, just moving the bird. When you're scooping, do it gently but quickly so they don't have time to jump up and down on the eggs trying to strike at you, and watch to make sure that an egg or baby doesn't accidentally get scooped up in the parent's claws.

It's normal for birds to be angry at intrusions into the nest, and it's said that the tamer the bird is, the more aggressive it will be because it isn't afraid of you. With my birds, they get used to the intrusions. When they first begin nesting they hiss and threaten when I look in the box, and strike at my hand if I put it in the box. But as time goes by they get used to it, and by the time the babies are feathering out I can put my hand in the nest and touch any bird there, and the parents don't care. The process starts all over again the next year, you basically have to retrain them every year.

So keep on peeking into the nest and putting your hand in as far as you dare. You don't have to scoop the parent out of the way if you don't want to, but in that case don't stick your hand in so far that they start trying to attack. The eggs could get cracked from a parent bird jumping around in the nest.

Okay, thank you

I didn't scoop them out, I used the spatula to guid them through the nest box exit.

I will use your methods. Thanks again!

You don't have to scoop them completely out of the nestbox. Just scoop them away from the eggs/babies and they'll usually decide to leave the nestbox at that point. But if they decide to stay there and argue you might need to show them the door lol.

I tried opening the nest box and Marshmallow started jumping again

She also jumps when I close the nest box top! I tried taking a video but she stopped jumping when she saw the camera
Any tips?

Here is a picture of marshmallow in mid-jump


It looks like she is trying to attack her mate but don't worry, they are both bonded! When Marshmallow sees me, she becomes a nervous wreak and starts jumping at everything that moves. They always share nest box duties

Btw, that is what her jump looks like when she is trying to attack me.

Poor Baruch!! I sympathise deeply but your posts really made me laugh, I could perfectly imagine the scenes you were describing... because Trilly and Frank were exactly the same!

Well, I have to say I am not sure about Frank, he hissed at me but he never lunged the way Trilly did. She was a demon, acting exactly the way you describe MM.

I left them alone completely until the babies were born. I opened the rooftop once or twice during the day but never tried to put my hands inside unless they were away, I didn't want to upset them and to be honest I didn't see any usefulness in looking constantly at the eggs.

After the babies were born I checked very often, but only put my hands in when the parents were outside the nest wolfiing down some food.
After a few days I noticed what Tielfan described: they basically let me put the hands inside the nest. BUT I always did that when they were outside the nest already.
They would come near me to see what I was doing with the babies but they were not angry or panicky, just curious to see what I was doing.

I am sure your guys will be perfectly agreeable after a while.

Scooping these poor guys with a spatula seems a bit like shooing someone with a broom... not really nice!!!