Senegal breeding advice

Hi all,

I just joined today and thought i would post a little bit about my setup and ask for some advice. I had a companion Senegal years ago and made the biggest mistake of my life and let her go. Its a long story which maybe i will tell one day.
Since then i had a little green and yellow void in my life which i have kind of filled with a young pair of sennies again. These are actually both aviary birds and i have them housed in an 8ft Aviary inside my shed. I will get some pics of the setup up at some point. We also got a little blue budgie for my daughter who is so gentle and tolerant of her. I decided against another large bird in the house until my children are a little more grown up as i dont think a more sensitive bird is ready for the children yet!!

So i was after some advice on stimulating my sennies to breed. I feed them avian specific AS5 seed mix every day as well as fresh fruit and veg (Mainly pomegranate seeds, banana, apple, grapes, sweetcorn and mixed veg) as well as sprouted pulses (Not all on the same day)
I have an 18" nest box in one corner with sawdust in various toys and perches etc.

So far, aside from the Hen sleeping in the box at night there have been no signs of breeding. I have had them for just under a year. The **** is 5 years old and the Hen is going to be 3 years old this year. I bought them as a bonded pair not a proven breeding pair so i knew it was going to be a waiting game but i wondered if anyone has advice on what has worked for them in terms of triggering breeding. I put fresh willow branches in fairly regularly but is there anything that i have missed in terms of husbandry and layout?
I also have a 4ft UV light above the aviary on a timer (Roughly on for 12 hours a day)
Thanks
Ive got some videos of the aviary which i will post links to

Ben, I don't believe we have any Sennie breeders, but I'm hopeful you'll get some advice nonetheless.

The setup sounds great to me! You said you bought them as a bonded pair, are you 100% certain you have both a male and a female?

How long has the hen been sleeping in the box? Have you ever seen the male accompany her into the box?

https://www.beautyofbirds.com/senegalparrotbreeding.html
Old World Aviaries: Breeding Poicephalus

The hen has been sleeping in the box for months now. I have never seen the **** go in there. She has also chewed around the entrance hole which I read was a good sign. I haven't DNA sexed them but based on the usual Senegal markers I'm fairly confident they are male and female. The green on the hens chest goes right down to her legs. the green on the Cocks chest finishes much higher and he is totally yellow under his tail and has a wider head. They were not a proven pair but the hen was only 2 when I bought them. I will DNA sex them to make sure but I also read that just moving parrots can stop breeding for a year or more sometimes

Lol that's an odd auto censor for a bird forum to have. The word that is blanked out is c0ck

konceppt said:

Lol that's an odd auto censor for a bird forum to have. The word that is blanked out is c0ck

Click to expand...

Believe me, we all knew what word was censored out, LMAO! Since that particular word is 'multi functional', and we have a large group of underage members, we'd like to keep the language 'easy' on the ears. :32:

I shall start saying male and female then ha ha

Not sure where you're located and what the weather/season is like, but that can be a big influence. Sennie people can probably tell you more about the breeding season.

You can up the protein a bit with eggs and some more nuts (in shell!) as well as adding some foraging activities with shredded paper and nesting materials. I would also say not to use sawdust, as it can cause lung problems from what I understand, and switch to some soft wood blocks for them to chew up in the nestbox, as well as some aspen bedding. Chewing is another good stimulator of breeding pairs.