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Post by greyeagle1 on Oct 16, 2013 9:54:16 GMT 10
My female cockatiel has started to exhibit signs of wanting to breed, but I do not want to mess with babies. Is it true that if I don't put a breeding box/nest in her cage she won't go through with a mating?
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Post by avinet on Oct 16, 2013 11:35:48 GMT 10
My female cockatiel has started to exhibit signs of wanting to breed, but I do not want to mess with babies. Is it true that if I don't put a breeding box/nest in her cage she won't go through with a mating? Not necessarily - a determined hen will lay on the bottom of the cage if she is really keen. However she is less likely to lay if she doesn't have a nest box - if she does have one then laying is pretty certain. I assume she has a mate in with her? If she does start laying even without a box it is important to not remove the eggs - if they are removed as she lays them she may just continue to lay more eggs to try and get to what she considers to be a full clutch, usually around 4 eggs. If you do have a mate with her, and fertile eggs are likely then you can take each egg as it is laid and hard boil it for a couple of minutes, then replace it once it has cooled. Mark it with texta before replacing so you can keep track of which eggs have been made infertile. After 2 or 3 weeks she will giv eup trying to incubate them and hopefully not decide to lay another round of eggs. cheers, Mike |
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Post by greyeagle1 on Oct 16, 2013 15:03:30 GMT 10
Thanks Mike! The part about boiling the eggs was a good tip. I'm not sure if the texta is a marking pen sold exclusively in Australia, but is it a permanent felt tip marker?
My silver pastel female whose picture I posted in another thread is the one that is trying to breed right now. There is one male that I have, but It seems that she goes into her mating ritual right after I get into a petting session with her.
She's a lovely bird with her unusual coloring, and I would love to have more like her, but with my schedule right now I can't properly raise a clutch of babies from her. In order to hand feed them don't the babies have to be fed every 2 hours? This is something I don't have experience with and am not sure I feel comfortable with the idea.
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Post by greyeagle1 on Oct 16, 2013 15:14:57 GMT 10
Forgot to ask about this in case she does start laying. What kind of calcium do I need to feed her? I have sprinkled oyster shells over their food in the past, but I thought I saw on another thread that oyster shells were not a type of calcium that is easily absorbed.
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Post by avinet on Oct 16, 2013 22:21:42 GMT 10
Thanks Mike! The part about boiling the eggs was a good tip. I'm not sure if the texta is a marking pen sold exclusively in Australia, but is it a permanent felt tip marker? My silver pastel female whose picture I posted in another thread is the one that is trying to breed right now. There is one male that I have, but It seems that she goes into her mating ritual right after I get into a petting session with her. She's a lovely bird with her unusual coloring, and I would love to have more like her, but with my schedule right now I can't properly raise a clutch of babies from her. In order to hand feed them don't the babies have to be fed every 2 hours? This is something I don't have experience with and am not sure I feel comfortable with the idea. Texta is just a permanent marker - put a dot on an egg that has been steralized. Cockatiel babies at the age you would normally remove them for hand raising - 3 weeks - would need 4 feeds a day at 5 hour intervals, reducing to 3 feeds at 7 hours by 5 weeks. Most cockatiel babies can be pretty well tamed by handling them a lot while being parent fed - if you take them out for 10 minutes twice a day from around 3 weeks and give them a cuddle, you will find they make pretty good pets - just as nice as most hand raised birds. Regarding calcium see the article i wrote at scas.org.au/html/calcium_for_birds.htmlcheers, Mike |
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Post by greyeagle1 on Oct 17, 2013 5:17:04 GMT 10
How hard is it to hand-feed them? Is it dangerous if not done right?
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Post by avinet on Oct 18, 2013 21:03:13 GMT 10
How hard is it to hand-feed them? Is it dangerous if not done right? Hand feeding requires a bit of dedication - you are responsible for the good development of the babies. Actually you are responsible for the development of the babies even if you don't hand feed - by ensuring the parents get the right sort of food for them to do a good job of raising their babies. If isn't difficult, but does require time and effort. And if not done right then the babies can suffer, and even die. However doing it right isn't hard - have a look at the two articles I have written to be found at scas.org.au/html/articles.html - they will give you a good idea of what is involved. Come back here if you have any questions after having a look at those articles. cheers, Mike |
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