Help please? Ringnecks in nestbox

[dylbagz]

I've kept Indian ringnecks as pets for a number of years now, but I've never bred them before. A few months ago, I decided that I was going to try and breed a pair, as I got a large aviary that needed to be filled. In the last two days, I've seen the female in the nestbox for periods of up to 30 minutes, and when she comes out, sometimes the male will go in. These birds are 4-5 year old 'proven' breeders (trusting the guy I bought them from) and he said they don't sleep in their nest box or do much in there other than breed. I haven't seen much affection between the two and no feeding or dancing from the male, yet both are seeming to be more interested in the nestbox as each day passes.

I live in SE Queensland in Australia (spring = September onwards), where we are slowly but surely heading into winter now, with temperatures between 12-26C this week and daylight hours of around 11.5 hours, both of which will continue to drop and stay low for a few months.

I'm wondering if these two ringnecks are thinking about breeding, or if they are just going to perhaps sort the nest out in preparation for the cooler months. I'm really not sure what to think with these two - if it were my cockatiels or budgies I'd know what they were up to straight away - as I'm new to ringnecks.

Any help or advice appreciated,

Cheers

[JaydeParrot]

It's difficult to say, it depends upon how long they've been paired together for, what breed they are and the time of the year, most parrots won't breed during the winter months, or during any time when it is cold and the daylight time is short- They may just enjoy playing around in the nestbox as something to do .

Give careful consideration over letting them breed though, I intitally brought my Senegal for breeding, but after hearing about how Cain (the Senegal) had been abused, and seeing Cain shake and scream, flying from one side of the cage to the other when I approached, I realised that if I paired Cain up to breed, I could be setting a whole new generation of birds up for a life of abuse.

I not saying this could/would happen to all your baby birds, it's just that if your ringneck pair hatch out an average of four baby birds, that's four more pets you've got to feed and care for. If/when you decide to sell those baby birds, you will no longer have any control over what happens to them next and how they are treated.

They 'could' end up and live out their life in a nice, loving home. Trouble is, they could spend the rest of their lives the way Cain was, alone in a darkened shed, her only occasional human company being a bad tempered man who was known to have actually killed and caused many terrified parrots to bleed, by carelessly grabbing parrots by the wings and tail feathers to pick them up and move them to their indoor/outdoor cages each morning/evening.

After almost an entire year of training, Cain is now calm, quite happily sitting on my shoulder and (seeming to) watch tv while I'm typing this- Still hates and attacks gloves though.

I'm not saying you shouldn't breed parrots, I'm just saying that a parrot with a lifespan of 25 to 30 years is unlikely to stay in the same home forever, and unless you personally know the person who you're selling the baby bird(s) to, you will never know what has happened to your baby birds and how well/ badly they ended up being treated.

I only personally knew two people who wanted a baby senegal from me- And I only trusted one out of those two people to look after a parrot properly.

, Sorry about the long speech, I just wanted to explain to you the long-term problem of releasing/selling the babies to others, rather than the short-term fun of raising them...

[janetafloat]

That's really good advice - thank you for taking the time to share that, I totally agree!

[JaydeParrot]

That's really good advice - thank you for taking the time to share that, I totally agree!

Thanks, great Senegal photo.