Hello all!

Besides this forum I also browse dutch ones and I wanted to ask you guys what you think went wrong here.

I'll put up the dutch text and translate underneath.

Wildkleur valkparkiet man, gekocht juni 2014, toen half jaartje oud, genaamd Paulie, relatief tam.
Male cockatiel, normal grey, bought june 2015 at the age of 6 months. His name is Paulie and he's relatively tame.

Lutino pop, gekocht december 2014, toen ook dik half jaar oud. Ook relatief tam.
Lutino Hen, bought december 2014, also past 6 months old, also relatively tame.

Vogels zitten in een papegaaienkooi in de huiskamer.
Birds are in a parrotcage in the livingroom.


Op een avond zei een vriend: Waarom geen nestkastje erin? Dat is leuk, leerzaam en je krijgt meer vogeltjes.
One evening a friend said: 'Why no nestbox? It's fun and educational + you get more birds.'

Dus ik mij gedurende een aantal weken ingelezen, zelf een broedblokje gemaakt. Beide vogels waren toen een dik jaar oud (juni 2015).
So I read up during a couple of weeks on breeding, made my own nestbox and waited till both of them were about a year old (june 2015).

Al snel begon het paren, maar het duurde maar en duurde maar(voor het gevoel) tot er eitjes kwamen. Dit was in september dus wel raak. Wij erg blij, er was een ei!
Soon the mating began, but it lasted forever (or it felt that way) for eggs to be laid. Finaly in september it was bingo. We were happy, we had an egg!

Vanaf dag 1 zaten man en pop op het ei, netjes afwisselend.
From day one, male and hen were sitting on the egg, alternating nicely.

Dag 3 kwam ei 2, dag 4 ei 4, en toen o. De dag 1 ei tot er welgeteld 10! Eitjes lagen. Broeden ging prima, man en pop allebei. Heel even was er wel eens niemand, dit duurde hoogstens 2 min.
Day 3 came egg number 2, day 4 egg 4 and then every other day 1 egg up to 10! The brood worked like a charm for both male and hen. The eggs were never alone and if they were it lasted only 2 min.

Ook kwamen de eitjes uit. We hadden 8 bevruchte eiitjes waarvan er 7 uitkwamen. The eggs hatched. We had 7 chicks out of 8 furtile eggs.

Vanaf dag 1 ging het voeren goed, zowel man als pop. Toen de oudste 8 dagen oud was merkten we dat het dood lag. The feeding went well from day 1, both for mom and dad. When the eldest chick was 8 days old we noticed it was dead.

Wij dus eruit gehaald, blok en kooi gereinigd, vogeltjes terug. Dag later jong 2 overleden. We took it out, cleaned the nestbox and cage and put the chicks back. But the next day chick 2 died.

Dag 11 jong 3 overleden.
Weer blok en kooi reinigen.
Dag 13....
Zo ongeveer om de dag een jong valkarkietje dood in het blok, terwijl voor onze ogen alles relatief goed leek te gaan.
Day 11... Chick 3 died.
Cleaned everything again.
Day 13...
About every other day one chickatiel died in the nestbox, while we thought everything went as it should.

Kregen eivoer van welkoop elke dag ververst, vitaminedruppels in het water, grote parkietenzaad, sepia en kalk was voorhanden. Elk jong ging dood met volle krop.
We provided eggfood from welkoop and replaced it on a daily base. Vitamin was added to the woater. Large parakeet seeds, cuttlefish and grit was provided. Yet every chick died with a full crop.

Nu blijft het paren doorgaan, zelfs zonder blok, en wij willen niet meer een nestje dode jongen begraven..
Now they continue to mate, even without nestbox, and we don't want to bury another nest of young...

Kan iemand ons vertellen wat er eventueel is misgegaan?
Can somebody tell us what possibly went wrong?

So there it is... What went wrong?
I'm thinking the provided food might have been to large for the chicks, but can't be sure. It could've been a disease... What do you guys think?

There are many things that could have gone wrong, but my guess would be that the chicks lost the ability to digest their food and starved with a full crop. One potential cause of this is the grit, which the parents probably fed to the babies. There's a lot of fear on the internet about crop impaction caused by grit, and in the case of adult birds I think that this fear is mostly unjustified. But it does seem to be a fact that it can cause problems for babies. Adult birds can regulate the amount of grit in the crop/gizzard by regurgitating it or by passing it through the digestive tract and out with the poop. But a particle that's OK for an adult might be too big for a baby to pass, and babies may not have learned how to regurgitate yet.

Another possibility is a yeast infection in the crop. The most likely source of this would be if moist food sat around long enough for microorganisms to grow before being fed to the chicks. Here's an article with information on yeast infection in cockatiel chicks: http://www.internationalcockatielresour ... abies.html

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

I'll go see if I can translate back to them