Ask Lafeber

Amazon breeding question

Hi Iam Ahmed I have a male Amazon parrot I think age is 5 years n more he is alooot tamed with me and before one month he acts acting of mating with me and do that alooot of times… I showed to many people n they said me the same he is ready to breeed. I bought for him a female age is 3 years n more n before they used to fight little bit but now they are okay and tamed with me and sit together.. when I take them out of cage female tries to beat the male but not hardly n then the male leaves.. but still the male go around the female in cage and I provided them breeding box also… is it okay what Iam doing?? And also wanted to ask can I give them AVIAN FERTILITY FORMULA ( as many proscribed me)???

Hi,

Unfortunately your female is too young for you to have her with a male. In the wild, they don’t begin to breed until between 7-10 years. They do tend to mature more quickly in captivity, or possibly we cause them to breed too soon by providing a mate too soon. I don’t recommend introducing a pair until they are between 5-7 years old. Also, it’s dangerous for her to be younger than him, as well as being too young for breeding. He can get frustrated with her and attack her because she isn’t ready to breed. I would keep them separated for at least 2 more years.

Once you do introduce them again after she turns 5, you must stop trying to handle either bird. When you breed birds, you lose them as your pets. It is their instinct to only have one mate, and other birds in the flock are attacked and driven away if they get too close. When you try to handle a breeder bird, it causes confusion because the bird is forced to choose between you and the mate. With Amazons, what often happens is the male, especially, will attack the owner and the mate because he doesn’t understand what his hormones are telling him to do. In some cases, when a tame bird is paired with a mate, just the sight of the owner can cause him to viciously attack the mate, which can result in serious injury or even death. In some cases, you can no longer talk to the birds or make any eye contact, because anything like this can cause a sudden attack on the mate since he can’t get to you to attack you. Amazons are very territorial and very possessive, so they are much more dangerous to a human or to their mate when they are hormonal. You have to decide if you want these birds to remain pets that you handle, or be breeding birds that you can no longer handle. You have at least 2 years to decide this, but during that time, you are putting yourself and the birds at risk when you have them both out at the same time. I would keep them in separate cages until the female is old enough, and handle them separately to avoid any nasty bites or attacks.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda