Shock Death

My new aviary has allowed me to move around several of my bird to do some extensive cleaning of my aviaries. The first pair I moved were "Turk" and "Blondie" to allow a space and do some cleaning of my main aviary. However one day "Blondie" just seemed a little sluggish and sleepy putting her head into her shoulder a lot and the following day I found her past away hanging upside down.

It had a lot of similarity to my female Princess Parrot that died some time ago; I still suspect cat involvement as these are very healthy birds that have died unexpectedly.  

New Aviary

People down the street from me were getting rid of a aviary, so I managed to pick up yet another free aviary (yes I have paid for one of my four aviaries). This has provided me some much needed space for aviary maintenance (moving birds out while cleaning) and general shifting around of birds.

Aviary Maintenance

An unfortunate downside of keeping birds is the excess seed attracts rodents. I keep my seed in sealed bins and a box of rat sak in the shed which controls the problem but does not eliminate entirely. 

The flooring in my aviaries are pavers that have concreted across to keep out mice and rats, however a rat has recently been exploiting weak areas of this a burrowing under to access the seed. My response has been to concrete in the burrow but it was too late in my larger communal aviary and allowed my female Gouldian Finch to escape.

I recently purchased a pressure cleaner and it has allowed me to really thoroughly clean out all the aviaries and literally blow out all the cobwebs! Great idea for anyone keeping birds and I would highly recommend.

RSPCA Adoption

I decided to adopt a male Indian Ringneck Parrot from a local RSPCA shelter.

His name is "Boe" and believe him to be partially hand reared as when I got him out of the box he climbed on my hand then shoulder but soon after me offering my hand to step up on he gave me a little nip but did not fly away. I have also been feeding him by hand and he is poor flyer (I suspect his wings have be clipped). 

I had an interest in doing this for a while but never found a bird advertised available. It cost me $35 to adopt him, me to provided ID and to sign a form saying I would not on sell him or experiment on him (bit odd but I guess it happens).

He seems slightly larger and differently mark to my other males which leads me to believe he may be crossed with an Alexandrian Parrot but I can't be sure.

Surgical Sexing

I chose to get this season young surgical sexed at a local vet. The procedure cost $20 for each bird as there were multiples ($25 for a single bird).

It was cheaper than DNA sexing through the vet (around $37 from memory) and I also got leg rings put on the Green Cheeked Conure young to help me distinguish from the parents (cost $11 per bird for leg banding).

The procedure involves the bird being put to sleep and examining the sexual organs to determine if its a male or female.

Results

Blue Male

Indian Ringnecks

Blue - Male 

Creamino - Female

From my knowledge; is that the lighter colours in the Indian Ringneck Parrots are generally more likely to be female. I have been told my Albino male if rare on more than one occasion. 

Creamino Female

Green Cheeked Conure

I ended up with two males and a female. The one with yellow tipped wing feathers was a male.

Green Cheeked Conure's - Note Fellow Tipped Wings

Colour Mutation - Green Cheeked Conure

One of my Green Cheeked Conures fairly early on developed yellow tips to its wings. I wasn't sure if this was a developmental thing but they now nearly have their full adult plumage and the yellow tips have stayed.

I'm unsure what to classify the bird as; there are a few common mutations that have yellow on the bird - Cinnamon, Yellow Sided and Pineapple but the wing feathers are free of yellow.

Green Cheeked Conure - Chicks

28th October - My first Green Cheeked Conure chick hatched, followed by a second and a third in the following days. The female is very protective and has not left since the chicks have hatched and is quite often joined by the male. This gives me far less access than the Indian Ringneck Parrots do afford me.

17th December - There has been a greater distance between chicks as can be seen in the picture. The largest has developed some yellow wing feathers so I thinking it maybe a mutation as no yellow feathers are present on either of the parents. 

I have not handled the much so I tend to get the odd nip when handling them at this age.

Green Cheeked Conure - Sitting

The Green Cheeks have finally started sitting. The first egg was oddly crushed or broken by the parents which I though might be a sign that they were not going to have young this season however the female has laid at least a further two eggs.

Chick Progress - Indian Ringnecked Parrot

22nd September - My male Indian Ringneck "Nippet" does occasionally visit the chicks in the box but this is the first time I have been able to document it.

He is very aggressive (towards me) at the start of breeding season but tends to settle down and is back to his normal self once "Nelly" has laid eggs and is sitting.



 30th September - The chicks are starting to fledge and get their feathers. My early guess of colours are Creamino (looking very Lutino at the moment but it is very similar to my Creamino from last season) and Blue or possibly Turquoise aka Pastel Blue.

14th October - The chicks continue to fledge at great speed, it wont be long until they are emerging from the box. Colours are now definite; Blue and Creamino

25th - 26th October - Saw the emergence of the chicks from the nesting box the Creamino was first followed by the Blue the next day. The caused the normal chaos in the aviary as they learned how to fly. I have witnessed my adult female "Nelly" still feeding the young as late as the 12th November.

I will get the pair DNA tested and leg banded as soon as my baby Green Cheeked Conures (born a few days after the chick came out of the box) are out of the box and old enough.

Feeding - Flowering plants

When doing a little garden maintenance a decided to try my birds on some native flowers from a bush (as they are a particular favorite of Rainbow Lorikeets and Crimson Rosella in the area).

I didn't think they would get much interest as I thought they were more a Lorikeet thing but all the birds seemed to be very interested in them; particularly the Princess Parrots that didn't leave the trimmings until the flowers and buds were completely dismantled.