výroční zpráva 2009 ( 4,12 MB ) - Zoo Ostrava

temperature was 36 °C and the chick weighed 6.8 g. Fed every hour, the young one gathered some strengthafter the third feeding session, starting begging and opening its beak. The last feeding time was 9 pm, whilethe first feeding session was timed for around 5 am. On 6 June, the chick died, weighing 9.6 grams.Assuming the basket was too shallow and the chicks could have fallen out very easily, both nesting basketswere removed and only the budgerigar nest-box retained, with 1/3 of its top covered. On 4 June, bothcardinals accepted the box. Again, they created a ring nest littered with plenty of grass-blades and coconutfibre. The diet offered was the same as before, only calcium was increased in form of grit, cuttlebone andground eggshells. It was observed that each time the cardinals got inside the macaw indoor aviary, the bowlcontaining the concentrated calcium source was something to which the birds rushed immensely.On 13 June, two eggs were found in the nest-box. In the morning, the female was often flying outdoors andin the afternoon seen sitting on the eggs. The male guarded the female and the clutch with patience, sittingaround the box. On 25 June, two chicks were found inside the nest-box, with the parents exercising good care.At that time, insects were the chief diet. The first three days, the female almost did not leave the box and themale was providing the food; as of the day 4, the female started flying outdoors as well, assisting the male infeeding the young. After day 10, the parent birds were visiting the nest-box much less than before.On 5 July, both chicks left the box. The parents were flying to the young, but did not feed. The lesser chickwas put back into the nest-box, while the male kept on attacking the other one that stayed on the floor, whichmight be to make the young bird fly up and get back to the box or at least on the branches placed higher abovethe ground to gain safety. Unfortunately, the aviary did not provide such opportunities, so it was decided totake both chicks away and finish rearing by hand. What's more, the older chick had already bruises on its headand was exhausted.Once separated, the young birds got their first food in form of small UNI Nutribird pellets soaked in water.The very first day the birds were force-fed, but on the second day their response to the syringe as a feedinginstrument was much better, with feeding movements and begging coming up as well. The cardinals wereplaced in an incubator with temperature of 29 °C. They were fed 7 to 8 times per day based upon behaviour,with the last feeding time at 9 pm and the first session around 6 am. As of day 3, squeezed out zophobasworms without their chitin shells poured with crushed cuttlebone and Nutrimix for exotic animals were addedas well. During the day, the young birds were put into a little cage, with room temperature about 25 °C.From day 17, the juveniles started showing more courage, trying to fly around the cage. They found thehighest perch for themselves, which they preferred for sitting. They were retained in the cage night and day,with temperature being 24 °C. Inside the cage, feed items - apple, orange, salad and Chinese cabbage - werehung and a bowl was offered, filled with small mealworms, boiled carrot, rice and shelled oats and soakedmillet spike. During the first days, the young cardinals tried pecking the fruits and vegetables, but as beggingstill occurred, food was added using the tweezers. The birds were getting small pellets and pre-arrangedzophobas worms with crushed cuttlebone and vitamins. Over the subsequent week, they already learnedhow to take the food by themselves, so became fully independent starting with 25 July or so, when they wereone month old. They preferred small mealworms to all of those fruits, vegetables and grain offered. Offering56