Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:36 am Post subject: New to Kakarikis- Breeding!!!!
Hi all, i am new to this site, aswell as kakarikis. I have a red fronted pair, the male 4 months. The female 10 months. The female is sitting on 6 eggs, 4 ferile. Everything seems to be running smoothly, SO FAR. Just looking for advise and i have some questions that i would be grateful if answered. Thanks.
1) The female is in a bit of a state, she has plucked her chest area, is this normal behaviour?
2) What should i be feeding them, especially when the chicks arrive?
3)The male is mostly green with a couple of small yellow patches, his father was a redfronted yellow, and his mother was a redfronted green. My female is a redfronted green, just wondering will the babies be mixed colours ???
4) When or should i start to handle the chicks to help tame them??
5) Any advise or info on anything about these beautiful, mischevious little birds would be very much appreciated as google hasn't been much help!
the chest plucked thing is ok they have a bit of skin that gets warmer when they a brooding so plucking the feathers alows more contact with the eggs/chicks.... so dont worry about that.
the food....there is a sticky thread http://www.kakariki.net/ftopict-12.html with lots of feeding ideas.......... but basically when they are laying and feeding babies they need more protien and calcium..... so make sure they have cuttlefish and or mineral block pleanty of fresh water a good mixed seed all the time.... I feed vegies and egg food twice a day while they are feeding babies. egg food is a high protien suplement i add some bits n bobs to mine... dried shrimp.... fruit... palm nut oil... ground up cuttlefish crushed rosehips... not all at once...so they get a bit of veriety. Its a full time job for dad as the chicks grow so they need pleanty of good quality food.
as for the colour id say they would be pied... but its not as simple as that... genetics is sort of a bit confusing for me
handling the chicks ... depends on how the parents take it..... some dont like you interfeering at all others dont seem to mind.... i play it by ear but if the hen doesnt squawk at me when i peep in when she is in the nest box i feel she isnt too cross and when she pops out for a min i will pick the chicks up for a little while but if she looks anoyed i put them straight back.
there is loads of info on this site and loads of different peoples experience and ideas... you can use the site serch box or just brows around.... you will learn a lot ....
1) The female is in a bit of a state, she has plucked her chest area, is this normal behaviour?
Like May above.
Normal doesnt happen with all females and Im not so sure it is plucking but rather wearing the feathers away...we have used cctv and never saw any sighn of plucking of the months...but still not fully convinced ether way
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2) What should i be feeding them, especially when the chicks arrive?
your hen is under 12 months...assume that it has not been raised on a FULL consistant balanced diet...if it hasnr the next set has a good chance of causing egg bind which is normally fatal....lack calcuim and phosporus which is esentual to absobsing calcuim.
Heaps of protien , iron... cooked meat, and vit C to absob that...
Read and Do..... Mays link to the info...Dont be suprised if even the female chicks come out of the nest bigger than your male.
leave them be other than a couple quick looks for their 1st batch...get the parents used and not worried about u..all about trust.
And taming....on the left is a quick search block.... type in taming and start reading.
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5) Any advise or info on anything about these beautiful, mischevious little birds would be very much appreciated as google hasn't been much help!
yeah get a 2nd nesting box in....just as the chicks start to get their coloured adult feathers the hen will want to go to nest again....often if no 2nd nesting box she can attack the chicks as trespassers...u will fins a lot of info on that
And
Sort out holding flights now....get the breeding diet and stuf right, and its not had this pair is very capable of going non stop producing over 130 healthy adults with a 80 to 85% rato eggs to addults , over the next 4 1/2 yrs.
And later use "uncling" to wean 3 to 5 day fledged chicks....more on that in the forums...
The secret is not hard thu...Diet Diet Diet varied consistant balanced.
Enjoy
Cheers
Steps. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Just a quick comment, you say to put in a second nest box, however i've heard its best to restrict them to 2/3 clutches a year and the breeder i bought my male off said she was just going to take out the eggs, even if fertile, because she was worried about her female after doing 3 consecutive clutches and she was in a right state.
Whats the best thing to do?
Thanks again
I think if you are "new" to kaks it's better to not go further than 2-3 clutches in a row, or if you only feed them dry seed.
But once you have a consistent workmethod for feeding etc... if Steps lets them breed non-stop it's because it probably works without problems. He has been experimenting with his birds for a long time, and I never read any bs from him.
