Breeding questions/genetics question/advice

[Lover-of-all-birds]

Hi,
I have 4 parrotlets, 2 boys and 2 girls, im hoping to make to pairs and have some babies of them, they are all very healthy happy birds and the four of them share a large hq flight cage, there is a few things id like to know before i start,
Can i put the nesting boxes in the cage with the four birds?
or would it be better to move them to seperate cages while they go through the process?
i was told they was a normal blue female, a normal green female, a lutino split to blue male, and, a green split to lutino and blue male, what colour babies would i get?
I was planning to put the 2 greens together and the blue and lutino together,
Any other advice/information is appreciated,
thanks

[enborgle]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

The first thing you are going to want to do is separate your pairs. Unless they are very young, they generally do not cohabitate well in groups and may even get violent once hormones kick in - they have even been known to fight to the death. Even pairing them off may present challenges unless they have already chosen their own mates and this can get bloody as well if it isn't carefully monitored. You may want to learn more about the behavioural standards and other needs of Parrotlets before you elect to get into breeding them, it sounds like you need to do a little more research.

To learn more about breeding and genetics, check out these websites:

http://www.parrotletranch.com/breeding.html
http://shadypines.com/plet.htm
http://www.gencalc.com/

[Tony Bucci]

1] definitely two separate cages, and nest boxes preferably on the outside of the cage.
2) make sure to mate two unrelated birds
3) impossible to predict the results from mating if you don't know what they carry genetically.

[Sayuri]

I want to 3rd the recommendations made by the first 2 responses... and recommend reading the links enborgle posted, esp. the pages by Sandee at Parrotlet Ranch.

for their safety, separate the pairs. Unlike lovebirds and many other species, parrotlets do not do well in colony breeding situations. Also, how old are they? I do not recommend having the pairs move in together until they are at least 11 months old, and more safely 1 year. A female parrotlet may try to lay as early as 7 months old, when her body is not properly developed- she could become egg bound and die. Some say its OK to have a young pair cohabitate until after their first molt, but I figure why put them together for a few months to have them separate again and then be put back together? Others may have differing ways of doing this.

May I also make the odd-sounding recommendation that once they are paired and ready for breeding, arrange their cages so that they can hear the other pair, but not see them. For some reason, parrotlet pairs seem to like this setup when they are mating/laying.

I belong to an excellent yahoo group that focuses on breeding and/or handfeeding parrots, of which many members are parrotlet breeders. I'd be happy to pass on their information to you. PM me if you're interested.

[Sayuri]

I'm about to go to bed... but I'll figure out the possible outcomes for your genetic combinations and post them tomorrow.

[pixieparrots]

I concur, you need to separate those parrotlets. They maybe coexsisting fine right now, but when they mature... parrotlets can be extremely territorial. The outcome could be a terrible disaster.
As far as pairings....
If they are unrelated, for good strong birds. As a responsible breeder and in my opinion I would pair the Blue to the green/ino and the Green to the ino/blue. Pairing mutations together can create smaller weaker birds.
With these pairings not knowing if the blue has any splits... you would get all green/ino with possible chance of an ino split. And the Green not knowing any splits paired with the ino/blue would give you all green/ino possible chance split blue.

The other way Blue with ino/blue you would get blue/ino, green/blue/ino
the other pair Green with Green/ino you would get all green poss split ino.

Good Luck!

[alexander]

i have paired all my young up at 12 weeks but will not give a nest box untill yhry are appoox 11 months here in Europe it is common place to pair them up much earlier that you do in the US its one of many diffrences i have noticed between European breeders and our cousins in the USA