Bird woman wrote:I'm a bit camera shy but they would get a lot of action right now at my house.you know pajirta I was going to ask you about the timing thing cause since I've really adhered strictly to the solar schedule, and with all the new ones coming in last year I thought I've done something wrong cause I thought it to be a bit to early for this hanky panky going on. Also I know this is going to sound stupid but here goes ( Nigel and the mollucans can't make baby's can they cause Nigel tried to climb up on Riki's back briefly when they both were in my lap . Riki of course kicked his butt but the little monster acted like he was going to try to give it a go.
BW
I, also, used to believe that all birds should go into breeding condition in the spring and period! But I later realized that this was wrong and I think my mistake was due to the fact that all the birds I had since I was a little girl were from a temperate zone so spring was, indeed, their breeding season (I am talking canaries, quakers, Brazilian cardinals, etc). But, as I got more and more species in the rescue and I have always been VERY strict about the solar schedule and the diet, I begun to realize that there was something going on that I was missing so I started doing a deeper research into the environmental conditions of their natural habitat at their wild breeding season and that's when I realized that they all have different photorefractoriness points which evolved to 'fit' the season that was most propitious to breeding in their specific natural habitat. So some birds breed in the spring but some breed in the fall and some breed twice a year. All short day breeders start producing sexual hormones during very short days (like now) - why? Because, in their natural habitat, long days have 'problems'. For example, Senegals breed in the fall because the summer in Senegal is very rainy so the rains start them producing sexual hormones (cockatiels are the same) but they nest when the rains are over and fall begins and the days are becoming shorter. Same thing with IRN's, they breed AFTER the monsoon season is over. Cockatoos breed both in the very early spring and the fall so, yes, they are beginning to get ready for it. Linus has gone through two corners already, has been screaming his head off and has gotten VERY affectionate. Sophie CAG is not only going into cages but also asking for love all the time and allowing me to touch her whenever I feel like it (which is not the norm with her). The lovies have been chewing up a storm of paper (Peachy actually demolished all the fake plants I had in the cardinals' cage, plucked every single leaf one by one and left only the plastic stems
) and doing beak feeding, etc.If you are interested in exploring this subject, here are two articles on it:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8007000627
http://physrev.physiology.org/content/68/1/133
BW