Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 177
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
For the past fortnight or so, my darling Beaks have been having - ah - marital relations. Frequently. Well, all the time, really. Now I don't have a problem with this beyond the fact that any visitors to the house get a bird's-eye view of all that cohabitation at close quarters. The thing is, it presents a problem.
I don't want to start finding little orphan eggs in the bottom of the cage. I don't want darling Madge to go through the physical strain of producing eggs that never get sat on and raised to chickhood. I don't want Barney having his wicked way with Madge to the point where she's the subject of his - ahm - whims (?) and therefore stressed in her own cage. Most of all, I don't particularly want any more birds just at the moment!
On the other hand, I feel it would be a good experience to let the Beaks breed just once. I have a built-in taker for any chicks (Sam, who rescued Barney for me last year). The kids are agog to see baby Alexandrines emerge from the loins of our beloved Beakies, but my dear hubby pales at the thought (he thinks our place is a zoo already).
What should I do? Give them a nest box and see what happens? Leave them to make what they can out of their rummage basket? Remove all possible nesting material (eg. cage papers and chewy stuff)? Separate them? (Our giant cage has a separating wall built in).
My good friend, Umar, gives his birds the most fantastic tandoor ovens to nest in. This takes perfect care of the Alex' long tails. In the absence of a tandoor oven, what kind of nest box do Alexandrines prefer? I know no-one who breeds them so I'm unaware of whether they prefer a tree-hollow or a shallow box. Online searches haven't helped either.
I'd love to hear your opinion on this as I need to decide what to do. Spring is coming and time's running out! :22_yikes:
I don't want to start finding little orphan eggs in the bottom of the cage. I don't want darling Madge to go through the physical strain of producing eggs that never get sat on and raised to chickhood. I don't want Barney having his wicked way with Madge to the point where she's the subject of his - ahm - whims (?) and therefore stressed in her own cage. Most of all, I don't particularly want any more birds just at the moment!
On the other hand, I feel it would be a good experience to let the Beaks breed just once. I have a built-in taker for any chicks (Sam, who rescued Barney for me last year). The kids are agog to see baby Alexandrines emerge from the loins of our beloved Beakies, but my dear hubby pales at the thought (he thinks our place is a zoo already).
What should I do? Give them a nest box and see what happens? Leave them to make what they can out of their rummage basket? Remove all possible nesting material (eg. cage papers and chewy stuff)? Separate them? (Our giant cage has a separating wall built in).
My good friend, Umar, gives his birds the most fantastic tandoor ovens to nest in. This takes perfect care of the Alex' long tails. In the absence of a tandoor oven, what kind of nest box do Alexandrines prefer? I know no-one who breeds them so I'm unaware of whether they prefer a tree-hollow or a shallow box. Online searches haven't helped either.
I'd love to hear your opinion on this as I need to decide what to do. Spring is coming and time's running out! :22_yikes:
