Faulty smoke alarm or African Grey ?

Reading a happy ending story in a newspaper about a  lost African Grey. It seem a lady was puzzled by a constant noise over several days which sounded like a faulty smoke alarm. She even had workmen in trying to find the source of the noise. It turned out to be an escaped African Grey which she eventually found perched on her water butt in the back garden. The Grey was returned to it's original owner who lived half a mile away and had been searching for number of days for his lost pet.

The owner said she came down the stairs the first morning after her pet Grey was returned to hear him say "Good Morning"

More bad news

Unfortunately after I took the Yellow Thighed Caique for hand rearing it died after 4 days. Not really sure why this was the faeces turned very brown and red. I guess it was some kind of internal haemorrage.

On a lighter note I am giving a new product a try, which is Avigold Plus. A fellow breeder and friend of mine started with this in December and has been quite amazed at the results with the feather condition of his parrots. Additionally he has a pet Amazon which has recently (in December) looked worse for wear with his chest feathers and wing feathers in poor condition. The vet had not come up with any real ideas, so my friend has been giving the Amazon Avigold Plus and I must admit the parrot is really responsing to the treatment. It's feathers are getting much better and he seems so much more active and bright. So I have bought some myself and started this week giving it to all my parrots.

The Vosmaeri Eclectus chick is still doing OK I believe but still not had a chance to view it as the mum is keeping me away from the nest box. I am thinking I must get some new nestbox camera's set up.

Enevitable bad news

It is often the case with breeding parrots or any birds, that good fortune is sometimes followed by sad news. And it is the case today. Unfortunately the Grand Eclectus chick which hatched out earlier has died in the nest box. I guess due to some bacterial infection whilst in the egg. What was somewhat surprising was that on further inspection it seems that there was an earlier chick which had died probably at least a week earlier. Similar to the Vosmaeri Eclectus this Grand breeding pair only appear to successfully rear one chick usually out of two eggs. So finding two dead chicks is a double wammy.

I really will need to look at a better nestbox design for this Eclectus parrot pair.

Vosmaeri Eclectus chick is still OK.

Surprise chick today

Our pair of Grand Eclectus parrots have been sitting on eggs, but as usual they made a right old mess on them. So as usual one of them was lost (chick dead in shell) and the other I thought was going to be lost also and almost threw the egg away a couple of days ago. However much to my surprise a looked in the box and found a little chick in there. The Vosmaeri still have their chick now around 12 days old. Being trying hard to get to have a look in the box, but the hen is being particularly defensive and I don't want to spook her as she has a habit of taking her anoyance out on the babies if she gets upset. Still no eggs from the Red Sided pair inspite of some enthusiastic mating which I have seen from my house.

Strange shaped eggs

I have just ringed the baby Yellow Thighed Caique chick and looked to see if there are any other chicks about to hatch out. Sadly both the remaining eggs are not any good. One egg was obviously fertile to begin with but had a strange elongated appearance. Whatever had started had eventually dried up I guess related to the odd shaped egg. The 2nd egg was quite small and infetile or clear. Not a chance this would have come to anything. Not quite sure if this is related to age of the parents or the weather perhaps ?

Suddenly realised I had not ordered any 2011 rings (opps!), and the chick was ready for ringing. Luckily I still had a couple of 2010 rings left, so I used on of these. Technically speaking the egg was hatched in Dec 2010 anyway. I am deliberating as to whether to hand rear or parent rear this chick ? In general I have many more people asking for HR pets than breeders asking for breeding birds sadly. At the end of the day it would be easier to sell as hand reared with the market being as it is.

New product Orego-Stim, but what is it ?

Come across a new product today with lots of stated claims: fertility aid , feather conditioner, gut stabilizer etc. All sounds very interesting but there is not much information on it's composition ?
Sometimes you come across these products and you never know if they are something new or just common products re-branded.

May give it a try in the second half of the year, never a good idea to introduce something at the start of a breeding season in case it backfires on you.

here is a link to the product claims:
http://www.orego-stim.com/hobby-and-pet/avian-complete/more-avian/22-avian-complete-testimonials

Caique chick looking good in the nest box tonight, perhaps a 2nd egg looks ready to hatch.

Vosmaeri Eclectus chick hatches out today

Very pleased to hear the sound of a young chick from the Vosmaeri Eclectus tonight, hopefully the first Eccie chick of the year. I have someone who is asking for a cock Vosmaeri so again it would be very good news if this was the case.