What species of parrot would you breed?

Since we don't have a breeders forum here, thought I'd post this here.

Many of us on here are simple pet owners, some of us are breeders. Not to single anyone out, this is a post towards everyone.

• If you aren't a breeder, but would ever consider breeding, what species would you breed and why?

• If you are a breeder, is there a species out there that you want to breed but you don't have the funds, money, space or availability of the species to breed them? (i.e. hyacinth macaws, red tailed black cockatoos, red vented cockatoos, vinaceous amazons, etc)

I have a few species in mind myself, but am interested in what others think.

I'm not a breeder, just a pet owner. I would love to breed and socialize and turn out amazing lovebird babies. However, I have a family member who lives with me who is in and out of the hospital (and I stay with him when he goes), so that just would be irresponsible of me to try at this point in my life. Fortunately, my husband is here to care for the adult birds, but babies he wouldn't be able to manage. But, since you asked. Lovebirds. I just love them, especially the really well handfed/socialized ones.

Conure babies, every type and mutation! That would be so amazing. Maybe some tiels too.

Budgies ! They are such little clowns .

no thank you, no how, no way!!!! LOL

I know what my breeder goes thru with her babies and I want no part of it!
Birds are her life and because of that she doesn't really have a life of her own. If you think being just a parront is "taxing at times", quadruple it and that might be about right.

If I was 20 years younger, had the funds and the room, I would "attempt" to breed Amazons (Yellow Napes & Magna Double Yellow Heads) AND Macaws (Blue & Golds and GWs)....and if I were REALLY rich, I'd love to breed Hys as well.

Hey, one can dream, right? :54:

If there is one more bird I would add to the flock it is hands down a Magna or Tres Marie! They are such stunning looking birds, can't tell you how many times I got yelled at by my breeder to leave them alone! LOL As it stands I doubt I'll add any more to the flock, but if I can get one of those I will be SO all over it!!!

More hypothetical than reality! Besides the difficulties of breeding and hand raising, is there a species that you would breed? It's not a question of whether or not you would, but if you could!

For me, I'd probably stick with the red headed species first... i.e. cherry heads, waglers and finsch's. Not to single out mitreds, but I wouldn't want to be producing any more "Charlie's"! LOL

I love these little guys, and I hate how very little different people know about these birds!

For example... some red headed species that are mislabeled in ads

Cherry head (aka red mask)
Mitred Conure | San Pedro | Ebay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 22718558


Depending on size, this could be Waglers or Finsch's
Conure - Racket - Small - Adult - Male - Bird | San Diego | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 23392628

Waglers (aka red fronted)
cherry head conure large | Tillson | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 25722810

Mitred & Mitred Hybrid
Cherry-Headed Conures | Long Beach | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 24699332

Mitred
Red mask conure | Sabina | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 25270595


Only one website even tries to show the differences between the different red headed conure species... however, it doesn't take into account the various subspecies.
Hideaway Farms Aviary



After that, I'd probably want to work with some rarer species of birds, not necessarily in the pet trade, but birds in need of more blood lines to secure the species. These may be birds that could not be bred for the pet trade, simply birds bred for other breeders to produce a larger blood pool for the species. Blue headed macaws, for example. Not a species you are likely to see as someones pet due to their rarity.

Blue-headed Macaw For Sale In OH :: BirdBreeders.com


Main things keeping me back are space, time and money. Everything required to start a breeding business! I don't have much experience in raising chicks, but that could be something I could learn from a breeder who would be willing to teach me.


More or less, a dream.

I have no plans to breed but if I had a great facility with aviarys and a few trusted friends to help I would have one pair of each listed.

Blue throat macaws
Great green macaws
Derbyan parakeets
Red tailed black cockatoos
Bronze winged pionus
Galah cockatoos
Cuban amazons

Since it's very unlikely I would have such a facility I might be interested in breeding one pair but I don't expect to.

I am not a breeder, just a parrot owner/lover. But I hope I can be a vet and a parrot breeder in the future

Here's my list that I would like to breed -

Alexandrines
Galah or rose breasted cockatoo
Red tailed black cockatoo
White tailed black cockatoo
Yellow tailed black cockatoo
Goffins cockatoo
Black palm cockatoo
Blue and gold macaw
Green wing macaw
Blue throated macaw
And hyacinth macaw (if possible! Lol )

Strictly hypothetically speaking (I fully support adoption over buying babies), I would love to have breeding pairs of the all blue mutation, tres marie and the incredibly rare St. Vincent amazons. I'm a big zon lover! IMO, they are just great, hearty birds who are the perfect size and temperament (feisty and independent lol). I hope these links work, since a lot of people haven't seen the blue mutation or St. Vincents before-

Links didn't work...

