When to intro nest box? -corellas

[parrotmad]

Hi all, a new member here with a quick question for those who breed corellas

I have a pair of little corellas who I am hoping will breed for me at some stage. They disliked each other severely initially but we've gone through the long process of getting them friendly with each other and they are now a lovely bonded couple and spend most of their time grooming each other and generally being cuddly. I've had a nest box in the aviary for a while now just to try and help this process along but I moved them into a larger aviary yesterday and haven't yet moved the box. I was wondering whether I should move the box now or wait until later in the year so that it's new and exciting rather than part of the furniture? Any advice would be wonderful. I have a lot of experience breeding and rearing small parrots(budgies mainly) including hand rearing but this will be my first foray into breeding my larger birds.

Oh and I don't know if it's relevent but the hen is older at about 20, we don't know if she has bred before as she is a rescue but her pelvis is very wide so she certainly may have layed before, the cock is about 4 years old. I will probably let them rear them themselves for the most part(unless something happens to indicate otherwise) with supp feeding from me as both parents are extremely friendly(as in the type where you can scratch under their wings and check pelvis width without even having to hold them) and I prefer to tame my birds on their own terms rather than mine.

I also have ringnecks, galahs, budgies, one tiel and one lorikeet but for now I don't have enough aviaries to seperate each pair off into their own space so for the time being I'm just going to stick with the corellas and when I move into a larger house next year I'll install a few extra bred.

[avinet]

I would probably suggest waiting 2 or 3 weeks for them to settle into the new aviary and add the nest box when they seem pretty settled from the move. You don't say where you live but here in Queensland we would normally expect eggs no earlier than late August, and later the further south you go - maybe not until early October in Victoria. So you have plenty of time before the nest box becomes important to stimulate them into breeding cycle.

Oh, and welcome to AB - with all those birds, sounds like you will be able to make plenty of contributions as well as gain knowledge with us,

cheers,

Mike

[parrotmad]

Thanks Mike,

I'm in Victoria. They weren't at all stressed by the move, just happily hopped up onto one of the perches and then wandered over for a feed from their new food bowls :lol: Sounds like there is no rush really so I'll give it a good scrub out as it's been in the old aviary for a fair while and I'll put it in the garage to get nice and dry and pop it in, in a few weeks.

Although they are very cuddly I've never witnessed any hanky panky, do you think I'd have a decent chance of them breeding as it gets warmer?

[parrotmad]

Oh and other than the obvious good food and TLC is there anything large parrot specific I should be doing to prepare them or anything I should be supplying?

[vankarhi]

wow that is a lovely picture. I love the pose of the one on the right. Lovely.

I would just make sure they have plenty of fresh fruit and veges as well as mixed seed. I also make my birds a bean mix with veges and stuff in it. I don't own those types of birds but this is what i feed mine. I also every so often boil some eggs and cut them up shell and all and put it into their fresh food too. At the moment I am mixing their fruit/veges into a big bowl and putting a little calcium drops onto it. I mix enough to last a few days. Then I did give them a break for a few days from the calcium drops. For me though I find my ekkies need a bit more calcium from time to time and they also need to eat mostly fresh fruit and veges (especially red, yellow, orange skinned ones). I have also mixed a container of pepitos, almond slivers, desicated coconut and pine nuts, which I give a spoonful ontop of their fresh food too.

All my birds get some of this daily, from my canary, to tiel, to alex's and ekkies. Just my ekkies get mostly the fresh stuff and little seed, while my other birds get much more seed and a little less of the fresh stuff.

I am only telling you this as "an idea" of what you can feed your guys........by letting you know what I feed mine.

I am sure others will let you know what they feed theirs and what you could be feeding yours.

[vankarhi]

oh and I bought my aviary reared male alexandrine last year as an adult male from a breeder up in North Qld. My female alexandrine had never had a boyfriend before and I did not know if they would even like each other. I bought Alex in March last year, put the nest box in about April or May last year and by 20th August she had hatched out 4 bubs........I never saw any hanky panky either......but obviously they must have done something ;D

[parrotmad]

Thanks Vankarhi

Sounds pretty much like what I feed my guys too, mine are also fond of soaked soup mix(just the ones with split peas and lentils, etc no flavours). The one on the right is the hen, Suzie, she was trying to shake wings with me, I hold the tip if one of her wings and shake and tell her how beautiful she is and she loves that. She also will climb on my shoulder and give me a 'cuddle' by wrapping her wings around my head like she is and talking in my ear. She's a real cutie

It took three months of them being seperated by wire for them to be able to be together in the aviary(she tried to kill him initially!) and then another four months or so for them to sit on the same perch as eachother and it's in about the last two months that they've finally got cuddly so it's been a long process with these two.

[Laraine]

Have you put the breeding box in yet? I am going to put all mine in mid to late August. That way they might start thinking about it and breed before the weather gets too hot.

[parrotmad]

Not yet Laraine, I'm going to give it a good clean this weekend and let it dry and then pop it in probably next weekend

Those people readin with experience with corellas or other 'toos what if anything do you put in the nest box for them? Some of that soft wood pulp stuff or do they just have a bare box?

[sypher]

Parrotmad, I use pine shavings in the bottom of all of my boxes and logs. The birds tend to chew this up into smaller pieces. You can also use hardwood shavings and peat moss.

Also glue a chew block so the hen can chew this while sitting to relieve boredom and also add to the nest.

Hope this helps.
Shaun

[parrotmad]

Thanks Sypher, good idea on the chew block too, I'll hunt something out to put in there.