New Member

[madant darshel]

Hi all,

I am new to the site and I guess breeding IRN's. I am from Queensland Australia and after a very upsetting start to IRN's now have three babies about 5 weeks old.

At first I had five IRN's which came from several different places. My brother had bred some beautiful birds but was getting out of them so gave them to me. One blue, one grey, one pure yellow (sorry not the technical name for it I know). I then got given one green and one yellow. My little boy of six had friends over to play and one of his freinds broke into my aviary, even with locks, and let them all out except for my grey one.

To replace them I bought a yellow female from a shop, which I thought would pair up with my grey male and then got a pair from a guy up the north coast. Female is very light green with a really bright yellow head and the male is a grey/blue/yellow with a really light yellow head. Two weeks after breeding season was over, according to my brother that is, I put them all in together. Within hours the yellow female and the grey/blue/yellow male got together. I now have three babies five weeks old and they look to be yellows at this stage. I have a large aviary so I don't like going in there too much to disturb them.

I am finding it a real blast to have these birds, I have had many other birds since I was very young. My brother has been breeding birds for as long as I can remember, over forty years.

Anyway maybe I will take some photos of my birds and send them in.
Cheers Jack.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Jack

Welcome to the site.

I know that boy is only a child, but his behaviour makes me sooooo angry! I hope he learns to do better things in the future. Did you check www.parrotalert.com for your lost birds?

I'm glad your breeding program is off to a good start now.

Just one thing I wanted to check, I'm not sure how many pairs you have but I wanted to be sure you know to put each pair in a separate area where they can't access the other pairs? If you don't do this, it is not uncommon for birds to kill each other and their chicks especially during breeding season.

The method that your brother suggested for breeding your birds (putting them together at the time of the breeding season) is fine, but you can also house pairs together all year round if you want to. Different breeders do it differently. If you haven't already read it, this article might be useful for you: http://www.indianringneck.com/breedingmethods/

I'm a companion parrot person myself, our two live in the house with us so all I know about breeding has come from listening to breeders on this forum. There are lots of very experienced breeders here if there is anything you need to know.

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[madant darshel]

Hi Ellie,

Thanks for your advice. The little boy in question, not my boy thank goodness, has a history for being naughty, and in fact my boy has actually chosen himself not to play with him any more.

My aviary is quite large, I love to watch the birds fly a lot, especially when they are breeding, quite an interesting process to watch. I must admit so far the other birds have been very good and don't really bother the parents or the chicks yet, not that I am watching them 24/7. At this stage only the one pair have paired up, I think my original male thought he had a chance with the female I brought but when the other two came along his missed out altogether.

When I mentioned we I put them altogether for breeding, it was more I put them all in the same aviary and let them work out who's who. I was merely seeing if firstly they would all get on together and secondly , if by chance two might actually get together for this season. Wasn't really looking at breeding this year, actually if truth be known probably not all, just love to have the birds. Took them a day I reckon to sort out the pecking order then the breeding started. I guess I am trying as much as I can to try and let them do it as natural as possible but if there are issues I will certainly step in and sort it out then.

One last thing, a friend of mine designs and manufactures bird diapers for all sorts of birds and I wondered if this would be something everyone on the site might be interested in. Which section would I go to let people know about this.

Thanks again Ellie for the article and advice.

Jack.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Jack

From some of the stories I've read on here, I personally wouldn't want to risk keeping them in together... so be prepared to move swiftly if you see any bird sporting any type of injury... but as I said, I'm not a breeder. I'll always remember the horrific story one new member told of coming in one day and finding a male bird bloodied and injured. She didn't do anything at the time and the next day all of the males and I think some of the females were dead. I've looked through the forum trying to find that post but I can't but here is a link to a similar discussion:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =1&t=12039

Regarding your friend's website, I'm not sure on the rules regarding posting information about bird products. I do it sometimes when people ask about particular things but I don't have a personal or commercial interest in selling these products. When you are able, you could put a to your friend's store with the post I see you made in the lounge.

Ellie.

[madant darshel]

Hi all,

This weekend I couldn't help myself, I had to go and have a look into the box to see how big and what colour babies I have. There are three babies in all, 1 just like their mother, bright yellow with white wing tips. The other two are similar to their dad, really light yellow and grey/blue, pastel maybe. They also have really bright yellow heads like their mum.

I am hoping they will be out of the box in two weeks. So far all the other birds have been really great towards both parents and the chicks, don't go near the box at all.

All good.

Jack