New to breeding

[Kaelha]

Hi all I have a few questions. I was given two irn's about 8 months ago and was told that the girl was too old to have babies ( I was happy to give them a home so was ok with this) well after watching them mating for weeks on end and seeing that she seemed very frustrated with the small breeding box that came with them, I put in a larger box. She immediately made a nest and now is sitting on eggs. Ok my questions are: 1. She no longer seems to be coming out of her box at all, would he be feeding her or would she come out at night maybe? 2. If she does produce babies does anybody think it would be cruel to hand raise 1 seeing that I have two cats in the house... I know they can stress very easily and would not want to do this if the baby would end up a neurotic mess.

[Ernest_sjn]

Hey Kaelha,

It's just fine that the hen is not coming out off of her nestbox, meaning, she is sitting on the eggs tight so as what your mother were doing when you were little so that hopefully all the eggs will hatch.. Hand rearing the babies will be good if you have the experience or knowledge even when you have two cats in your house as long as you should not let the cats get near the babies or you should keep the babies in a safe place..

I am a new breeder too but I have been collecting some information as to breeding IRNs for the last six months in this site but like you, I am still open for more and accurate information..

Regards, Ernest from Philippines..

[Kaelha]

Thanks Ernest, was not expecting her to have eggs at all after being told she wouldn't , so I am not getting my hopes up that they will hatch, but just trying to gather info just in case. It is exciting to watch the process, but at the same time I am a little sorry for the male now that he is alone all the time, although sometimes he will sit with her in the box I have noticed) .... I guess if all goes well he will have plenty of annoying company soon.lol

[Ernest_sjn]

Yes and it would be different soon, you should hand rear the babies after a month or a month and a half because the parents might get violent towards them..