Peter's Twinspots

[Rox]

I'm incredibly chuffed, as this pair are officially brooding They are a young aviary bred pair which I purchased in May. As soon as they had finished molting, they went straight into nest building and now brooding. I'm holding thumbs and toes for fledgling's early Jan!

Lots and lots of feathers were taken


Note the bend in his tail, a sure sign of brooding

[monotwine]

Holding all digits for you too. Sounds like they on a good role.

[rcharrod]

Rox

My gosh, those are striking birds - wow

[Kelly]

Such beautiful birds!!

[Sam007]

They look gorgeous. Congratulations and good luck!

[Babs _Owner]

Rox

Always lover you pictures in the natural light! See the first picture with the feather gathering? On the left?

Im just going to take a nap on that grass pile, I know you won't mind. Been a long work week and that looks sooooo comfy.

TY ;)

[Spreckles]

Beautiful birds I hope they do have some babies!!!

[Rox]

Babs They are spoilt little birds, aren't they I also look at the pile of hay sometimes, thinking of the awesome nap I could take there, in the sun and out of the wind

Thanks all! The pair are definitely still brooding and I am ridiculously excited about it, as they are not easy to get to breed. The real test is to see if they will raise chicks once hatched but I have been told they are quite reliable once they actually go to nest, so we will see

[lovezebs]

Rox

They are lovely looking birds, Roxanne. Congratulations!
Do you know how many in the clutch?
Wishing you some beautiful babies .

[Rox]

lovezebs

Elana, I haven't got a clue and I also can't see into the nest. Nest checks are a complete no-no, which is a lesson to my patience, lol! It's a very tight ball on the ground, built between branches with a feather being used to block the entrance hole - very cute! This is apparently a trait of quite a few of the African species, using the feather to hide the entrance. Very ingenious little critters

All I can do is time their brooding based on my observations, which only really happens on weekends. Even if they produce one chick, I will be thrilled! Based on what I have observed, eggs should be hatching by this coming weekend (19 Dec), with fledglings out of the nest by 09 Jan.

[MariusStegmann]

Rox That is great news. Hopefully the eggs are fertile. Mine never managed fertile eggs as the hen was too old. They get such an distinctive kink in their tails when they are incubating.

[monotwine]

cant wait. You must be one tender hooks waiting.

[Rox]

MariusStegmann@monotwine

You two will definitely be the first to know if there are fledgling's

Marius, it definitely makes a difference having young, captive bred birds. My other pair is wild caught, so I can only hope and pray that they are still young enough to breed. My only concern for the captive bred pair, was that they were raised on termites. I'm hoping that mealworms, fruit flies and aviary bugs will be sufficient for them. About every 3rd night I lift up their water/bathing dish and dig out handfuls of various critters which were hiding underneath. I then drop the bugs onto an open area between plants (the things we do for our birds...). As soon as I leave the aviary, all the birds are on the bug spot, checking what's on offer. I saw two Orange-cheeks playing tug-of-war with an earthworm on the weekend. It was very amusing!

[lovezebs]

Rox

Probably not so amusing for the earthworm, lol.

I was told a while ago by people on the Forum, that earth worms are a no no, due to the fact that they are.... well..... earthy, and dirty, and may contain bacteria of all sorts ( ). This doesn't appear to trouble your little guys in the least .

I am wishing you 'spotted twins' for Christmas Roxanne.

Best of luck .

[Spreckles]

Rox

This is very exciting. Are we all weird?