Monday, 17 January 2011

Scrambled egg starts Timnehs breeding

I had a call from a pet owner who has a pair of pet Timneh Greys. They were bought as tame pets when young but all of a sudden they have mated and are sitting on eggs. Dave the owner of DJ and JD (Timneh Greys) told me that he didn't even know they were a pair until now. So his family were quite surprised to find them mating and then laying eggs.

He told me that he mostly feeds his parrots on a tropical seed mixture, but he said that the Greys love scrambled eggs. Now breeders often use eggfood to stimulate the breeding instinct in parrots as it is a source of protein, so my guess that it is this treat which has prompted his Greys to go to nest. I would not necessarily advise scrambled eggs, and would recommend that Dave substitutes this with a powder eggfood sprinkled onto a vegetable /fruit mixture perhaps with an addition of Palm Fruit extract. Palm Fruits are a naturally occuring food for Greys in the wild.

Greys are often found to have insufficient calcium in their diet, and especially a problem when they start to produce eggs. So I would recommend the addition of a calcium suppliment, either as a liquid supplement added to their water like Calcivet (Birdcare) or perhaps a powder suppliment to sprinkle over some softfood like Nutrobal (Vetark). Also give them cuttlefish bone .

Hopefully Dave will send me a photo of DJ & JD which I will post on the blog.

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