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.

Score of African Greys rescued

CNN news report:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/11/uganda.parrots/

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.

Ruppells working nest box

Having moved the Red Bellied parrots & Ruppells pairs into their new house merely 2 weeks ago, I am delighted with progress as not only is the older pair starting to spend time in their nest box but so is the younger pair. This is a real surprise with the younger pair are only around 18 months old. Perhaps being stimulated with the older pair next to them. However still nothing positive from the Red Bellied pairs.

The Ruppells are so much like the Meyers parrots I used to keep, in behaviour they are very active and looking into everything very excitable small parrots. The Red Bellied parrots are more like Senegals, more reserved shy nervous parrots more easily spooked. Larger than the Ruppells and very similar to the physical characteristics of the Senegals.

First chick of 2011 & diet changes

George & Simone (Yellow Thighed Caique pair) laid 3 eggs in December in all that cold weather. It was lovely to see a tiny chick in the nest box tonight. hopefully we may  get 2 chicks which is usual case for this pair.

I am not a great one for making changes in the food diet with my parrots, and if I do then I try to do it one thing at a time. But after abit of a scare with one of the new Eclectus parrots I bought last year with a very low vitamin A count. I started to add Palm Fruit Extract to my birds since November. Supposedly this is very high in beta-carotene in a concentrated form (found in carrots and green veg). So it is high in Vitamin E and A which should assist in the improvement of feathers and bones and is said to improve reproduction.
For convenience I feed all the Caiques, Ruppells/Red Bellies and Eclectus the same diet, so hopefully we may see an improvement all round compared to last year.

Unusual colour changes in Eclectus

Today our newish pair of Solomon island Eclectus ( Moppet & Poppet) were actually together for the first time, the hen was on the perch trying hard to get the cock to feed her which is a great sign. I had bought this pair from my good friend Sab last year in June.The hen was proven but he had lost the original cock and recently introduced a new companion.
The hen has some green feathering on one side of her wings, this appears to be more common than you might think. Later during the year I was sent this photo of a more extensive green feathered hen by a lady who was interested to know more as her breeding pair where regularly producing these babies below. To me it is very like pied colouration I have seen in other parrots.

According to "A Guide to Eclectus Parrots" by Dr Rob Marshall and Ian Ward, the reason for this more permanent colouration is not known. I have seen some red feathering on young cocks which appear to moult out with age. There are also some adult Eclectus parrots which are known as "halfsiders" where one side of them is entirely green and the other red ?Again the exact nature of these Eclectus have not been identified, but they are said not to breed successfully.

Waited for 2 years for these parrots

Hopefully in the next few weeks I can plan a trip to see an old friend who breeds parrots in Germany.
He has very similar interests to me, and does breed some exclusive parrots which I have waited for some time to be able to bring back to my collection. To say that I am somewhat excited would be an understatement and I know all too easily these arrangements can still fall through. So for now I will keep the identity of these particular parrots confidential. In England there is an old bird keepers adage "don't count your chickens before they hatch".

Having moved the Ruppells they are beginning to look like they are settling down again. When I took them out the old aviary, the breeding pair was firmly fixed in the nest box and I was very reluctant to move them. However I decided in the longer term they would be more likely to breed in a different location and be less easily disturbed. So it was abit of relief to see the male Ruppells looking back into the nest box again tonight.

Amazon parrot get's arrested !

I love this story which I have seen reported in a couple of magazines (this was an extract from PsittaScene mag): Columbian police have arrested an Amazon parrot whose job it was to warn a local drug gang in case of police raids. The parrot was arrested when the police saw the apprehension of the local drug dealers go up in smoke because the bird unexpectedly started screaming "run! run!" ruining the law's surprise element.

Pirate & Mango the Yellow Thighed Caiques & Jasper the Eclectus cock

Over the last couple of days it was really great to hear from the owners of three of the pet parrots I sold in 2010. Pirate is a lovely Yellow Thighed caique I sold to Andy who appears to have taken to acting quite well.lol

And here are some photos of  Jasper the Eclectus cock bought by Andy/Trish and family;

And finally I also heared from Karen that Mango (Yellow Thighed Caique) I sold to her at the end of 2010 has really settled in well with her family, and especially with Lauren who has become Mango's favourite companion.

Red Sided Eclectus pair mating

Yesterday on the 1st Jan 2011, Dougal & Florence (Red Sided Eclectus pair) started mating for the first time since I bought them in August 2010. They was bought as a proven pair but appeared to quite remote to each other over the last 4 months, and I was suspicious as to if they were actually what they were advertised as. However it just goes to show how unusual Eclectus pairs can appear to be.

All the pairs of small African parrots are now in their new house by the end of today, so fingers crossed I hope the effort in moving them to their own private house will pay off  this year.

End of the year

It has been a fairly quiet year in respect to the breeding of parrots for me. I bred one more Green Thighed Caique than last year but surprised to get all girls and no boys. Last year it was all boys. Very nearly had some baby Ruppells but they did not survive, and nothing from the Red Bellied parrots again.

I am now in the process  of moving all the small African parrots into their new house and today I moved in the older Ruppells pair. They were both cuddled up in the nest box so it was quite easy to take the box out the existing flight cover the nest box hole and transfer them to their new home. Mind you they looked a little surprised when they came out into the new house. Last year they laid in January-February so I am hopeful they will try again in 2011. Hopefully with less disturbance from other parrots this time.

