African Grey Parrot Problem...

[nagu_jain]

Hi all,

I have african grey parrot breeding pair.After 3-yrs of effort i could breed them last year. But do not know whats problem my male grey ate 2-chicks in it and spoiled my effort. And later after 8-months of time they have laid again. Pls let me know what to do as i fear the male may repeat the same culture of eating its chicks. Is it cannibalism or else. If so can i overcome this nor let me seperate male from female and chicks before hatching. By doing so does female cooperates by raising chicks without partner. Pls guide me its very urgent.

You can reach me on [email protected] or [email protected]

Thanking you,

Nagaraju Jain.

 

[mnkeastman]

I am not a breeder nor have I attempted to breed so I am sure the more experience people will jump in here but I know I read in Parrots for Dummies that sometimes a male will eat or kill the chicks in order to get her to mate again. My humble advice would be to remove the chicks after hatching and handfeed them to prevent it from happening again but like I said I am no breeder. Good luck!

 

[roxynoodle]

Pedro or MikeyTN would be the best people on here to advise. Someone here just had their Green Cheek conure pair eat a baby. They also do it to hide the body from predators if the chick dies, or because something is wrong with the chick. You may have to pull them earlier than you would like this time around, but the longer they can be with the parents, probably the better.

 

[Pedro]

Yes, I am sorry to say this is the terrible part of breeding parrots. I have no idea why they do this. It is possible there is some disturbance. Some parrots will eat their young because of interference inspecting their nest box.

I have a friend who's Alex's do the same thing. As each chick hatches they kill the baby. The first year he lost all chicks, second year I managed to save 1 chick from each clutch. They doubled clutched. Last year i saved all 7 babies, BUT we have to take the eggs just before hatch & put them in my incubator, once hatched i feed them from day 1. Something you may have to consider or if you know a hand rearer that would be willing to help by either fostering your eggs or rearing the chicks for you.

Because their is so much work involved in the rearing of day old chicks my friend & I share the babies.

Are you sure the chicks are being eaten or are you just finding them dead in the nest box???

 

[Pedro]

Separating the pair would be ok if your sure it's the male causing the problem. It could very well be the hen. It would be one way of knowing for sure which bird is doing it. Usually the males don't enter the nest box. Not sure about grays though.

Are they getting a balanced diet.

 

[nagu_jain]

Hi sir,

there were 3-eggs in which 2-fertile and other got wasted. I saw from my own eyes that male eating the chicks of day one. The beak of male was bloody and meat of chicks was hanging when i saw it half eaten. Female of fear was away from male seeing the male doing this. I did not got even clue that it is doing like this. before i could take necessary action everything was over. First day i saw a chick and next day i could not hear even sound of chick so i opened the nest box to investigate. But first chick was not visible and i saw male eating second chick by pulling it from egg as it had one more day to hatch.