Breeding birds any different?

[konceppt]

Hi all,

I am considering hobby breeding and have started looking for birds. I just have a question regarding keeping parrots for breeding. It has always been my understanding that parrots require constant attention and interaction and that was certainly true of my senegal. Is this not the case for breeding birds? Every setup i have seen has been a seperate bird room with cages and nesting boxes. Do these birds not need the interaction from us?

i.e) Are they literally just monitored daily and fed and watered etc?
Do breeders not interact with their birds in the manner that we do with companion birds?

Why do breeding birds not pluck and have the behavioural problems that a companion bird may develop if it became bored and had no interaction from us?

I saw one youtube video with a guy breeding various parrots in vast numbers and they were all in modest cages and it appeared that he just visited a few times a day to feed them and change water and clean etc

Are the birds ok with this?
Is that how its done with breeding birds?

[Wolf]

This one is hard for me to give any answers for and this is because there is much more about it that I don't know than what I do know. Were we speaking of horses we could go on and on for days about the principles of breeding. But I have no actual experience with breeding birds so I only know what I have read. So I read and cross check that against what I do know about horse breeding.
Take, for instance your question concerning interaction with the breeding pair. I will give you my thoughts on it and maybe someone with actual knowledge and experience will correct me.
The very first thing that comes to mind is that the birds lighting schedule and diet is manipulated by most breeders so as to keep the bird in breeding condition for as long as possible, hopeing to squeeze one more clutch of eggs from the pair. This would in my mind result in a very hormonal pair of birds that are even more prone to aggression than a normal mated pair would be. This to me also means that keeping close contact and interaction with these birds would cause them to be more nervous and excitable than normal and both of these things would lead to much more aggression towards the humans and would also put the eggs and young at much greater risk. Because of this breeder birds are not normally given much in the way of human interaction.
It is my opinion that these birds do develop some serious psychological issues from this type of trauma. One of the biggest issues faced by the human who acquires such a bird is that the breeder bird has no trust in the human and is highly prone to attacking them without warning and it may take the rest of the birds life to gain its trust enough to not get bitten everytime there is any attempt at interaction. Soon I will be able to speak of this with some assurance of knowing through experience on these effects on the bird as I am leaving in just a few days to pick up a 5 year old retired breeder male parrotlet. I have a 10 year old hen parrotlet whom was promised a mate and now this promise is about to be fulfilled.
Without having experience it is difficult to do much more than this in as far as answering the questions that you have asked. but there is so much more involved in breeding that I see very little evidence of in any of the breeding programs that I have seen with birds. I do see that they have the knowledge to breed for color mutations, but I see no evidence of breeding for vigor. I see birds that were rejected for sale for various reasons and these are then used as breeding stock. It is my experience that if you use inferior breeding stock that you are going to produce inferior birds. I see such birds being sold and then dying during their first year of life due to compromised immune systems and genetically induced defects that could only exist due to the breeding of inferior birds.
I will not ever be breeding birds, but I have always studied the principles of breeding for every species of animal that I have ever worked with and birds are no different in this regard, I just have not done a lot of research in this area as of yet. Since I started knowing nothing at all, I have spent most of my time researching things like nutrition, physiology and psycology of birds and only touched on breeding as I needed to in order to provide answers for behavioral issues.

[liz]

Hi all,

I am considering hobby breeding and have started looking for birds. I just have a question regarding keeping parrots for breeding. It has always been my understanding that parrots require constant attention and interaction and that was certainly true of my senegal. Is this not the case for breeding birds? Every setup i have seen has been a seperate bird room with cages and nesting boxes. Do these birds not need the interaction from us?

i.e) Are they literally just monitored daily and fed and watered etc?
Do breeders not interact with their birds in the manner that we do with companion birds?

Why do breeding birds not pluck and have the behavioural problems that a companion bird may develop if it became bored and had no interaction from us?

I saw one youtube video with a guy breeding various parrots in vast numbers and they were all in modest cages and it appeared that he just visited a few times a day to feed them and change water and clean etc

Are the birds ok with this?
Is that how its done with breeding birds?

Why on earth would you want to breed? Have you not been reading what we think of breeders?

[konceppt]

Ha ha,someone has to do it or there will be no pet birds. It's more of a hobby thing that I hope can pay for itself eventually. Not planning on breeding for business purposes

[liz]

Ha ha,someone has to do it or there will be no pet birds. It's more of a hobby thing that I hope can pay for itself eventually. Not planning on breeding for business purposes

If the "someones" would stop breeding there would not be so many unwanted, neglected and mistreated birds. The shelters would not be so full. The existing parrots would have a greater chance at better lives.

[Pajarita]

Liz is right. There are, unfortunately, too many 'somebodies' breeding way too many birds out there. We certainly don't need any more. Breeding birds live miserable, miserable lives and yes, they not only have all the psychological problems that pet birds have but some extra, also. Do a google search and you'll see pictures that, if you have any feelings in your heart for birds, will break it.
'

[Kakariki]

I am really hoping that what I have read other places is correct....Birds won't breed if the environment is not conducive to it....? -no nest box, other birds around in close quarters, ....

My pair of Indian ringnecks , before I got them about 5 months ago, were in a garage, in a smallish cage with no toys or even perches, just food water and breeding box. I was told they were about 5 yrs old. The female has one damaged wingtip I have come to find out. Her flight feathers are growing back on one side but not the other.

Now they are in a 4' high by 3 wide and 2 deep with many toys and perches and ropes, in my livingroom, with other birds. The male even comes out and explores and interacts with most of the other birds, it did not take him long at all and I was pleasantly surprised. he seems quite happy. The female is still quite timid and does not want to leave the cage and I do not try to make her. I am just glad she, within the first week or so, stopped screaming and flying into the bars when I would change the food and water.

They haven't seemed to want to breed, Raj spends much of the daytime out of the cage....

[Pajarita]

Hmmmm, well, if by the 'environment not conducive to it' you mean short days and low protein, then, yes, they will not breed under these conditions (forget about the 'other birds' or nest availability, neither works). But you can't keep them living like that all their lives because you would be screwing up their endocrine system just as badly as if you kept them at high protein and long days all year round.

There is nothing bad about them producing sexual hormones and going into breeding condition (it's what nature meant for them and the most natural and healthy thing in the world) as long as it happens when it's supposed to happen, they are strong and healthy and no babies are produced.

[Kakariki]

Thank you again. In your reply to my other post you mentioned the dummy eggs, which I had heard of but did not know where to get them. I assume this will work for the IR as well as the kaks....

I do try to feed them all well balanced diets. Lots of fresh produce daily (which we eat as well) and of course pellets and some seed mixes.

[Wolf]

The dummy eggs will work for all parrot species, you just have to get the right ones for the species of bird and then it is just a matter of timing your replacement so that the bird doesn't realize what you did.