Princess Parrot questions

[Karen]

I have Princess my handicapped girl and Prince the gorgeous boy.
The past few days I have noticed a change in their behaviour towards each other.
Prince will cluck at me when I talk to him and Princess will race over to him, pin her eyes and put her beak on his chest. He will ignore her.
Yesterday when I was again being clucked to by Prince, Princess did the same then looked at him and (if they were human) he blew kisses on either side of her face for about 20 seconds.

Does this mean she is wanting to breed?
Isn't it too early?
Will she manage to breed successfully and raise chicks? (broken hip from when she was a chick)
I have a rosella breeding box in the cage (budgie using it atm) will that be enough for her to breed in?

Sorry if my explanations are daft - this is my first Princess Parrots.

[vankarhi]

sorry Karen I have no idea but hopefully someone with experience with princesses will be able to.

Sounds very cute though. ;D

[avinet]

karen said:

I have Princess my handicapped girl and Prince the gorgeous boy.
The past few days I have noticed a change in their behaviour towards each other.
Prince will cluck at me when I talk to him and Princess will race over to him, pin her eyes and put her beak on his chest. He will ignore her.
Yesterday when I was again being clucked to by Prince, Princess did the same then looked at him and (if they were human) he blew kisses on either side of her face for about 20 seconds.

Does this mean she is wanting to breed?
Isn't it too early?

It appears to be courtship type behaviour - princess males can really put on a performance, clucking away, little crest up on the top of their head, bouncing around - a very entertaining show. We have a pair of Princesses, Frodo and Penny - around 11 years old - and Frodo can perform at any time of the year. Last night he was carrying on with no other bird close to him, and then he decided to practise on Poncho, our 19 year old male tiel, who totally ignored him. Finally Penny flew over to give him a proper target for his show.

So even though it is not breeding season, a male Princess will do his song and dance act at any time of the year.

Will she manage to breed successfully and raise chicks? (broken hip from when she was a chick)

It depends - you would need to get her examined by an avian vet and probably x-rayed to see if there was any problem. If it was just restricted to the hip joint as a result of an accident then probably no problems. If it was a pelvic girdle injury due to lack of calcium as a baby then it could be a problem with potential egg binding. Before encouraging them to breed by providing a nest box I would have her checked out. From Fernvale your closest avian vet is maybe Bob Donnely up in Toowoomba, or else it is one of the Brisbane vets.

cheers,

Mike

[Karen]

I was given the bird from a lady who directly received her from the breeder, he didn't want to put her down as he said she is fine other than not being able to fly. The mother apparently just jumped on the chicks on entering and this girl was unlucky enough to be in the way.
She is the sweetest thing and even though not tame will take food from my fingers (on her terms) and has even nibbled my fingers.
I really don't mind if they don't breed, I only bought the male as that was all there was for sale. As long as the budgies breed in there she probably won't breed so that should be okay.
When I first got her she had an awful ulcer on her leg on the broken hip side which thankfully I've helped her to get rid of.