BREEDING

The breeding season where I am, goes from June to December. When pairing up your birds for breeding always try to give them 2-3 months to bond together before breeding. I have found by doing this they will go down a lot quicker and you might get them to double clutch by removing the chicks at 2 weeks for hand rearing. When breeding is due to begin the male and female will start going into the breeding box. In there they will be chewing up the nesting material and making a dug out in the nesting material. Then you will see the male in a more dominant role, he struts around the perches flapping his wings and making soft chattering noise. Some females don’t respond straight away, and they will pull away or even have a bit of a go at him. When she is ready the male starts regurgitating food to feed her. After a couple of days she will let him mate with her. They mate for a couple of weeks and then eggs {1-3 is a usual clutch} will soon appear, you will be able to see the egg in the females stomach as she gets close to laying. Mating slows up as the hen spends more time incubating there eggs. The eggs hatch usually between 23 to 28 days, sometimes this may vary due to humidity. Alexandrines and Ringnecks are very good parents rarely letting there babies die. When the babies hatch you will have to give them more food such as corn and soaked seed every day. The parents look after the babies till there about 8 weeks old, by this time the chicks will be starting to come out of the nest. The parents will feed for another couple of weeks as the chick learns how to crack seed by itself.

I buy sterilized saw shavings that come in a bag, most produces or pet shops have these. I also buy peat moss from a nursery. I mix one hand full of peat moss to two handfuls of saw shavings as my blend. The peat moss holds moisture which makes the inside of the box more humid, keeping the eggs at a better temperature. I put about 100mm layer of this mix in the box, as well as a couple of sticks about your index finger thick and 100mm long. Once I’ve done this I then use a spray bottle with water in it, and dampen mix. The Alexandrines and Ringnecks will chew this up and mix it around more. I’ve found that Sun Conures also like fresh gum leafs in there box, it seems to stimulate them.