Ask Lafeber

Question:

October 30, 2020

Cockatiel breeding


I have 2 mums (Mum & Daughter) in the same breeding box that have laid eggs and are looking after their chicks…. problem is the one chick that the daughter had is being pecked by either the mum or dad or possibly the other 2 chicks from the Mum….  I have a spare breeding box … can I put the chick in the spare box and let it’s mum know that is where it is from now on –  the chick is nearly ready to fly – has all its feathers etc…


Answer:

Hi Tracey,

Unfortunately you have a very unnatural breeding situation here because of allowing the offspring to remain with the parents. Chicks must always be separated from the parents as soon as they are weaned. Otherwise one of two scenarios will take place. Either the parents will pick on and attack the youngsters to drive them away. This is instinctive and prevents related birds from breeding in the wild. The other scenario only happens in captivity in which the parents will end up breeding with the offspring when they are old enough. Related birds should never be allowed to breed. It dilutes the gene pool, can cause weak and unhealthy chicks, deformities and shorter lifespans. Then if the inbred bird is bred, the next generation becomes even weaker. One reason that the life span of captive bred cockatiels is becoming shorter and shorter is due to inbreeding and indiscriminate breeding.

If the father of these chicks is also the father of the daughter here, then that chick is not going to be considered a healthy chick and if you do sell or give it away, it should be with a warning to never breed it. It may be getting picked on because it needs to be out of the box by now if it has that many feathers, the adults sense it is weak due to inbreeding or the male wants it out so he can breed again. I would remove the daughter and her nearly grown chick to another cage. The chick does not need to be in a nest box anymore if it is that close to flying. Once they have most of their feathers, they normally leave the box on their own. At that point, the nest box should be removed and the parents should be forced to rest from breeding for at least 6 months. In the wild, environmental changes would signal the end of breeding season and the adults will leave the nest and move on. The weaned chicks will join a flock once they are independent from the parents. In captivity, because we provide the perfect conditions year round, it is our responsibility to limit the number of clutches a pair has to no more than two per year, which is one more than a wild pair would have. They are not intended to raise clutch after clutch and if allowed to do so, the hen will eventually die from over breeding.

Once the other chicks have left their nest box, please remove the box and rest the parents for at least 6 months. You can reverse the perfect breeding conditions by limiting their daily light to 8-10 hours – cover the cage early in the evening. Stop feeding any fresh foods and eggs for the time being. Rearrange the perches and any toys in the cage. Move the cage to another place in the room. Basically you want to disrupt their stable, safe nesting place so that they do not lay eggs again until they have been rested for long enough.

When it is time to breed again, you should only have one pair of unrelated birds in each cage. Your are very lucky the females were so cooperative this time. Generally if there are extra birds in the cage they will fight over nesting boxes, raid each other’s nests, destroy eggs and even kill each other’s chicks. A female will kill another female because she is a rival. And a male will kill another male for the same reason. I cannot stress how unusual your situation is because 99 percent of the time, this would have had a tragic ending. From this point, always separate the chicks from the parents as soon as they are weaned. If you keep them, they need to be kept by gender so that they do not breed with each other. In captivity, cockatiels will breed at much too young of an age and it isn’t healthy for them. A female should not be placed with a male or allowed to breed until she is a minimum of 2 years old. A male needs to be at least 18 months old, although 2 years is better. Breeders who breed quality cockatiels for show will give you this same advice, because they advocate responsible breeding. A breeder who breeds only for profit will tell you to let them breed all they want. I’m sorry you were not given good advice on breeding before, but now you understand how important it is to manage your breeding birds responsibly.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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