Speaking of blue mutation in amazons... (if these links work! lol)

Blue Cuban
Page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...98145133547155&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf
Image: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/68968_10152545906705114_499682415_n.jpg

Page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...a.477024863290.265004.561713290&type=1&ref=nf
Image: https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/543498_10151422103308291_17134079_n.jpg



Blue yellow shouldered amazon
The Blue Parrot Returns! - City Parrots -
Tropical Traders Inc - BARBADENSIS BLUE MUTATION


And I do love blue yellow napes, too!
Blue Mutation Yellow-Naped Amazon | Voren's Aviaries Inc

Blue blue front amazon
Amazon Blue Fronted Parrots Bred in Captivity London


(I love blue and white birds! the blue mutation in amazons is no exception! not too crazy about the blue scarlet macaw, but the blue B&G is to die for!!!)




Copperarabian, if you ever do get into breeding, I hope you are able to choose one of the species off your list! Until then, it'll be a nice dream!


LoveMyParrots, I hope you are able to make your dreams come true! I know that galah's are relatively cheap over there, the black cockatoos semi-expensive to expensive, and macaws extremely expensive!

If I ever were to breed a parrot species it would be the African red bellied parrot, only because I have fallen in love with their personality. However it will have to wait for my next lifetime

I'm guessing the links didn't work because I posted from my iPad :-( They were just Yahoo images anyways....

I also love all blue birds, it such a rare color to see in nature (especially that electric aqua blue some species/mutations have). Some of the blue fronts with an almost blue head are pretty fabulous too. Our Kiwi is a blue front, but he only has a barely visible amount of blue on his head (and at 15 y/o, I doubt he will get much more). He does however have a lot of blue feathers around his vent/underside. We joke that we got a blue butted amazon, since his blue feathers came in on rear instead of his front lol

Recently I did some looking online trying to find someone to ask questions of regarding first time clutches in old hens. I cannot find a breeders forum. Sure, UpatSix and BirdBreeders supposedly have forums but they are infrequently used.

There is nothing current on Yahoo Groups either. Very frustrating. The only way I've been able to get questions answered is to write individual breeders via the email address on their web sites. This bias against breeding is a handicap IMO.

I even wrote a Danish breeder because they parent raise the chicks. Had to use Google translate, but we did communicate.

Kiwibird, that's too funny!

Sodakat, I'm actually highly interested in breeders who allow their birds to be parent raised for the pet trade. I know it's not something that "we" want in North America (thank you greedy, lazy people who want instant gratification!), but I have heard that it is illegal in some places(?) to hand raise birds as long as the parents are willing and capable of doing so. Only in cases where the parents wont, or can't care for the chicks, is it allowable.

There should be a bias against bad breeders, not breeders in general, but it's kind of like the debate of wing clipping vs allowing a bird flight... you are going to get strong views on either side!

MonicaMc said:

...it's kind of like the debate of wing clipping vs allowing a bird flight... you are going to get strong views on either side!

Click to expand...

Except with wing clipping vs allowing flight discussions, you can discuss options with people who have done what they are talking about. When you go looking for information regarding breeding parrots you are very limited.

I've found quite a few breeders within the Facebook groups, but again, many of them tend to avoid discussions.

I have the very best of both worlds; I am a macaw owner of 3, but I also have a good friend that breeds macaws and has a very large collection of birds (109) I'm sure I can go over there and help him anytime I want and I get to see all the joys that come with having that kind of a collection and little of the incredible amount of work it takes to maintain a breeding population. Just the daily grind of feeding and watering that flock is mindboggling, let alone he must be constantly home to care for them with few other interests. There are many disappointments that take young lives along the way and the setup to produce a continuous flow of babies takes DECADES. I would probably stay with Greenwings as they would be most highly in demand and maintain a good asking price. Possibly Moluccan cockatoos. Soon I will get to handfeed babies and that is one experience I am looking forward to.

three come to mind for me, even though I breed I would love to have these!!!
Never enough money or space, but it's nice to just dream

Hyacinth Macaw
African Grey
Crimson Belied Conure