INFERTILITY SOME
REASONS
By now a lot of Cockatiel
breeders will have their first chicks already
fledged, or just about to leave the nest box.
Barring mis-pairings, i.e.
hen to hen - don’t laugh, it does happen
with even the most experienced breeder,
sometimes the birds delight in deceiving us
into thinking they are something they are
not.
Most pairs should have
produced fertile eggs, if not listed below
are some steps you can take before breaking
up the pair, and blaming either partner of
being infertile.
Are the perches steady enough
for the birds to mate on comfortably ? If
perches are too small or too large or
unsteady mating cannot be successfully
completed.
If they are a new pair that
have just been introduced, are they
compatible, do they sit together, preen each
other, and give off an air of being totally
compatible and comfortable with each other.
The pair is too young, no
Cockatiel should be put into a breeding
situation until it is 12 months old - birds,
especially hens will exhibit all the signs of
wanting to mate and breed, this is a natural
cycle, but, their bodies just have not
reached the maturity levels to allow them to
be good parents, breeding too young can lead
to all sorts of dramas, feather plucking of
the chicks being a prime example.
Did the pair go to nest too
fast ? Especially the female, we all talk
about how we put the nest boxes in and the
birds are immediately in the boxes, sometimes
with young newly paired birds this is not
good, the hen will start to lay too early,
the eggs not being fertile.
With a new pair it might be
advisable to put the nest box in when the
birds are introduced to each other, this will
give the pair a chance to get used to each
other as well as the nest box.
Is the nest box in the right
position for this particular pair? If more
than one pair are housed to an aviary, is the
dominant pair taking over all the nest boxes
?
It is advisable to have at
the least 2 nest boxes for each pair when
breeding more than one pair to an aviary.
Has the nest box been up too
long ? Have undesirables taken over and
inhabited the box, i.e. cockroaches ?
Are the birds in top
condition, if one or more of the pair are not
feeling totally fit mating may be a tiring
exhausting exercise, not being allowed to
reach its conclusion, thus the eggs would be
infertile.
These are just a few of the
reasons which could cause your birds to have
infertile eggs, and a few areas to look at
before breaking up that infertile pair.
back to ANCS Articles Index
EGGS 13, 14, 15
AND 16.
by Laura Turner
I started my
breeding program in late February this year.
When my Dad had finished my suspended
aviaries, I was impatient to start. The first
pair in my plan were a pearl hen and a
pearl-pied cock, after a few days it became
clear they hated each other.
We thought
that a normal cock that we had seemed
interested in our pearl hen so I swapped him
for the pearl pied. Within one day we knew we
had a pair !! and sure enough after getting
the nesting box ready she laid eggs 1, 2, 3
and 4. I was so excited!!!
They sat on
the eggs really well, things were looking
good - THEN DISASTER, three days before they
were due to hatch - she laid eggs 5, 6, 7 and
8. I didn’t know which eggs were which
so I had to leave them all in the nest. This
time I was ready, I marked the eight eggs
that were in the nest with orange felt pen .
She laid four more, I marked these in a
different colour and got rid of the first
eight.
We waited for
another 18 days - GUESS WHAT ? she laid four
more eggs. I felt like giving up , I bet she
did too !!!
Again I took
out the marked eggs and left the last four
she had laid . 21 days later the best
surprise of all - OUR FIRST BABY HATCHED. The
other three arrived on the correct days. Four
beautiful babies.
I had worked
out what I could expect from a normal cock
and a pearl hen, but not what I could expect
from a normal / Heinz cock and a pearl / pied
hen. There were a few surprises . At this
stage ( 5 weeks after hatching ) I seem to
have 2 pearl / ? , 1 pearl pied and 1
platinum pearl. In a few weeks when we have a
better idea what the babies really look like,
we are going to do our genetics exercises
backwards - to try to work out what the
parents really are.
In the
meantime our whole family will spend hours
admiring the contents of eggs 13, 14, 15 and
16.
back to ANCS
Articles Index
CHECKLIST FOR THE
START
OF THE NEW BREEDING SEASON.
As we head
towards warmer weather it is time to give
some thought as to what your breeding plans
are for the spring. It is also a good time to
do any maintenance that may be required on
your aviaries and stock up on any supplies
that may have dwindled through the winter.
1.
Nestboxes : Last years nestboxes could
use a good scrub or perhaps a new perch .
Check for any dangerous sharp splinters etc
that may injure young chicks.
2. Aviaries
: Look for any holes or breaks in the wire ,
maybe this is a good time to renew sand
floors or bleach out concrete ones.
3. Birds
: Have a good look at the birds you are
intending to breed with . This is a good time
for worming them in readiness for the season
ahead. Check if they look in general good
health ( never consider breeding with a bird
that is looking unwell , the added strain put
on the bird by breeding will only put further
strain on the birds’ system and any
problem is also likely to pass on to the
chicks .)
4. Calcium
: Does each breeding aviary have a fresh
supply of calcium for the birds especially
the hen to access as required. It is not
enough to have some mouldy old calcium bell
that has been hanging there for years but the
birds never touch ( neither would you ! ) .
Calcium is available in various forms to suit
your birds needs whether it be in the guise
of cuttlefish, manufactured calcium blocks or
bells or in powder form .
5. Supplies
: Have you got shavings, mite and lice
powder, hand rearing food , vitamins ,
calcium , leg rings , enough nestboxes,
feeders .
6. Most
importantly of all , do you have an
outlet for the birds you are about to breed .
Now is a good time to assess what you think
the demand for your birds will be in the
coming months . We all know last year there
was an over abundance of cockatiels which in
turn affected the true value of the birds
greatly. Give a lot of thought to what you
intend to produce and how many . We
don’t want to be in the same position as
last year and not have learned anything from
it. It is up to all of us to be responsible
about how many birds we send out into the
world
7. Record
keeping.. if you have never kept a
breeding register now is as good a time as
any to start. It’s amazing when you keep
accurate records and your checking back over
them how many details you can completely
forget unless they have been written down.
Things like shifting eggs around is extremely
important to document as thinking a
particular chick is from the wrong parents
could cause much confusion, especially if you
have sold it to someone who then doesn’t
breed what was guaranteed. Keeping a register
can be as simple as a exercise book and pen
to a very high tech computer system , either
way it enables you to keep a track of your
breeding , where you’ve been and where
you’re heading.
8. Leg
Rings..In keeping with the recording of
you breeding is the necessity to ring chicks
that you breed. Unless you have umpteen spare
aviaries it is just about impossible to know
without a shadow of a doubt which chick came
from which parents, how old it is etc etc .
9.
Providing Sufficient Softfoods... Before
your birds actually have chicks in the nest
that require feeding it is essential that you
have already got them used to some form of
supplementary soft food that will help them
in the difficult task of filling up a nest of
hungry chicks. Seed and the occasional bit
of greens is not enough !!! If you expect
your birds to be able to raise a large
healthy nest you have to be prepared to put
some effort in as well by providing them with
a daily supply of fresh softfoods and
greens and vegetables to make it easier for
them to do a good job. You can use multigrain
bread or sprouts or commercial crumbles but
whatever you do , provide them with all they
need. The variety of vegetables has been gone
over many times , silverbeet, celery, endive,
corn, all as close as your supermarket if you
are not inclined to grow your own. We all
know cockatiels are a bit hesitant to accept
anything new in the way of foods but that is
no excuse for not persevering with them and
having a bit of wastage until they get used
to the new food you are offering them. Then
by the time the chicks arrive they are used
to a selection of softfoods and vegetables
that will make the feeding of their chicks a
much less stressful proposition . It is also
a good idea to sprinkle vitamin supplements
over the softfood as a way to boost your
birds vitamin intake. You would not feed a
new born baby a T-bone steak and chips so
don’t expect your birds to feed their
new borns on adult food !!!
back to ANCS
Articles Index
UNDERPRODUCTION
by Brett Gartrell B.V. Sc. (Hons)
(Notes
from a talk given by Brett Gartrell at the
May meeting of the A.N.C.S.)
Production
, for our purposes , can be defined as the
young birds produced by adult breeding pairs.
Underproduction
is a relative term meaning not enough young
birds are fledging. Overproduction
will mean that the breeding pair’s
health is suffering from producing too many
young or the young birds fledging are in poor
condition as a result.
What we are
aiming for is " optimum production
" which means that the highest numbers
of birds per breeding pair that will keep the
health and fitness of both is being produced.
The aim of
this talk and notes is to allow you to
recognise and work towards improving your
produstion averages and also to work out
where any factors which limit your production
are occurring. I will list the different
factors that affect production but these will
not be the focus.
It is
important to recognise the difference between
a farmer and a breeder. The farmer is only
concerned about optimum production and
generally takes little active participation
in the development of the species. Production
is also vitally important to the breeder but
must be weighed with other considerations in
advancing the breed. For example a breeder
may choose to persist with a low producing
pair because they have the particular
characteristics the breeder wishes to
propagate. Remember however that fertility
and parenting behaviour are to a large degree
inherited and must be taken into
consideration in any breeding programme.
WORKING OUT
PRODUCTION.Good record keeping is the only
way to get an accurate idea of production
levels and compare them to other years, other
pairs and other aviaries. Record keeping also
aids in working out where problems exist.All
figures should be kept for every breeding
pair , then averaged for the aviary. Compare
the figures to previous years and to other
breeders data if available ( be cautious of
these figures !!!)
The sort of
information that should be recorded for every
breeding pair is as follows:
