Piri & Piers

[hypnotoad]

I obtained Piri, a female, 6 weeks ago.

Piers, a male, arrived 3 weeks later.

She is typically friendly with humans.

He is completely feral.

Since meeting, they "got along" like butter to bread. Indeed, the same day she met him, she "turned" on me and defends him and her cage territory.

I recently bought a larger cage too; I know they will appreciate it.

Given breeding season is nigh, should I stop any plans on making him more human friendly, let them live in their new big cage, get busy, and make babies? They are fun to watch on their own, and I can raise the babies too...

The cage's internal dimensions are 30" long, 18" deep, 36" tall. It's sweet. Groovy shade of green too! Plus, I can perch their food dish far away, and keep the nest box up top so they can think I'm out of reach.

What can I do to make them more comfy? Apart from time, as they will be adjusting to a much nicer, larger, and prettier color cage? Somehow, I do not believe Barry White music will help, but I can always buy a CD...

Thx!

[AndreaFahy]

What are your reasons for having them breed? Parrotlets are starting to become excessively bred like cockatiels, lovebirds and budgies :(

[hypnotoad]

What are your reasons for having them breed? Parrotlets are starting to become excessively bred like cockatiels, lovebirds and budgies :(

It'd be less costly to keep buying them (I have one pair and wouldn't mind tending to 6 down the road), they'd be fun to take care of, and to watch, and interact with during non-breeding intervals. More fulfilling than television too...

Right now, Piri is in "breeding mode" because she gets incredibly territorial of everything with Piers. (though we still eat at the same times, which is terrific.)

If they had too many, I'd put a couple up for adoption (I know of a local adoption agency, MAARS).

But I do have the space.

And given the relative scarcity of parrotlets compared to cockatiels, budgies, et al... (both my parrotlets came from different outlets; each bird of which came from different states. No inbreeding that I could be aware of.)

Assuming they do breed; it's up to them.

That and I don't know anyone else local in my area and wouldn't trust air transit if I purchased a couple more. They are adorable.

[hypnotoad]

Another reason is that both of them are blue mutations - harder to find than normal greens.

[AndreaFahy]

Okay, so the babies would become an extended part of your family, and you see that you would be able to care for the larger flock - feeding, vet care, etc. That sounds fair. It is fun to have a larger flock :)

I'd suggest you work on making sure both potential parents are very tame and trained, that way they can raise their own babies and you could co-parent with them. The family can grow up the way nature intends (as opposed to the very unnatural hand raising techniques) but the babies could interact with people as they grow up - the best of both worlds. If the parents are not tamed and trained first, you are very likely to wind up with babies that are wild and fearful of humans as well, and that would just be stressful for them.

Are they both the normal blue? I am leary of blue to blue breeding unless both birds are normal sized (32 grams) and all around very healthy and sound. So many mutations are on the smaller size (25 - 30 grams) which I feel can be indicative of weaker genes. Just something else to consider.

[hypnotoad]

Okay, so the babies would become an extended part of your family, and you see that you would be able to care for the larger flock - feeding, vet care, etc. That sounds fair. It is fun to have a larger flock :)

I'd suggest you work on making sure both potential parents are very tame and trained, that way they can raise their own babies and you could co-parent with them. The family can grow up the way nature intends (as opposed to the very unnatural hand raising techniques) but the babies could interact with people as they grow up - the best of both worlds. If the parents are not tamed and trained first, you are very likely to wind up with babies that are wild and fearful of humans as well, and that would just be stressful for them.

Are they both the normal blue? I am leary of blue to blue breeding unless both birds are normal sized (32 grams) and all around very healthy and sound. So many mutations are on the smaller size (25 - 30 grams) which I feel can be indicative of weaker genes. Just something else to consider.

Thx for the info! Piri is no problem; she's human tame.

Piers is ~27 grams and is slow to be trained right now; parent-raised and I'm recovering from some nips right now; I should try the stick method. Both will play the blinking game with me, even repeating the same blinking patterns I show them, but even with Piri on me, he's still timid around me. But I did not know that about the smaller sized mutations being potentially indicative of weaker genes. I will consider that too.

Here are two pics of what they look like:

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll42/hypnotoad72/PirinPyrz.jpg

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll42/hypnotoad72/Pyrz1.jpg