sexing and age of princess parrot

[quincyboy]

Hi All, I got a beautiful princess parrot several months ago from a breeder. The bird was supposedly a female, about 4 months old, and partially hand-reared.

Upon closer inspection and doing some research, it turned out to be a male. (quite brightly coloured, very vocal, doing a mating dance all over the table to anything in sight, and had spatula ends on his third wing feathers. As well as orange iris and all the other little indicators that get talked about)

We've had great difficulty in trying to get him to be friendly. He bites often, he wont sit with us, he seem generally uninterested in people unless we're feeding him. (we've tried handfeeding him too, with little success) I've tamed avairy reared young cockatiels before, with great success, and assumed the Princess would be similar, so I'm wondering why it's failing so spectacularly.

Taking all this into account I've begun to wonder if there was a mixup at the aviary and we were sold not a young bird, but the male of the breeding pair. (the lady was selling all of her birds and stopping breeding, so it is possible there was a mistake made)
If this is the case I'm considering selling him as a breeding male, as he's not particularly happy being a pet, and very obviously wants a mate.

I'm wondering if there's anyone around with more experience with princess parrots, who could shed a bit more light on the situation.

cheers!

[avinet]

Hi and welcome to the Forum

Telling the sex of Princess parrots is easy, as your research has told you, and even at 4 months I would not expect a mistake to be made by any experienced breeder. And the age could be a bit suspect - spatula feathers appear after the 12 month moult, and with some even later - did it have the spatula feathers when you purchased it or have they just moulted in?

Normally taming a Princess, even one that has never been hand raised, isn't too difficult, no harder than a cockatiel. However Princesses are not a touchy type of bird, scratches are definitely out, but a properly hand raised tame Princess enjoys being around people. My pet pair, now around 16 years old, generally fly around the house with lots of shouting, but will regularly come to our shoulders for a play - but try to give them a scratch and a bite will be the likely result. They will also happily step up whenever we want them to.

With all species, even cockatiels and budgies, you get some who just don't want to be a pet bird - with your Princess a breeding aviary life is going to be the best outcome.

For those who don't know about spatula feathers, I'll include a photo that illustrates the small extension at the end of the third flight feather of a male Princess - looks rather like a small extra feather at the end of the main feather.

cheers,

Mike

[quincyboy]

Thanks for the reply Mike, you've certainly helped.

I would say he is an older breeding bird then, as he had the spatula feathers when we got him. (I knew nothing about princesses and it was a bit spur of the moment) The lady I bought him from had been breeding for years, but obviously mistakes can be made.

It's interesting you say that they aren't touchy birds, thats not something I'd heard and is very good to know. explains at least some of my failure to tame him.
I guess the best thing really would be to pass him on to someone who would like to breed, he certainly wants a mate!

Thanks again.
Rayin

[avinet]

Nov 11, 2012 19:06:33 GMT 10 quincyboy said:

Thanks for the reply Mike, you've certainly helped.

I would say he is an older breeding bird then, as he had the spatula feathers when we got him. (I knew nothing about princesses and it was a bit spur of the moment) The lady I bought him from had been breeding for years, but obviously mistakes can be made.

Call me cynical but a breeder that has been breeding for years doesn't make that kind of mistake - the bird must have been mis-represented to you, to make a sale. Princesses are one of the easy birds to sex.

I owned a pet shop that specialized in birds for some 20 years - and I came across every trick in the book from sellers of birds.

Just one example - a agreed to buy around 60 adult budgies from a show breeder, and when I started to check them out one by one he became increasingly impatient. By the end it was obvious why - one bird had only one leg and another only half a wing. He had hoped that I would just open the boxes and let them loose into the aviary without checking. He didn't realize that all budgies coming into the shop were quarantined into cages for several days and treated for worms and scaly face before being moved to the aviary. Needlessto say he didn't come back to offer me birds again - and I let some in the club he belonged to know about the trick he had tried to pull.

So, while the large majority of breeders are honest about their birds, not all are

cheers,

Mike