Parentage of chicks in a triad

[MariusStegmann]

I have 3 RF parrot finches that are raising 4 chicks. The 3 of them shared the incubating and feeding. It is an interesting conundrum working out what the parentage of the youngsters are. The cock is SG, the hens are SG and RT, but there is a possibility that the RT hen is actually a RT cock. All the chicks look to be RF normal, ie. if the RT hen is the mother, the chicks are all cocks. If the RT is a cock, then obviously the SG cock is not one of the parents of the chicks and the chicks could be cocks or hens. The RF resembles a cock, but acts like a hen. Before I got the SG hen, the RT and the SG cock were paired up and were going into nests. When I added the SG hen, she just joined up with them. All will become clearer once the chicks fledge, because in my experience the cock takes up the lion share of the chick raising once they fledge, which could be any time now as the triad are looking for a new nest already.

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

I just noticed this Post, Marius. Whatever became of this trio and the chicks?

My nutty four, are all confused, or maybe I'm the confused one

What were supposed to be two males and two females..... have turned out to be (only God knows what). My bigger, older (?) male, is mating with my younger male Alfie (Alfreda?), and my other two (females (?) ) are being ignored. Don't quite know what to make of all this.

~Elana~

[MariusStegmann]

lovezebs It was a bit of a stuff-up. It turned out to be 2 cocks and 1 hen. The mother of the chicks was Seagreen and the father of the chicks a young Red Throat. He acted like a hen to be able to get close to the hen. The other male was very dominant. When the 4 chicks fledged it was a joy to see this young cock sing when his chicks were around him. But a few days later the dominant male took over the feeding of the chicks. Later the dominant male made sure the young male was not allowed near the hen. The younger male then moved his affections to another hen and took her away from her mate. That is when I removed this Casanova from that aviary. Monotwine, who knows her stuff, told me that once a PF pair is bonded, ie. had raised a few clutches together, it is difficult to break the bond and that you actually have to move one of the 2 to a different location, where they can't hear the other one's calls. This proves again that there are no rules with birds and maybe this young male is just just a super lover or talker or singer or whatever birds look for.

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

I think birds look for pretty colours, and the good singers. Although with PF's, I'm not so sure what applies. At times it would appear that the 'chosen' female, is really what I would deem the unlucky one.

My poor Alfie (Alfreda) has lost a lot of feathers, under our boy's romancing. Poor thing look scruffy, and still he chases her/it around, forcing his attentions, and still they can't seem to decide on which nest box they want. Sheesh!!!

~Elana~

[MariusStegmann]

Post a pic of Alfie / Alfredo, that I can see if I can sex it. Sometimes PF's are just incompatible, and the male bullies the hen around a lot. Hopefully this is not the case with yours.

[lnlovesorange]

MariusStegmann I know it's a TOTALLY different breed of bird, but when I tried to separate my bonded pair (mind you they have only raised one clutch, but they've beeen together, just the two of them since i bought them, and now have raised a clutch to fledging age) but the mother was getting a little aggressive and i was advised to remove her... OMG what a mistake, I separated the bonded pair by removing the mother, It was the worst thing EVER, they could still hear and kind of see each other, that was BRUTAL, then I took the hen downstairs so that they couldn't see or hear each other, and the cock just kept calling out and looking/listening for the hen, and the hen did the same, it was a nightmare, this went on for hours, til finally I couldn't take it anymore it was breaking my heart so i put them back together.... they pretty much hate me now because of this... but hopefullly I can fix this.... Anyway, good luck with yours glad you figured it out!!!