Ruppells Parrots

[pchela]

Aves International has Ruppell babies for $750! I'd love to have a female! http://www.avesint.com/handfeeding.html

[Michael]

What's their personality like? If they were equally available and priced as other Pois, would they be a hot sell or is there a good reason they're so rare?

[pchela]

I believe that they are rare because they just weren't imported before the ban like the other pois. This is only the second breeder I've found that has them and the other was in California as well so I wouldn't be surprised if Aves got theirs from the other breeder. I think they are more common in Europe. I've only been able to find one account of personality and it sounded similar to other pois. I'll have to do some more research on them.

[pchela]

I found this. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... 6prmd%3Div

This is the other breeder I was talking about. He says he kept a female as a pet who was very sweet and that the males seem to be better talkers.

[Ark]

There is a male for sale at a pet store around here for 500$, because he was not handled very much and is rather nervous. They are beautiful birds, it doesn't always show in the pictures but they have a soft, delicate scalopping on their cheeks and heads, a least that one did as well as his brother (who was sold awhile back). After asking a breeder about them , he basically said that their character is similar to other Pois.

Michael, they are rare in the pet trade because of their lack of numbers (in North American Aviculture at least, I don't know about the rest of the world) and not because of some known "character flaw" (for lack of a better term) that makes them less desireable as pets compared to other Pois.

[lzver]

Wow, they are beautiful birds! I've never seen a picture of one before. From the shoulders up they look very much like a Red-Belly, but the blue and yellow is very stricking.

[Ryan416]

I have located 3 baby Rueppelli Parrots at a breeder in Ontario. I was originally looking for a Senegal but I find these very interesting. Should I be concerned because of how little is known about Rueppell's in captivity, or is it a chance worth taking? I would assume they are only 2nd or 3rd generation...

[Michael]

Get one and let us know!

[Ryan416]

They are still weaning, the wait is going to be painful.

[Kim S]

They are beautifull birds and indeed more common in Europe.
I found a few reports on them in Dutch. It states they are very stress sensitive. If you wish I could translate and make a summary for you.

The Ruppels’s Parrot, a bird susceptible to stress.

The Poicephalus ruppellii is the only species without a subspecies. The birds live in the dry areas of Angola and Namibia and are timid by nature.
The male is mainly black-brown, the feathers on top of the ears are silver-gray. The feathers on the underside of the wings and on top of the wrist joint are a deep yellow. The thighs are orange-yellow, the beak gray-black, the iris orange-red and the legs brown-grey.
The females look a lot like the males, only the feathers underneath the tail is a bright cobalt blue.
Young birds look like the female with yellow-brown shoulder joints and a brown iris, and their color is a bit more dull. Young males change to the mature male’s colors with their first molting. Sexing can be attempted by looking at the cobalt blue patch underneath the tail. The colour is more intense with females.
Adult birds are 8,7 to 9,1 inches and weigh about 4.23 ounce.

Origin
Ruppels originate from dry forests, often in the vicinity of rivers. They are very shy and are rarely seen. The places they live are very vast and thinly populated by humans. Like other poicephalus species they prefer shady areas. Imported birds have difficult acclimatizing, let alone breeding in captivity. Often they died of stress. A couple of decades ago birds who were bred in south Africa were imported, these proved to be more resistant to stress. Less died and a stable breeding stock could be formed. But that does not mean they breed easily. According to vets (a decade ago) most imported captive bred birds still died after 10 to 14 months.
According to the author, his birds started dying after a couple of month. No apparent disease, wounds or infections were found, even after autopsy. Four of his six birds died before he found an answer.
After reading about problems with Cape parrots he drew comparisons. The Cape Parrots are very susceptible to stress and tend to just ‘fall ill and die’ after changes in their environment. The author remembered that just before his Ruppels started dying, he bought a pair of Senegals and Redbellies who populated the aviary next to the Ruppels. They weren’t ill, but the changes in the environment were too great for the Ruppels to handle. He housed the remaining pair in an aviary where they did not have contact with the other birds, and so were not disturbed by any changes. He never had any problems since.

Original article: http://birdhouse.be/2009/03/22/de-ruppe ... ruppellii/

Comment from Dutch forum:

“The character of the Ruppels can be compared to the Senegal, but softer. But I base this on experience with breeding Ruppels and their interaction with each other. I have no experience with tame Ruppels.”

Original topic: http://www.fluffies.org/nl/algemeen-for ... 08-15.html