Mary Allen
Birds want to breed in spring. In nature they sing in the morning, form pairs, occupy territories or nest boxes. But how to deal with the breeding instinct of birds in aviaries? Some hints.
Suddenly the calm is over. The pair of gray parrots lived in harmony with each other, the birds whistled merrily, twirled around on branches, swung in a wooden ring dangling from the ceiling, scratched each other’s feathers, gnawed on branches. Now the female plucks out her breast feathers, scratches on the floor of the aviary in a corner, the male claws at the bars and is aggressive. In the gloomy morning and evening hours, you can hear clicking noises from the aviary. The two sit snuggled together and mate. This is normal behavior, but it can cause problems.
Parrots are cave breeders. If they don’t have a nest box available, they are usually less likely to breed. The spring weeks, when the breeding instinct is stronger, should be bridged with many employment opportunities. Gray parrot specialist Deborah Blaser, for example, recommends offering broody gray parrots rolls of toilet paper. She fabricated a device that attaches to the cage bars and into which a pulley can be clamped. It is a sense of achievement for the gray parrots when they can pluck the paper away in pieces. Cardboard boxes can also be placed on the floor. It doesn’t take long before they strut towards it, feathers fluffed, and start chewing and dismantling the box.
Raising Boys in the Living Room
Nevertheless, it can happen that the female forms an egg. The tail then points downwards, the cloaca has a bulge. High time to offer a nesting box. If you want to breed, you have to be aware of the responsibility. Where to place the young birds? A gray parrot can live to be 50 years old. Only a few people can offer large parrots good living places. If you don’t want young birds, you should pierce the eggs with a needle. The birds can then at least breed. After 28 days, when the young would hatch, the nest box should be removed. The female often does not stop incubating. Even in nature, not every scrim leads to success. Enemies steal eggs or even young, heavy rains flood breeding caves.
If you keep canaries or zebra finches and don’t want to breed them, it’s easier with two males. As long as they don’t see females, they live well together. Two male budgies or cockatiels also get along very well, even going into a nesting box and behaving harmoniously. It is easier to breed budgerigars, lovebirds, finches, or canaries as these birds live much younger than large parrots. Youngsters can also be better placed because smaller species, in particular, can be kept in indoor aviaries in the living area.
While budgerigars breed in a nest box on beech wood granules or sawdust and only create a nest hollow, zebra finches and canaries build a nest. There are prefabricated plastic baskets and nesting material that is woven by the birds in specialist shops. Coconut fibers or lint are suitable for this. Of course, dry grass can also be provided. It is a great experience to be able to observe nest building, egg-laying, and the course of incubation and rearing up close.
Adult birds should be given soft food during incubation and rearing, which can be purchased ready-made and enriched with grated carrots or apples, for example. Couscous and seedlings are other nutritional supplements during the growing season. Breeding birds are meaningful and fascinating when done according to plan.