ParrotsForLife wrote:Pajarita wrote:Loki is just a bit over two years old, right? I am sorry I forget the birds' ages (I am lucky I still remember some of the names
). In any case, if she is 2 or even 3, she is only now beginning to become really sexually active so no, nothing to worry about. My Sophie CAG laid her first egg when she was 15 and Ellie (which was an Elliot for 18 years) did it when she was 19.
Wow so shouldn't people be breeding until they are really sexually active? Loki will be 3 soon, Is there any reason why some lay so young.
Personally, I believe that birds should not be bred until they are at the age when, in nature, they would become sexually active. For example, most canary breeders start breeding their birds when they are less than a year old but I always wait until the second breeding season, at the very least. I am going to be breeding a couple of pairs of my canaries this year and the ones I chose are two females and one male 3 years old (he is the best singer I have) and one male which is 5 (Luciano is the most beautiful canary I have as well as my husband's 'son' and he is all enthused about getting 'grandkids'
). My point is that breeding them sooner is the same as allowing a 12 or 13 year old girl to become pregnant or breeding a female dog on her first heat (around 5 months of age) - it's simply not done because we know for a fact that this is not healthy for them or the offspring. Males ages are not that important from a health point of view but young canary males, for example, are not very good parents (too aggressive, too flighty, too restless) so waiting another year works out better for everybody (less worry for the owner and less work for the female that has to 'make up' the male's lack of maturity).
Now, in captivity, if you feed them a soy-based diet (all handfeeding formulas are soy-based and all pellets but Tops have it, too), too much protein and keep them at a human light schedule, the birds develop sooner and that's why you have birds that should be juveniles, if one goes by the age, behaving sexually like adults. And, because of this, breeders (who are always in a big hurry for their birds to produce) have managed to get very young birds to breed - there is a recorded instance of a 1.5 year old male macaw that was successfully bred (a disgraceful thing, if you ask me!).