New Breeder

itzjbean said:

Hello there!

It's not advised to breed a pair more than two clutches at a time, (I don't allow more than 2 a YEAR) making eggs, raising young meanwhile keeping themselves fed can be very hard on their bodies. No responsible breeder would allow their birds to breed all year long, it is not good for the bids to be constantly breeding and going through clutch after clutch. It just is not good for their health.

So unless you change your plans around to breed seasonally instead of breeding all year long, I do not suggest you breed any more parrots until you understand that these birds need rest.

Budgies and parakeets are going to be cheaper and prolific, but again, the same rules apply for breeding. Just like with your cockatiels, who should be at least 2 years old for breeding, budgies should be at least 1 year old before pairing and reproducing. Any birds allowed to breed that aren't fully mature is also not responsible breeding.

Same with inbreeding, you want to make sure any pairs you put together are NOT related! It's very important as babies from siblings or father/daughter pairings can have significant health defects.

There's certainly a lot to learn, I encourage you to visit with local breeders in your area to learn about more species, how breeders keep their birds healthy (breeders keep their birds on specific higher fat diets for supporting eggs and babies) and also regular vet checks.

It's a lot more complicated then just putting in a nestbox and letting your birds go at it -- sometimes, things can go very wrong. Just last year I had my cockatiel hen die while sitting on her eggs and the male did not incubate so I had to pull the eggs and incubate them myself. Tragedy can happen so fast if you are not prepared with the proper equipment. Most breeders will be ready to pull babies should the parents refuse to feed them, neglect or abandon them. Are you also prepared to pull babies, keep them in a brooder and feed them formula until they wean should the parents refuse? Are you ready with your brooder, gram scale, thermometer, formula, syringes and all the necessary equipment to take over care for the chicks? Nothing is sadder than watching chicks die because of human inexperience. Just think about it and if you are prepared.

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Branc1993 said:

Also I would prefer parrots with high breeding frequency so I could expand my collection without actually having to shell out thousands of money

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Kiwibird said:

Branc1993 said:

Also I would prefer parrots with high breeding frequency so I could expand my collection without actually having to shell out thousands of money

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This right here is all I need to know to say, at best, you are extremely underinformed about parrots in general and certainly have no business breeding them at this point. You have A LOT to learn and I’d suggest ceasing all breeding immediately until you know a great deal more about these animals.

Parrots are not chickens, they have not been bred for thousands of years for year round egg production. Continuous egg-laying/chick rearing in parrots is extremely taxing on the females and leads to all kinds of health issues before a entirely preventable premature death.

Next up, parrots are sentient, intelligent beings, not toys you collect. I’m not sure if this statement was referring to the fact you want to own a lot of parrots without paying full price for them (even if the bird is “free” their cage, food, toys, vet care etc... surely isn’t!) or worse, you want to grow the number of breeding pairs you have through inbreeding, but this statement does not bode well for the future birds involved.

Lastly, parrots of any size from budgie to macaw are money pits as pets and far from the most profitable business venture you could start up (wanting to give the gift of a wonderful companion who’s been lovingly raised while making a very minimal profit for yourself is more in line with what GOOD breeders end up doing). Properly sized cages are expensive relative to bird size with each bird needing it’s own cage (to prevent breeding outside the normal breeding season/prevent inbreeding). Next up, they require at minimum a high quality pelleted diet with fresh fruits and veggies daily. Then they all need multiple toys at a time, which do get destroyed and need replacement/regular rotation to keep them happy and mentally simulated. Regular dog and cat vets aren’t specialized enough to treat birds. Each bird will need an annual exam, plus the costs of any injury or illness they may get. Specialist avian vet care is EXPENSIVE, like mind boggling lay expensive. I would shudder to think about the costs involved of a illness spreading through a large flock (treatment for my one birds kidney infection last year was close to $800). Being tropical animals, depending where you live, increased heating costs to keep your home warm enough in the winter for them to be in good health is another cost factor too. Parrots are expensive to buy and expensive to keep. There are little tips to reduce some costs like making your own toys, but there is no getting around the fact they are expensive exotic animals. Anyone who wants “free/low cost parrots” is a huge red flag they can’t actually afford the long term care cost of said parrots.

I’m not meaning to sound harsh or mean, but I think you definitely need to take a big step back and really think about what you’re trying to do then immerse yourself in learning about the topic before any further breeding. Try instead getting to know the birds you already have, training them, interacting with them, learning what these special creatures are all about

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Branc1993 said:

I am a new parrot breeder and I started with a pair of Cockatiels, in 3 months, this is the second clutch already (first time they had 4, this time 5!) and I read somewhere that Cockatiels mate all year round.



Im thinking of expanding into other more exotic types of parrots but I do not know which yet. Maybe some of you could help? I would like a medium sized parrot breed, color doesnt matter, it will be hand reared by me. Also I would prefer parrots with high breeding frequency so I could expand my collection without actually having to shell out thousands of money



So I prefer all year round breeding as opposed to seasonal breeding. Thank you.

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ParrotGenie said:

Branc1993 said:

I am a new parrot breeder and I started with a pair of Cockatiels, in 3 months, this is the second clutch already (first time they had 4, this time 5!) and I read somewhere that Cockatiels mate all year round.



Im thinking of expanding into other more exotic types of parrots but I do not know which yet. Maybe some of you could help? I would like a medium sized parrot breed, color doesnt matter, it will be hand reared by me. Also I would prefer parrots with high breeding frequency so I could expand my collection without actually having to shell out thousands of money



So I prefer all year round breeding as opposed to seasonal breeding. Thank you.