The older breeding pairs of Eclectus did their normal share of babies, but sadly we did not have any babies from the newer pairs of Red Sided & Solomon Island. However it is still quite early days for them.

In general this year things seemed more subdued, I felt there has been a marked decrease in interest for pet parrots and for parrots as breeding stock. So I think the effect of the 2009 recession has finially had an effect on our hobby. However I did sell all the babies I produced in 2010 some as parent reared and some as hand reared. But perhaps it did take a little longer than previous years. There was a number of fellow breeders who decided to give up or retire this year, and feeling that for a number of years we had formed a small but close family of like minded breeders it was particularly sad for me to loose a number of close contacts.

So my hopes for 2011 are that eventually I will rear some Red Bellied & Ruppells parrots. And additionally I would like to have some Eclectus babies from the new breeding pairs.

Happy New year to everyone, and especially those other amature breeders of parrots who like me do our bit to enhance the understanding of parrots and their breeding success  in captivity.

Breeding hybrids good or bad ?

I have been reading over the last couple of days a debate of sorts taking place on the emotive subject of breeding hybrids (crossed parrot close related species). In the case in question it was a Macaw hybrid which are often the most popular ones bred. However there are sometimes cockatoo or Amazon parrot hybrids bred. And sometimes this is done intentially in order to breed a more unusual parrot variety and sometimes it just is a case of a person producing a hybrid as a result of difficulty in finding pure species of the same type.

In America, hybrid Macaws are quite sort after and do generate a demand for them which generates quite high values. In Europe there seems to be less demand for them although on the otherhand perhaps they have not been purposely bred here quite so much.

Some people are vermently again such crossing of these parrots as it appears to be medddling with nature, but on the otherhand there is much evidence of crossing of similar species in nature anyway (although this is evolution over a long period).

I breed Caiques as my particular interest  and certainly there is evidence that the separate suspecies (of which there are 5) have evolved by hybridisation of perhaps only 2 original species. I have seen Black -headed caiques (from the wild) with some green thigh feathers and Yellow Thighed caiques with green thigh feathers and even Yellow Thighed Caiques with Yellow Tailed feathers. Naturally some of the territories of these parrots overlap which must give rise to hybridisation.

I also have a pet Caique which was crossed from a Green Thigh and Yellow Thighed breeding pair, as at the time I could not find a suitable mate for a Green Thighed cock Caique which I had so I mated him with a Yellow Thighed hen and the same year they had babies which were hybrids. These of course are not particularly sort after so don't have a high value but I can see how sometimes breeding hybrids can be incidental to keeping parrots rather than as an intentional outcome.

But of course some hybrids are bred quite intentional to generate a high value in much the same way as mutation coloured parrots are. My personal view is that keeping parrots in captivity is of course not the same as parrots living in the wild. Most private breeders are keeping them in collections because of their scarcity and value, so breeding hybrids and mutations is just another extension of the hobby. Certainly these parrots should not be introduced to wild populations, but in truth they would not survive in the wild if someone tried to do it. And my opinion is that the number of hybrids that are bred in comparison with the number of natural parrots do not really effect the balance of nature.

Yellow Thighed Caiques babies

I sold the 2 parent reared yellow Thighed babies today to Roger their new keeper. They were absolutely perfectly well behaved and did not seem to mind the journey at all and was quite inquisitive and not at all frightened once I got them out the flight. Mum and dad looked on as I gathered them up and I think was quite happy knowing they had done a good job rearing them.

This breeding pair has done very well with their 2nd successful clutch of the year, and this was actually the pairs first year together. At the end of last year I unfortunately lost the original cock breeding bird who died of an asmatic attack. For a number of years he suffered in the cold dry weather with occasional attacks and luckily I had always previously managed to catch him in time and help him recover. But last year in late December I arrived back home to find that he had died. By chance a friend had at the same time lost a hen who had escaped from his aviary, so I was very grateful to be given the cock Caique who I put with my widowed hen in January this year. Luckily they took to each other after about a month and had actually produced their first clutch of fertile eggs by March. This I thought was remarkable in the circumstances.

Dolly & Banjo laid 2 new eggs this week

Dolly and Banjo (pair of vosmaeri Eclectus) have laid again, they are quite persistent even in this very cold weather. Unfortunately their last attempt in late November was unsuccessful and no chicks hatched out. I had this breeding pair for 3 years and so far they have laid consistency but usually only have one fertile egg and one clear egg per clutch. I don't know why this is ?

When I bought them I had only intended to buy one of their offspring, but when I went to visit the breeder I found that the owner had only this pair alongside pairs of large Macaws. Dolly (the hen) was really tatty with hardly any feathers on her front at all, so I made an offer to buy the parents and daughter all together. Whilst we were getting them out the flight I found that the nest box was completely empty of any bedding, and it was likely that poor Dolly had pulled out all her feathers in order to make a nestbox bedding for her eggs.
Since she has been with me she has slowly improved her feather condition but still far from perfect. Even Banjo was a little tatty when I bought him but he now looks quite splendid. Unusually he has some individual bright yellow feathers around front of the neck. I had other Eclectus cocks with these occasional yellow feathers and not sure if this is just natural or if it signifies some kind of defficiency (perhaps vitamin) ?  However Banjo is always looking fit and active and produces youngsters so I guess he is OK.