Keeping and Breeding Hooded Parrots - Part 2
Keeping and Breeding Hooded Parrots: Part 2 as detailed in Parrot Society of Australia magazine March - April 2011
In ‘Keeping and Breeding Hooded Parrots: Part 1’ in the last issue the topics covered included ‘Aviary Design’ and ‘Care and Management’. In this issue the topics covered are ‘Breeding’ and ‘Mutations’.
Breeding Hooded Parrots
History
In the first breeding season (2006) I had mature pairs that did nothing, mature pairs that had clear eggs, mature pairs that had dead in shell and of the few that did hatch a number were lost in the first week. Out of nine pairs I ended up with four birds from one pair for the season. I had bred one pied, two split pieds and a normal. A couple of the pairs had three clutches and didn’t fledge a chick. It was a very frustrating time. The obvious issues were that the chicks weren’t coping with the cold, the hens were regularly leaving the eggs and young chicks and some of the pairs were simply not compatible. There was a lot of work to do in the few months before the next breeding season beginning March 2007.
The first thing I did was look at nestbox design. I talked to one of the ‘old timers’ who I knew had kept both Golden Shouldered and Hooded parrots. He had made a number of trips to the top of Australia and had seen and checked nest sites for both of these anthill parrots. He described the size of the nest cavity, the tunnel length to the cavity and some of the techniques he had used to insulate the boxes from our cold winter temperatures. He also mentioned that others had used light globes for artificial heating of the nestboxes. I decided that light bulbs were too cumbersome and unreliable so I began to research via the Internet other heat sources. I also decided that I should find out what temperatures were experienced by the hooded parrot during the breeding season. After reading a number of avicultural books I found that the minimum ambient temperature during the breeding season rarely dropped below 20 degrees Celsius and that the temperature inside the anthill cavity would be a few degrees higher than this figure.
The Internet is a wonderful source of information and after a considerable time surfing I discovered a heater cable that was used around pipes to prevent ice forming on the outside of the pipe. The cable was rated at 20 watts per foot and guaranteed for more than 10 years. I did some temperature tests and decided that I needed a cable length of less than 300mm. The cable was fitted inside a small wooden tray 40mm deep and sized to fit under the nestbox. The total cost for this heater unit was $50-60. Each of the heaters was plugged into a mains power point using a standard computer power cable. The mains power was then switched on by a Honeywell air-conditioning controller unit when the ambient temperature dropped below the selected temperature setting. I tried a number of temperature settings and finally settled on between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius.
The next issue to deal with was compatibility. About half of the pairs had laid fertile eggs so I hoped they would be able to hatch and raise babies with the new nestbox and heater design. The remaining birds were paired with different partners and observed for signs of acceptance rather than aggression. I have found that a good check for compatibility is to supply greens to the new pair and see if they fly down and eat together.
The changes led to very good breeding results in both the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2007 I had perched thirty babies from six pairs and in 2008 I had perched twenty six babies from seven pairs. Although these were good years a couple of new issues appeared which I hadn’t noticed before. The first was the death of juveniles after fledging and the second was the low number of pied and fallow babies.
The issue of loss of juveniles after fledging was a perplexing one. In the 2007 and 2008 breeding seasons I had lost a total of eight juveniles. The only issues apparent to me were stress and insufficient time for weaning. In early 2008 I had handreared a clutch of three babies and although it didn’t seem significant at the time, their weaning weight was actually quite low at 35-40 grams. I checked a couple of parent reared juveniles for comparison and found that they were of similar weight to the handreared birds. The adult weight range is 55-65 grams. It had always been my practice with Australian parrots to take the juveniles from the parents at around two weeks after fledging. To try and minimise problems with weaning I decided to leave the birds with their parents for a minimum of four weeks to ensure complete independence. The parents didn’t seem concerned with the extended time and the hens went back to nest without any incidents of aggression between the cock and the juveniles.
The next step was to try and minimise stress. Firstly, I decided that catching the birds to move them to the holding cage was the only time they would see a net until after the end of summer when they had gone through the juvenile moult. This meant DNA-sexing the babies in the nest and holding back sale of the birds until after summer had finished. Secondly, I decided to feed the sprout mix daily right through until the juvenile moult at the end of summer; when it was clear that the young birds had reached the adult weight range. Thirdly, I decided to make minimal excursions into their holding cage until the juvenile moult had been completed. Since implementing these changes I haven’t lost a juvenile during this period. I have also found that after the juvenile moult the birds are quite hardy and therefore ready for sale.
The other problem previously mentioned was the low breeding numbers of the pieds and the failure to breed any fallows at all. The strategy to increase compatibility by changing pair combinations produced more babies but had little effect on pied and fallow numbers. The pieds were easier to deal with and I decided to set up at least two young pairs (consisting of a pied and split) each year until the number of pied babies produced was satisfactory. Part of this process has included obtaining new blood from breeders in other states. By this year I considered the pieds to be of sufficient size and quality to put together two pied to pied combinations which will hopefully breed next season.