Maybe other species' females need a longer recovery time, each species is different. Kakariki are a weird animal anyway, and they are not seasonal (give certain birds a nestbox year-round and they will only breed in spring anyway).
Then of course you must think if you have enough space for 4-5 young birds coming forward every 2 months, it makes up to 50 chicks in 1 year, all brothers/sisters.
Over here in Spain people usually asks for 1 pair, so if I can't find birds of a different breeder, I must stop them
(right now only 1 pair is breeding at home) _________________ AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
Okay, thanks, i think i'll let her do 2 clutches then take the nest box out after shes laid her 3rd clutch in there, thanks again for all your help, its very much appreciated.
When the chicks hatch i put some photos up, can't wait.
Like May above.
Normal doesnt happen with all females and Im not so sure it is plucking but rather wearing the feathers away...we have used cctv and never saw any sighn of plucking of the months...but still not fully convinced ether way
me either...... there is an increase of feathers in the nest box..... but some of them (in my latest lot) are definatley dads as they are green not yellow... the hens skin gets quite red and to me looks a bit swollen which would make it look less feathered.... but ive never actually seen her plucking anything out
james... follow steps advice as best you can.... i have..... and ive learned a lot!! i do think tho that maybe our birds in the UK arnt as strong as the NZ ones.... but maybe it depends on their breeding and if you got them from a breeder you should have some good birds _________________ May........
It can be very difficult to get kakatiki to stop laying eggs..hence why I dont bother...
It is not young birds that shoulsd only be limited...it is birds that do not get a consistanrt, variied, balanced diet coving all their needs.
Do that and any responsable pet own will do so, and u will have no issues...
The recomendation to limit has come about because of 'breeders' not having the responsablity nore the self displine to do so.
And in the case of young birds, because very often they have been raised (either hand raised or avairy, on incorrect diets....this results in the birds not eatting a predomently a veggie and protein diet...it can take months to wean birds off a jubk food , seed , sunflower diet to one of about 4 to 6 times by weight more than seed.
Budgies are a 'grass parrot' they live in the wild in open dry spaces where grass is a predominate soource of food....other birds , like kakariki come from forests and countries where grass was not a predominate food source.
Think like this would u feed a hawk or owl on a seed diet and expect good health?...they are a bird..but come from a different enviroment to say a budgie or even a kakariki. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
budgies and cockatiels come from dry lands, but give them a bowl of sprouted seed and they will fight over it. Same goes for leafy greens, aromatic herbs, a fresh eucalyptus or pine branch, etc...
Also, the usual seed mixes we feed them are rather inadequate. Too much white millet that is not very nutritious, and very low on protein.
And we are talking budgies and cockatiels, that are not omnivorous as kakariki.
I think in the wild they eat seeding grasses, but also lots of sprouts, buds, grass, etc...
Cheers/ Pablo _________________ AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
yes varied foods are needed...but ththere diet is predominatelt seed where as a kakariki or forest bird is around 6 times more veggie protein, a bird of prey predominately protien...
But all animals including lions dogs dont just eat limited foods...they all have some degree of varity ..herbs to stay in good condition. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Sorry, iv'e never actualy seen here pluck her feathers i just assumed it, thanks guys :):):) Im feeding them all varities of fruit and veg (except apple/pear seeds and avacardo) and egg food, and 'premium' food, parrot mix, cokateil mix, meal worms, millet, cuttle fish and dandelions as well as fruit muslei- they love it! I also ocassionally give them chicken and soem bones/carcus, and i bought some cat biscuits because i red somewhere that they enjoy them.
Does this diet sound okay? i try to do different things on different days, so its varied.
James
Run a search fot Old wives tales be quite an eye opener
Apple seeds...well ever seen a stack of dead birds in an aplle ochards? dead from asenic poisoning?
Well maybe if u feed 1 bird a cup full and IF the bird managed to eat acup full yes maybe it could get sick and die
On the other hand asenic is a neccessary trace element for good health...and like most trace elements they are need for good health.
We deal with old wives tales very bluntly here...
I ask anyone ...have they personally experianced these things or know some one 1st hand? other than me who has actually tried these things?
And one that is not an old vives tale... teflon as mentioned by one of the others run a forum search on that....we dont have teflon pans in the home...for our health...it killed several of our large parrots. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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