8-29 Scarlet Chested Parakeets....Nesting time!!!!!

[wellingtoncdm]

They grew up so fast! Beautiful.

[dfcauley]

Wow Cindy... some beautiful babies! You have been having some great success lately! Congrats!!!!

[cindy]

The little Cinnamon Scarlet finally stood still long enough for a picture...

11-17 Cinnamon scarlet.jpg (44.11 KiB) Viewed 2643 times

Normally when not sleeping this is how this little one is!!! Happy little thing!!

[cindy]

Calm sibling!!

11-17 Scarlet normal young.jpg (41.32 KiB) Viewed 2642 times

[cindy]

The other pair has 2 in the box, a cinnamon and a normal...one must be a hen it screeches/scolds me while sitting just inside the entrance to the box and it sees me giving the parents food.

Setting up a third pair soon.

[debbie276]

Very pretty!

[cindy]

Mom and Dad to the young pictured above

11-17 Scarlet mom.jpg (59.14 KiB) Viewed 2637 times

[paul-inAZ]

Lovely. And great photos as well.
My pair are identical except I don't know if the male is a straight normal or if he is split to cinnamon.

I introduced my pair to the flight cage that held the bourke pair a few days ago. Initially the scarlets conceded all the "best" perches to the bourkes and hung around on lower perches but now they all go about their business in perfect harmony.
These gotta be the ideal hookbills.

[cindy]

Once that male becomes breeding age you need to be cautious about the bourkes being in with them.

Scarlet males if kept in an enclosure with hens and other males will once sexually mature attack, mame and kill off other males. Not to clear what it will do to a bourke, but I do suggest once the male scarlets beak turns black and if you see open mouth challenging or chasing you relocate the bourkes.

Definitely do not breed them while the bourkes are in your flight...how big is your flight? How old are the scarlets, especially the male. Has his beak turned black?

A friend of a friend had purchased several pairs of scarlets, placed them in a large flight together...no one told her you can not colony breed scarlets and she was unaware of the fact....they males matured, she came out to the flight one day to find all but one male scarlet was alive, the others were attacked by the surviving male. You can't keep young males in with older males either, it is not worth risking the lives of juvi males, the older male with chase or worse.

They are ideal, I adore them but you need to know what the needs of the species is. Each pair has it's own 5 ft flight. Young are kept together until the males get near maturity then males are separated in with a few hens. I t tend to go with the "what if's" when housing certain species and err on the side of caution.

Bourkes on the other hand you can colony breed but I do not, each pair gets a breeder cage when not free flighted.

[paul-inAZ]

Right now they are in a 31x20x40"high cage. Not ideal by any means so I am thinking about something bigger, wider and better. Not sure which way to go unless I build something myself.

The male's beak is jet black.
The hen is -??- 8 or 9 months old although I have no direct knowledge of that other than the breeder's guesstimate.
Are there external signs of a hen's maturity?

I am toying with breeding them next summer.

[cindy]

Paul, honestly that cage is way to small for 4 birds with large wing spans.

Both species do best in a longer flight...4 to 6 ft ideal. They need the length more than the height but will use the height if given with the proper length.

What concerns me with a high narrow cage is they could spook easily and hit the sides, if chased they can hit the sides or each other.

My suggestion move one species out of there until you get something built for each. It is not safe.

cages below 1 pair to a flight

[cindy]

males can be bred at 10 months, hens ideally a yr to 14 months.

[cindy]

They are getting big!!!!

11-8 scarlet pic 1.jpg (43.01 KiB) Viewed 2598 times

The youngest are still requiring some hand feed still but they are eating well on their own.

[cindy]

The second pair have two young that are now leaning and peeking out of the nest box, they should be fledging soon!!

11-13 scarlet henand her offspring.jpg (18.13 KiB) Viewed 2588 times

11-13 bourke hen and babies.jpg (14.32 KiB) Viewed 2588 times

I also hung a box for the third pair and the hen started checking it out. Later the male was very interested in it!!

11-15 hen 3rd pair checking out box pic 2.jpg (23.86 KiB) Viewed 2588 times

11-15 hen 3rd pair checking out box.jpg (20.61 KiB) Viewed 2588 times

[cindy]

The cinnamon baby from the second clutch fledged. The parents were freaking out, the baby is running after them and the parents are running in circles and back and forth, it is so funny. Things calmed down and dad and mom fed the fledgling and dad went up and fed the normal baby that is leaning way out the box taking a good peek around!

11-17 cinnamon fledgling first day out.jpg (28.34 KiB) Viewed 2580 times

Dad, mom on the white dish and baby in the food tray on the right....the cage was spotless earlier but they dig in their food!!!

11-17 normal baby debating fledging.jpg (8.31 KiB) Viewed 2580 times

Normal sibling debating fledging!!