The breeding of fallows has been a different story. In other breeds fallows have been difficult to establish and Hooded parrots have certainly maintained this trend. The fallow appeared more than ten years ago in Victoria and was subsequently purchased by a breeder in Queensland. The fallow has been established since that time but numbers are still quite low and breeding is still difficult. The fallow breeding stock that came to my aviaries in 2005 consisted of one pair of splits and a couple of split fallow cocks. Since that time the pair of splits has only produced three coloured birds from thirty babies and those three died before they were ten days old. I managed to purchase a fallow cock from the above breeder in 2008 and a fallow hen in 2009. In 2009 I also bred a fallow hen giving me three breeding pairs which will hopefully all come good in the 2011 breeding season.
The path to the present has involved a steep learning curve but the results have made the effort worthwhile. In 2009 I perched twenty nine babies from eight pairs and this year from the first round I have perched twenty babies from seven pairs.
Management
I place the nestboxes in the aviary flights in the last week of February. The nestbox external measurements are 280 wide x 195 mm deep x 200 mm high with a 200mm spout set at the top right hand corner of the box (see attached picture for details). The internal breeding chamber is quite compact at 160 mm wide x 160 mm deep x 180 mm high. The hen enters the nest through the spout onto a ledge which drops down to the left into the chamber. The heater is mounted on the bottom of the nestbox directly under the breeding chamber. I have also purchased a couple of insulated hooded boxes from the Parrot Society to trial in 2011. As mentioned above the nestbox is located in the shelter section of the aviary. I now use PSITTABED nesting material from VETAFARM to a depth of 25mm which is also purchased through the Parrot Society. PSITTABED is a natural product made from pine bark which has been pasteurised and natural minerals added to eliminate odour and irritants by trapping ammonia and other toxins. Previously I had used a 50:50 mix of peat moss and pine shavings but this season I decided to trial the VETAFARM product and it has proven to be quite successful. Before I put in the nesting material I dust the box with PESTENE powder and a small amount of ABSORBACIDE to help eliminate mites and other very small nasties. I also fill about 100 mm of the spout with soaked peat moss which is compressed into the cavity. This is to allow the hen to dig through to the nesting chamber as they do in the wild.
The provision of the nestbox triggers an immediate response from the hooded pairs. The birds are usually well and truly ready, having already scratched around the floor digging holes in the river gravel in a number of places. Feeding of the hen by the cock and mating has usually been observed leading up to nestbox introduction. The moment the box is put in the flight the hens go straight to work and dig a tunnel through the peat moss in the spout to the chamber. The cock bird then does a number of routine inspections and the hen responds by scratching out at least half of the nesting material onto the floor. Within two weeks eggs appear, with three or four pairs often laying on the same day.
Hooded parrots lay 3-6 eggs in a clutch with four being the norm. The hen lays the eggs every second day and she normally starts incubating after the third egg. I torch the eggs to check fertility about ten days after the hen starts incubating and provided some eggs are fertile I leave the infertile eggs in the nest. The eggs are discarded if all are infertile. The hen will normally go back down within a few weeks. I have found fertility is often 100% and most pairs raise all babies hatched. Hoodeds fledge at 30-35 days and are usually independent two weeks later although I have had babies that take up to four weeks to reach independence. When the young birds leave the nest they are erratic flyers and a real danger to themselves. I minimise entry into their space for the first couple of days. If you have a cage much more than three metres I suggest branches at either end (I have even used a towel) to help prevent injury. They usually settle after a couple of days and from then on they are adept fliers.
Hooded Parrot Mutations
As mentioned above I keep the Fallow (incorrectly called Cinnamon) and Recessive Pied mutations. Pictures of both the Fallow and Recessive Pied mutations are included in this article.
Other mutations I am aware of include Dominant Pied and Blue. The Dominant Pied is not as common as the Recessive Pied, especially in the Eastern states. Inconsistent breeding outcomes as far as colour is concerned may well be explained by the mixing of the two pied mutations.
A number of years ago a Blue mutation was featured in Birdkeeper magazine but it wasn’t established and may now be lost. Recently I was shown a Pied that retained the turquoise blue front and two birds with red feathers across the back and chest. Pictures of these birds are included in this article. Whether either of these birds are mutations remains to be seen.
Conclusion
The Hooded parrot is a picture-postcard bird that attracts comments and admiration from every visitor that has come to my aviaries. They are a good natured bird with a call pleasing to the ears and would not be a problem with neighbours. I thoroughly enjoy the time I spend with them and have found them a challenging species with great reward for effort expended.