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You never want to allow them to breed all year, they will have health issues as a result. Two clutches max. Plus get the pair to a vet to get a baseline on what they are deficient on. You sure allow at least 6 months to correct any issue before you allow them to breed. Cockatiels sure around a year and a half, or two years before you allow them to breed. You also need to change diet to higher fat and protein diets and you need a cuttlefish bone and mineral block in the cage. Then you need a brooder, gram scale, thermometer, formula, syringes, just in case you have to take over and hand raise them, as parents could reject them.

To discourage breeding change light cycle, put them to bed early around 6pm and remove nesting box. Rearrange the cage interior usually works and stop laying. If you have a breeder cage you can also put a divider in to keep the separated if needed.

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Scott said:

Welcome to the forums, thanks for seeking advice before taking the plunge!!

This thread from one of our member-breeders offers sage advice: http://www.parrotforums.com/breeding-raising-parrots/54987-before-i-start-breed.html

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EllenD said:

I started breeding and hand-raising parrots at the age of 16, but I was born into a family with a grandmother and mother who had both been breeding and hand-raising/feeding for decades, and who both mentored me for YEARS before I ever got my own first breeding-pair of birds and allowed them to breed.And that's exactly the way you need to do it too, because just reading your first post made me sick to my stomach, and I'm just being honest with you...Allowing a pair of birds to have 2 clutches of fertile-eggs in 3 months can literally kill them any number of ways and for any number of reasons....

I'm not trying to be mean or rude here with you, but it's quite obvious just from reading your original post and then one of your replies that you have absolutely no parrot/bird breeding education, experience, or understanding of bird medicine/health and what breeding them more than twice a year and trying to influence them to breed outside of their natural Breeding-Seasons will do to them. They have "normal Breeding-Seasons" because those are the times of the year that they naturally breed. Twice a year. Dong what you've already started doing and what you're talking about doing will only result in malnourished, undernourished, underweight female breeders who will either die slow, horrible, painful deaths from Malnutrition, or sudden, horrible, agonizingly painful deaths from Egg-Binding...As it is you have a female Cockatiel who has laid 9 fertile-eggs in 3 months and now has to feed 9 babies at the same time because they are going to overlap and the first clutch will not be fully-weaned before the second clutch hatches and also needs to be fed. And if you purposely attempt to influence a breeding-pair of birds to breed out of season or "breed when you want them to breed" as you said, you're going to be running through female birds like water, and have a bunch of dead babies.

You have to start somewhere if you want to learn to breed birds, and there is nothing wrong with that. But there are enough unscrupulous, irresponsible, "mass-volume" bird breeders in the world who don't have a clue what they're doing and don't care either. So if you want to breed birds, please do it the right way, the ethical way, the safe way, the healthy way, and put the bird's welfare first before your own wants, like making them breed "when you want them to breed"...Find a local, experienced bird breeder, either a private one or at a pet shop or bird shop who breeds their own birds, and ask them to mentor you. Learn all about how to properly and safely hand-raise and hand-feed baby birds, because trust me, just because you want and expect the parents to feed and raise the babies for you doesn't mean that they will. What are your plans for when eggs hatch, you have week-old baby birds in a nest-box who are completely bald and need fed every 2-hours including overnight, and the mother or father kicks them out of the nestbox or starts hurting them or trying to kill them? Or they refuse to feed any of their entire clutch suddenly? Do you own a Brooder to keep the babies at the 95 degrees F that they must be kept at before their down-feathers grow-in, or at the 85 degrees F they need to be kept in after their down grows in but before their outer feathers grow-in? Do you have all of the hand-feeding equipment ready and waiting to be used at any moment, like a digital candy/cooking thermometer with a metal probe to keep the hand-feeding formula always between 104 degrees F and 110 degrees F? Do you have all of the various medications and supplements you need for when a baby develops Crop-Stasis due to a Fungal Infection?

I could go on and on, but I'm already quite certain that you don't have a clue what to do nor any of the equipment necessary if any of these eggs hatch and any chicks are rejected by the parents, based on the fact that you were excited and thought it was a good thing that your female had already laid 2 separate clutches in 3 months...Or if you even know how to handle Egg-Binding if it happens to your poor female who has produced and laid 9 eggs in 3 months...So please, stop. Find a mentor, get the proper education, buy the proper equipment and supplies, learn how to use it, and then go back and do it the right way. And DO NOT allow that female Cockatiel to be bred anymore this year, and make sure she has constant access to both a Cuttlebone and an Avian Mineral Block, and she's getting ample fresh dark, leafy Greens every day, because she's most-likely Calcium and Phosphorous deficient, and the #1 cause of Egg-Binding is a Calcium deficiency which causes the egg-shells to be too soft for the female to be able to lay them...So if you see her struggling to lay an egg, straining like she has to poop for longer than an hour or so, you need to get her to the closest Avian Vet or 24/7 Emergency Animal Hospital...

And please come back here immediately and post a new thread if you have any problems with either the mother of the babies!!! If you have even a hint that something isn't quite right, please do not wait and see or let time slip away, just come back here and post immediately so we can help you or direct you in the correct way to go. We don't mean to be harsh to you, we want to help you so you don't just become another bird-breeder who doesn't know what they're doing and does it in an unsafe and unethical way that is totally unfair and unsafe for the birds.

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