Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:43 am Post subject: New Arrivals
hi all
just wanted to share to you that my yellow fronts that I thought were not interested in each other and fighting all the time,have just hatched two chicks with more on the way.I was sooo0 sure thay were not even speaking to each other let alone mating!just like humans hey one minute theyre arguing next minute? well we all know how that story finishes.
Ill keep you posted on the number of chicks and might find some time to work out how to post a picture.
Hi All
I havn't been here for a while enjoying the really cool weather in perth at the moment.
I ended up having 5 chicks in total which is pretty great for my first batch.Remarkably though they are all still alive and about 5-6 weeks old now. They have been coming out of the nest slowly over the last week and a half and they are absolutely gorgeous, its great fun watching all 5 of them trying to take a bath all at the same time lucky I have a big bird bath for them to swim!!!My question though is my birds are yellow fronts but they dont have the red band across their beak is this normal for chicks to get it later or am I in trouble?The parents are pure from the other forums Ive read on hybrids but not having birds before Im not too sure. Also how long before they are weaned?
All species but a couple of very rare endangered species have the red nose band. This devalopes at the same time as the rest of the colouring in the nest.
I have never heard of this before...can u post a couple good pics for us to see please? _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:53 pm Post subject: Yello crown with no red.
I note with interest your observation that your yellow crown chicks have no red. Some of mine have displayed this tendency but the red band always appears within a short time of their leaving the nest. As for weaning I normally leave mine with the parents for about three weeks or sometimes earlier if the cock shows aggression toward the young.
It sounds to me like there may be some crossed blood lines in both Princess and Kakasa breeding birds. Anything that is NOT the norm when breeding Kakariki usually highlights either crossing of the red front and yellow front, lack of balanced diet or a new mutation. The last one is very rare, especially here in Australian yellow fronts.
The problem with hybrids is that they can be a few generations old and one in three birds appear normal. But, the young they produce will often highlight small indicators that there is in fact a cross over between the red and yellow front. The lack of any red on the frontal band is one such indication. As the red does appear it tends to wash through the yellow and change the overall colour to a light orange. After the moult this becomes even more evident.
The other possibility is that the birds are too closely related. As a result of recent autopsies we have had conducted I am now starting to think that in-breeding can also create major problems down the track. The gene pool of Kakariki in Australia should be big enough to stop this practice but unfortunately it still goes on. If an unsuspecting breeder pairs brother and sister, weaker birds are the result. If those birds are sold to say a pet shop and they in turn sell them as a pair the new breeder is now pairing the second generation and these birds will be even weaker. This is one cause of feather changes. A bird with weak internal organs (ie kidney / liver) may look fine on the outside but will not withstand the same stress of a normal bird. Changes in feather colour can also occur if these internal organs are damaged.
As mentioned in a prevoius post, we aare running an experiment on in breeding (there are NOT for release) sibblings, sibblings back to parent, these sibblings back to orginal sibbling. (red crown wilds)
On the 2nd and 3rd(sibblings back to parent...) we have noticed a 2 to 4mm darkening of feather tips, almost a dirty grey on the back and wings.
All off spring so far have been heatly (or appear so)
There is the occassional very large bird,with the rest normal size variation.
We have taken one of the large birds and m8ed with new blod line, they have chicks in the nest just getting 1st green colours now. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Hi everyone, the top pic is of my dad kak (does he look hybrid?)and the bottom one is of the dad and two of the chicks in question.I have noticed though that the red feathers are slowly coming through .Has anyone apart from myself and Kakasa come accross this before?
I jave not seen such small red bands, and as far as I know this is not a sign of hybridisation. Keep in mind a bird may look ok, it is not till one sees the generations breed off it to see if there are any throw backs. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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