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.