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Junior Member
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Mar 29, 2008, 07:40 PM
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Hi as you didn't state the age of your birds I don't know how young exactly they are so will start from scratch for any body else that is interested
Indian ringnecks and sexual maturity.. they are usually both sexually mature at 18 month old, however most males are reluctant to breed until they are 3 years old (I say most as their have been exeptions)
Female and male can be told apart by the ring around the neck,
The male when sexually mature will have a dark band around his neck and his chin... the female does not
I don't know if you are keeping your birds indoors or outdoors, if kept indoors they usually start breeding from December , however outdoors they most often breed from February onwards if a nestbox is provided, it can cause trouble due to chilling , eggbinding etc because of humidity and rain if bred in February , however it is only the birds that can decide when they want to breed, however if you do not add the nestbox until April they should readily breed and with little or no problems at all...
You should expect from a first clutch around about 2-3 eggs , then after each clutch you may notice they have more and as many as 6 eggs in each clutch, incubation usually lasts around about 22-24 days...
With these birds it is recommended that 2 nestboxes be provided in order for them to chose the best one that meets their needs, however when cage bred this is often not practical, they will breed happily if the nestbox is situated in a quiet part of the cage with access so they can see who is approaching easily without having to leave the box, and the box t be situated as high up as possible so they have a good vantage point of potential preditors and harder for preditors to reach, this is for indoor or outdoor breeding ;)
Once a pair get breeding they may turn out to be quite prolific breeders and breed reularly 2 times a year and sometimes more , however 2 times a year is recommended any more than that could put the hen in danger of eggbinding,
You should expect the hen to lay the eggs at 2 day intervals and start sitting after the second egg is laid... the young birds will fledge (leave the nest) at around 7 weeks old , however it will be another 14 days minimum before they are completely independent of their parents, both the male and female will sit and brood the chicks however the female will take the greater part of it...
The signs that your birds are courting are quite funny to watch, both birds will make a gentle twittering to each other and the female will rock her head from side to side in a semi circle effect , while she is doing this she will open her wings out and her eyes will dialate (pupils get small) the cock bird will then lift one of his feet and proceed to feed the female, after a short while of this happening they will then mate...
The nestbox size should be 10 inches square and 20 to 24 inches deep, with a ladder of mesh up the inside to stop them from jumping down and landing on the eggs... nest entrance hole should be approx 3 inches, if the birds want the hole any bigger they will alter it themselves by chewing it, the chewing also helps to spur on the breeding,
When breeding you should provide wood for the bird to chew on, the best wood for this is either brances from fruit trees or willow branches, they will also need an increase in vitimins and protein, this can be done by changing their food, adding boiled eggs and crushed egg shells will give them extra calcium and protein, fruit and veg should be added into the diet and roughly 20% of their seed mix should be sunflower seed, this increases the proteins, you should also provode mineral blocks and cuttle fish , this will help them not to become eggbound... an increase of fruit and a light mist spray every day for a few weeks before you want them to breed will help them a lot, also soak some seeds like sunflower, hemp , safflower etc in water for 24 hours, drain them off, rinse them and then soak them again for another 24 hours , then feed this to the bird as sprouted/soaked seed, even if you can't see a shoot the vitimin level in the seed will have shot right up due to germination occurring and will make for healthier birds :) also you may need to feed egg food...
I'm not to hot on genetics however given the laws of probibility it is highly likely that you will get a mix of green, blue (being the most common colors ) and lutino and albino as far as genetics go the color the chicks are doesn't necessarily depend on the parents color but the grandparents colors play a factor too, as your male happens to have lutino in it, then paired with the blue from your hen would possibly throw you one odd albino every few clutches and also one odd lutino every few clutches, sometimes more often , sometimes less,
I am not sure about the sex linked colors as I haven't really studied the genetics of the birds though, so please take this into account, however it will be possible that some of the chicks were to be split for a different color i.e. you could have a green cock split for blue, or a blue cock split for green, this will not become apparent to you unless you decide to breed from the chicks anyway...
When breeding ringnecks are very territorial, so may not like you invading their space, keep all contact with them down to a minimum, i.e. feed, water and go... clean out once a week , if you clean them out every day it will desturb them too much and they won't breed,
As you say your birds are tame pets, I have had tame birds breed and while protective over the chicks after they were reared and gone and nestbox removed the birds have been like normal and really tame, however on the other hand I have had birds that have reverted backl to almost wild status, however as both your birds are in the same cage and always have been the chances are they will become back friendly with you once it is all over (dont quote me on it though )
Both your birds were hand reared, so they may not know for the first tries exactly what to do, sometimes they may not sit the eggs properly and sometimes they won't know to feed, however this is something every bird goes through and persistence is the key to get them parent rearing on themselves...
At the end of the day , the choice on separating them is a choice only you can make...
What ever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck with...
And I hope this information helps you in what you need to know, it may seem a lot to take in , with comparison to doves (I have bred doves too ;) )
But you have plenty of time, have a good think and decide on your own terms what you want to do... and please let us know the outcome of your decision and any further updates, like eggs, chicks etc etc :)
Katie
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