Breeding a handtame IRN

[nalukaikamahine]

I had a friend tell me that because Apollo is hand tame and loving, that he wouldn't breed well if I got a female IRN....[he is actually a HE! Sexing results came back today!]

Is there truth to this? I was going to get a female IRN for him, but if he won't mate with her, I'll just get another male.

Thanks!

[Johan S]

I don't like using hand raised birds to breed with, and know many others breeders that feel the same. Having said that, it isn't impossible. There are many success stories.

[Ring0Neck]

A ringneck just by being handraised does not mean it'll be a bad breeder.
However a pet ringneck is another story, much harder and i guess " you can't have the "egg" and eat it too"

So, if you get him a hen, expect behaviour change, more aggresive bitting, not interested in you anymore etc..
He'll probably have to give you up to devote to his partner.

On another note:
I know a breeder who breeds and handraises most of his birds (40-80+ ringnecks per year) for the last 8 years +
once weaned they go into flights and rarely you can tell that his breeders have been hand-fed.
If anything ..they don't fly crazy to break their necks as some do.

I have a proven breeder Cobalt from him and i know she was hand fed only because she does not fly off like crazy but watches me what i do, not friendly at all but understands humans as non-predator.

His success in breeding with these ringnecks is as good as any other breeder's, perhaps better.
A pet bird is another matter though.

As Johan says, some breeders if hand raised will not touch it, safety first, i don't blame them nor do i entirely agree with them but i understand them !
83IV

[nalukaikamahine]

Thanks for the information.

Apollo is very much a boy, so I guess we'll be getting another boy for him to be friends with rather than a girl.

[Johan S]

It all boils down to the "social" environment of the chick. Is it raised to think that it is a bird, or is it raised to think it is a human? If the latter and if the training has been very good, instincts may not necessarily override the trained behaviour and you may find the bird acts very strangely with other birds. It won't make good breeding stock, as that behaviour will be passed to some extend to the chicks as well.

[Skyes_crew]

So does the bird essentially forget how to be a bird? Or does he just lose his natural instincts?

[sheyd]

I had a friend tell me that because Apollo is hand tame and loving, that he wouldn't breed well if I got a female IRN....[he is actually a HE! Sexing results came back today!]

Is there truth to this? I was going to get a female IRN for him, but if he won't mate with her, I'll just get another male.

Thanks!

An IRN doesn't need another bird to keep it company- especially if it is a h/r pet that is interacted with daily- just throwing it out there incase you felt like you "had" to, just to give him company.

re-breeding: I was told a long time ago by a breeder, that a pet/aviary bird would make no difference, but looking through old posts on here, there seems to be a consensus that aviary birds are better/more successful breeders. I am now in doubt for my own birds which is a shame. :/

[Ring0Neck]

Shey,


The opinions that counts most are those that have bred handraised & aviary birds.

If i only had aviary birds i would be inclined to say same, aviary only, and it is a safe bet to do so.
I say: Pets is touch n go, depending on the bird (Johan explained well above), how bonded is to the owner etc etc
for serious breeders i don't recommend it.
However
Hand feeding only ! is another matter - if you do just that, (not hand tame, jus feed them with the least handling) i believe the bird to be a good breeder. - others will disagree.
By the time it fledges and goes in the aviary the young should behave as the parent raised birds or close, within 6 months should be no difference for sure, the advantage is confidence, therefore a more confident breeder.

Chris W. can tell you about his 1 year old violet Cleartail cockbird that bred in the first year and he was hand-fed, i don't think he had a 1 y old prior to this to breed at 1. Would this bird have bred at 1 if it was parent raised? maybe, but my guess is not.
This was 5 + years ago so nice $10k+ for the young, job well done.


I have never attempted to breed a pet IRN, but i have bred hand fed/syringe fed birds with pleasing results.

83IV

[McmillanBirds]

Hi all

I have mixed pairs where say one bird is h/r and the other parent reared. I have had success with almost all of the pairs to date. Only 2 of the pairs never bred last year. 1 was only put with her mate late into the season though and she is only going on 3 this year so had no expectations from her. The other hen is unfortunately a bit of a cow and decided even though she had laid 4 eggs it was more interesting to guard her box and pick fights with the neighboring birds instead of incubating her eggs. I have now put up something so she can not see her neighbors but it was a little too late.
That note aside, my oldest h/r hen which was a pet for the first year of her life is one of my best breeders. She gives me 2 clutches per season of 3-5 babies per clutch. The downfall with her is one has to protect body parts from her. She is extremely protective of her avairy and it becomes worse as breeding season draws near. She has drawn blood from me on more than one occassion. (I did not raise her though, so I do not know if she would react to me differently if I had been her initial owner)
Another cock bird that I h/r, but put him out in the avairies when he was about 5months partnered with a hen within seconds last year. He wasn't quite 2 years before he had fertilised eggs and became a fantastic father.
1 of my parent raised pairs never bred last season and they are a good 1-2 years older than my 2-3 year old mixed pairs.
For every person it's different.
I remember seeing in a link that Ellie got her Charlie from people who have their pet birds in the house breeding and the parent birds help them to h/r their birds, eating the handrearing formula and feeding it to the young while the humans are feeding another.
I hope this helped and good luck, with whichever path you decide to take

Carmen

[sheyd]

Thanks for the insight Ben and Carmen- I appreciate it.