hello--

[BeakerLuvsBunsen]

I am new to this board and I see a few familiar names from
over at Birdboard.com
hopefully this is a more specific to parrotlet enviornment
although I love all kinds of birds either pets or wild ones

I have two pacific parrotlets both male and bonded
they are a little over 3 months old now
the green one is called Beaker
the yellow one is called bunsen honeydew
both were named after the muppet characters
here are a few photos-

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/1382899871_d7bf29b897.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1428/1294832302_9475bb3b65.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1033/1380058016_4992ab9add.jpg
nice to meet you all-
-steph

[catfish]

nice to meet you~ hope you ejoy it here

very pretty birds!

[nar1122]

Welcome! Yes, I do recognize you from BirdBoard! :):)

I hope you enjoy it here!

Your birds are beautiful :D:D

[BeakerLuvsBunsen]

Does anyone else on here own a yellow?
I was wondering if they are genetically smaller--

[catfish]

I think I remember hearing from Andrea that some mutations are smaller than the normals, caused by improper breeding.

[BeakerLuvsBunsen]

bunsen and beaker are two days apart but beaker (green)
is noticably bigger, I hope bunsen can catch up a little bit
The breeder had told me that the yellow ones are a bit smaller
they both have never ending appitites and plenty of food so
im not worried about malnutrition, just kinda wondering if it's
a universal thing with the mutations

[nar1122]

Like Catfish was saying, improper breeding will cause them to decrease in size.
Specifically due to "inbreeding" which is the breeding of close relatives over and over.

It may also be because it is a mutation....
But the case that I know of - of the birds being much smaller than usual - is of normal greens (non-mutations), which means that it is not always the genetics of the mutations. So it is most likely because of inbreeding.

[Sally]

Welcome!!! I love your fiddies!!!

[Mustang99]

Welcome Steph...your birds are beautiful. many years ago, I had a parakeet named after the Muppet Beaker...hope you enjoy the group!

[Cydney]

Hey and welcome!

I have a yellow male, and he's rather average, possibly small, though he's still young. I think that hand raised chicks have a tendancy to be a little smaller than usual, and the mutation issue may be it as well, but I saw a breeder yellow female that was huge! Quite a big girl for a parrotlet.

[ArtS]

A belated welcome!

My favorite muppet is Beaker! I hope your birds do well together once they sexually mature. If not, I suspect you will soon have 4 birds ;) :D .

Regards,

Art S.