 |
Reply
| |
| Ive got a male and female drew and mimi , she used to lay eggs all the time, i knew they hadn't mated so i knew the were infertile, and were tossed. We moved and she has not laid any eggs since, even though ive purchased a nesting box for them. Does any one have any ideas why or how i can help move them along?? Any suggestions will be helpful. |
| | 050609112230.JPG 050609112318.JPG |
 First
Previous
2-14 of 14
Next
Last
|
Reply
| |
Just out of curiousity, are you certain that they are indeed male and female? Abby |
|
Reply
| |
| yes fairly sure, because the male ,,, well looks like a male, and the female had been laying eggs previously, i added pics to my posting, if u would like to see |
|
Reply
| |
In 1985 I purchased a male tiel from a breeder, who had been breeding tiels for many years. I found out Cracker was a female when she started laying eggs! Since that time, I have my birds dna'd so I know for sure. lol Abby |
|
Reply
| |
Is Drew the grey one? How old are they and what do they eat? |
|
Reply
| |
| Yes Drew is the grey one .... I'm not sure exactly how old they are. They were grown when they were gave to me, I've had them for about 1 1/2 -2 years. |
|
Reply
| |
| Oh and they eat just normal cockatiel food. They are not the first pair of tiels I've had, but the others were already a breeding pair my mother gave me years ago. |
|
Reply
| | From:  momnoah | Sent: 9/3/2006 4:51 AM |
Hi, I have 25 tiels at present (12 adults and 13 babies) so maybe I can help you answer a few questions. Yes, the grey is a male and the lutino I'll assume is the female since there have been eggs laid and you only have 2 birds. Lutinos and pieds are notoriously hard to sex by looks alone. Greys and Pearlies are easy to tell apart upon mature plumage. First, where are you located? Here in the South, the normal breeding season is pretty much over. They can sometimes be tricked into breeding more, but I refuse to do that with mine. Second, why do you want them to breed and what do you want to do with the babies? Tiels average 5 babies a clutch although they can have just one or as many as 8. Let me tell you, 5 babies can be a handful, especially at fledging time! Babies are not always easy to find good homes for. Unfiortunately, especially the normal greys because many people like the more vivid color mutations. If you plan to breed they should be of good conformation and type without defects and have good temperment & disposition too in my opinion. Do you have any idea as to their parentage? What colors they were or if any birds in that line had any problems? (like plucking, bald spots on the head like many lutinos have etc...) I looked at an on-line virtual breeder and if your male is a Normal Grey and not a mature Pearly, you will get all Grey babies- both male and female, but males will be split to lutino (no splits on the females). If he is a pearly you will get all grey males split to pearly and lutino and all females will be pearly with no splits. If your birds have splits, there is no telling what you might get, although Grey is the dominant gene to almost all color mutations. Third, all cockatiels, especially breeders need good nutrition. They need a good balanced diet. Pellets are a good start, but they also should have seeds, fresh foods, cooked and/or soaked veggies, seeds, grains & legumes. They need extra protien and calcium when breeding or moulting. An inadequate diet might be why they are not breeding. In the wild most birds breed during the spring or rainy season when new growth and other foods are more plentiful. Lighting can also plays a part in triggering when birds get hormonal. And then there are the individual birds.. Sometimes they just don't like eachother, or at least one of them isn't interested. Sometimes if the birds are first hand tamed they are so bonded to people they want nothing to do with another bird despite natural instincts. Sometimes you have birds that don't care what they breed with, as long as they can breed. In breeding, nothing is guaranteed, and usually, it isn't as easy as it seems at first. Rarely do you make a profit. You are lucky to break even. Good Luck.. |
|
Reply
| |
MY goodness thats alot !!! Ummm first of all I have some ppl that would like a bird/ or birds. I've bred before, with no problems, with a differant pair, I couldn't get them to stop matter of fact!!
I am in the south, Tennessee.
As far as i know there are no defects or abnormalities, they are not hand tamed, and seem to get along fairly well. I do not know of their parentage, an email was sent around at work some one wanting to give hers away, I called because I missed having my other bird because of moving and having to get rid of all the animals I had. She said I could have it and she would bring it to the place i worked the next day, well she called and said her mother had one she would give me too, one was a male one was a female and their names were Mimi and Drew.
They stayed in seperate cages for a few months with me setting the cages closer and closer so they could get aquainted until finally I put their cages together eventually opening the doors up to each other ,,, they styaed apart a few days til they ventured to each others home, finaly deciding she liked the bigger cage better with him in it!!!
As far as what the babies will look like isn't a concern, I've dealt with them before as I said before.
They have a fresh supply of seeds and fresh water, I have never used pellets, what ever they are. Guess Wal-mart dont sell that!! j/k But I will look online at some sites about the food and stuff.
