Aussie Finch Forum

Your thoughts on best course of action, seems 2 of 3 painted chicks are dead on the nest. They hatched about 10 - 14 days ago. Leave em alone or remove the dead ones? Haven't heard feeding noises for a while, so could be curtains.

Do you have any thoughts as to why they died? Disturbance? Nest inspection? Heat? I would not touch anything. If one is still alive, maybe the dead young smell is to cover the scent of the live baby.
Do they get heaps of seeding grasses?

If I ever discover (often by the smell) dead chicks I always remove them immediately. I can't for the life of me understand how rotten carcasses could possibly be other than bad news for any live chicks.

I remove them too.

You're right, samdavis. But if they let them die be ause of interference (unlikely for painteds, I know) but further interference could kill the last baby.
You are most likely correct, of course

This is a tricky question because both answers have there possible outcomes. A dead rotting babies can lead to problems with attracting unwanted pests as well as bacteria growth, but the removal and disturbances could lead to the parents abandoning the last chick. My call would be to remove the dead and hope for the best as both ways can lead to a dead chick.

Thanks for the advice, Ill remove the dead one today and hope for the best. There are heap of soldier beetles about at the moment too.

.......Long tweezers and a good light.......this might at least reduce the disturbance to a minimum