Thanks for the help,
Gina |
|
Reply
| | | From: momnoah | Sent: 9/3/2006 7:31 AM |
Hi Gina. I re-read the post I wrote earlier and I guess it does sound stronger than I intended. You have my apologies for that. I wasn't trying to put you on the spot, and I don't have anything against breeding. I let my pair breed and raise a clutch (or two if I'm too slow puling the box) each year. If I can help, I'll be happy to do so. I am glad you joined here and are asking questions. Many bird owners don't even care to. As for pellets, here's a bit of info: Pellets are, in general a nutritionally balanced diet of foods all chopped up finely, fortified and well mixed. In their native habitat, wild cockatiels (as well as many other species) eat a wide variety of foods. Seeds are only a small part of what they eat in the wild depending on the season. Although there are not pellets in the wild, it's the best we can do since we can't import all they eat from Australia. Theoretically, they can survive well on pellets alone, but the wider the variety of good foods the better. There are many brands of pellets on the market in many price ranges. Just to give you an idea, I feed my 'tiels Roudybush pellets 24/7. Then I give them a piece of millet spray once a week or so. The rest of the week I alternate fresh greens and/or veggies; cooked veggies, grains and legumes, and sometimes sprouted seeds, grains, and/or legumes. This is by no means 'the best' or the 'only' way to feed them, it's just what works for me, and my birds seem to be doing well. Here is a link that has comparisons on pellets. You can usually by pellets at Petsmart, Petco and some petshops. I'll e-mail you a few links where you can buy pellets on-line. I hope this helps.  |
|
Reply
| |
| Thank you yes it helps alot, I forgot to mention that i do give them millet sprays about once a week and about every other week I give them a fruit stick, I'm not sure if you know what I mean by that but its like fruit and seeds and stuff stuck on a stick type deal, they make fruit ones and honey ones. I generally get the fruit ones. I will go to the pet store or petco today to see about the pellets if they are open on sundays. |
|
Reply
| |
And don't forget the veggies and other nutritious people-food. Seeds have almost no nutritional value so it's time to do some slicing, dicing, chopping, shredding, steaming, and cooking for your potential procreators.  |
|
Reply
| |
Hi there. I haven't been here in a long time, but this thread really caught my interest, since I do breed tiels. The first thing you need to do before you introduce the nesting box is get them on a balanced, healthy diet. As has been mentioned before, tiels (well, all birds really) need a varied diet, not just seed. My guys get their seed and pellets in their food cups, but also get a lot of other stuff as well. I make up a bean mix for them, (1 cup of each of the following, cooked: navy beans (soaked), split peas, lentils, pot barley, whole wheat pasta and whole wheat rice) which is mixed with chopped veggies (red or green leaf lettuce, NOT iceburg, kale, shredded carrots, broccoli (they LOVE broccoli), really whatever good greens I have in my fridge) they get a dish of that in the morning. Some mornings I mix things up for them and give them a hard boiled or scrambled egg either mixed in or on it's own. I also have a great egg food recipe that is very healthy for them and is excellent for breeders and for weaning. Throughout the day, they get different soft foods, any combination of the above, along with millet once or twice a week. I don't give them a lot of treats per se, like the fruit sticks you can buy. I don't find them to have enough nutritional value for my breeders, or my pets so I tend to stay away from them. They are certainly nice for an odd treat, however. Mind you, that's just my opinion. Before you introduce the nesting box, if they aren't living together in a cage, you need to do that. Then, when they are showing signs of being bonded, ie: sitting together on a perch, preening each other, eating out of the same dish, etc, you can hang up the box. After that, nature will take it's course. There's really nothing you can do to speed things up. You will know if the male is ready if he starts courting your hen. He will sing to her, with his wings raised, rap his beak on the bars of the cage, the perch, the seed dish, basically whatever is handy. Generally it is the male that investigates the nesting box first. He will go in, then come out and tell her all about it. She will go in, check it out and come back and tell him that it's just not right yet, and back in he will go to fix it up. It's really quite hilarious if you get a chance to watch them. Talk about hen pecked! LOL! What you can be doing while you're waiting for them to bond, mate and produce eggs is start reading up on how to handfeed if something goes wrong, as well as different issues that can arise and how to deal with them. Things like egg binding, sour or stretched crop and splay leg are more common issues that can arise. It's also a good idea to have an avian vet that you can take the babies and mama and papa to. I understand that just isn't possible for some, but if there is someone nearby, it's a good idea to take your parent birds there for a healthy bird check before you decide to breed them. Your hen will need lots of calcium during this time. I have a cuttlebone and a mineral block in the breeding cage, as well as offering the hardboiled and scrambled eggs with the shell mixed in. Also, the egg food recipe that I have has scraped cuttlebone in it. You also may want to check your lutino for a bald spot. That's a common defect in lutinos (I have one myself. She's the nicest bird you could ask for, but with that bald spot, she'll never be a breeder) and that gene will be passed on to any split lutino or visual lutino offspring. If you're lucky and she doesn't have it, then no problem. Basically, you want to make sure that your parent birds are in good health. So long as they are, then they will go ahead and do everything you need them to. Just be sure to read up on possible problems and how to deal with them. It's certainly not rocket science, but breeding is definately not for the weak of heart. I hope this helps somewhat! Deon |
|
Reply
| |
| OKIE DOKIE .... good news and not so good news ,,, I bought the pellets and seedling grass and other stuff, they are totally not interested in eating any of it, I know,,, give it time they will,,,, the good news is she laid another egg today. Not in the box tho, im not sure if the've mated or not,,,,, and as far as i know they still h ave not been in the breeder box.... should i place the egg in the box or leave it be??? |
|
|
First
Previous
2-14 of 14
Next
Last
|
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Recommend
Recommend
Return to PoicephalusGroup