Newby: is it worth it?

[yellowring]

Hello all, I am new to the forum altho I have been reading so much of it the last few days, I feel like I know a lot of you already.
Here's my story, Ill keep it simple...

I have a 4yr old female and a 3 yr old male, both are lutino. After 3 yrs together, they decided they wanted to be parents....They always had a nestbox, I just thought that's how it was done.

Here is my dilema...
I can totally make accommodations to raise and keep the birds. But my wife told me that the only way she will let me go thru with this and keep more birds is if there will be other colors. If all I'm going get is more yellow birds, she wants no part of it.

Now, I love my wife, and I appreciate the fact that she doesn't like my birds. That being said, I kinda want to try my hand at raising some babies from hatch like this. That being said now, I'm not going to let some birds create a disturbance in my happy marriage, because I got it pretty dang good

I know one of you guys or gals can give it to me straight...
Without knowing any history of my Lutino ringnecks as far as parentage or splits or etc, is there ANY chance I might end up with a green or blue bird from them???

If not, I want to pull these eggs out before they start developing too much.
Thank you all for your time

[bennjamin]

No green or blues but If your pair are split blue 25% chance of an Albino
If your cock is split Cinnamon chance of Cinnamonino hen, probably easier to change your birds that change your wife

[Skyes_crew]

In all honesty...Breeding birds is time consuming and if it is going to cause any issues in your marriage you may want to reconsider. I have a very understanding husband. VERY UNDERSTANDING lol. If you don't want the eggs to hatch, and they haven't been in the nest more than a couple of days, just take them out and shake them a bit and then replace them. Don't pull them completely though because she will just lay more to replace the ones you pull. Let her sit on them until she abandons them and then pull the whole nest box. Also make sure your feeding her extra fresh fruits and veggies and calcium rich foods. If the eggs have been in there for more than a week and she's been sitting tight, shaking them won't work, you'll just cause birth defects. At that point you would have to boil them. Are you sure you don't want to keep them??

[yellowring]

Thanks everybody, all great points!
I am going to pull the eggs out, shake them up, and put them back.

Once this is all over, Ill remove the nest box.
Will this prevent them from breeding again?

These are pet birds that are doing this, both handtame and talkers and friendly...
It would have been kind of nice to have some babies from them

[Gratz]

Hi
Here is another idea for you
If the birds are pets and you don't want them to breed , ever,
Why not take the nest box away all together with the eggs in it, she doesnt need the practice if you don't intend to Breed with her again, personally I think it's a bit cruel to have her sit on dud eggs for nearly a month with no reward at the end.

[Skyes_crew]

I don't think it's cruel if it saves her from laying another clutch to try to replace the one he pulls. She will try to make a nest out of any materials she finds in the cage and lay again.

[Gratz]

if she is that determined
I would let her breed

[zentoucan]

as Skye crew and Molossus say, the road of breeding birds is not a easily one. you and your wife need to be on the same page if you intend to breed your birds. you can't stop the birds instinct to breed, but you can manage it. speak to breeders both local and on the forum for advise. Go into this with your eyes wide open.

[yellowring]

Ha!
I successfully talked my awesome wife into going for it!
I pulled the old sympathy ploy- told her that I had to kill the eggs by shaking them up, then waited till she was right there so she would have to see me do it.
As soon as I was about to shake the 1st egg, she stopped me, I knew she wouldn't make me do it.

Anyways, the eggs are in fact good, I candled them like I did with chicken eggs as a kid, and I can see veins growing like crazy and what looks like a pulse.

Anyhow i know this is a huge undertaking, but i got the wife on board now and once she sees the cute little chicks, I'm sure she will want to help out

No i do not plan on becoming a bird breeder or anything like that, this is something unexpected that happened, and I can not kill my babies' babies.
I will make a nice big aviary for the new family in the spring, and I will be sure to never again give them a nest box.

One thing I have learned about my lutino birds is that the female is definitely a "creamino" having white wings and tail, however all i can see about the male is basically just varying degrees of yellow except for his ring.

Im not sure how to work that genetic calculator, I don't really understand all the different mutations, but does the female being a definite "creamino" hopefully give me a chance at some different colored babies?

Btw I have 4 eggs!!
The female sits on them really good, and both my birds are still friendly towards me, like Im the fun uncle or something, and she even lets me look at and touch her eggs no problem.

[Skyes_crew]

Well congrats on your new to be IRN family. Glad your wife let you go through with it.

You will still have all visual Lutinos out of that pair, but they will be split to blue or turquoise. Unless the male is split to blue. Then you have the chance for blue ino (albino) or turquoise ino (creamino).

[Gratz]

I'm happy for you
I also think that your wife must have read my post

[Skyes_crew]

[Johan S]

No i do not plan on becoming a bird breeder or anything like that

That's what you say now, but once that bug has bitten you...

[yellowring]

This is actually kind of a fun experience so far, granted i haven't had to do anything yet...

I'm thinking that if the eggs hatch and the babies actually survive, I might pick one and hand rear it.

I'm really hoping that my pet birds will be good parents, so i wont be forced into hand rearing ALL(if any) the chicks.
But I have been mentally preparing myself for that scenario, and hopefully my wife will see the cute chicks and be willing to help me do that.

As a side note, I am collecting thoughts on their future accommodations...
I want to keep my 2 original pet birds in the house with me, but I do not think I am going to be able to hand tame all 4 babies(if any), and I have no problems having them be aviary birds outside.
Like I said, I'll probably hand tame/rear one of the babies and keep that one inside as a pet as well.
How big of an aviary should I plan on building for 3-4 full-time birds and the 2-3 pets would go out there in the summertime too.
Or do i need 2 aviaries, 1 for the pets and 1 for the outside birds?

As it is now, my birds have their own room, and are hardly ever locked in their cages, but I do put them outside in their cages during the summer, I have a little chicken-run-type-thing I made that connects their 2 cages with a good amount of space between them, and it is kind of a make-shift aviary, but I bring them back in to a perch in their room at night.

My birds have never been locked up for more than overnight ever since I had them.

[MissK]

I think you should plan on hand taming how ever many chicks you should happen to get. The reason is that wife may be on board today, but things may change with more Ringnecks around, especially screeching ones who are afraid of people. Not only are they more pleasant to be around when tame, but won't you owe it to the birds you breed to prepare them for other homes in the event you cannot keep them all? Especially given their rather common mutation I think it would be unrealistic to rely on demand of other breeders in the likely event you decide a flock of all Lutinos is not really what you wanted. When you allow your birds to breed you must assume responsibility for the future of each new life that will live for decades. It's about them, not about you.

[InTheAir]

Parent raised birds seem to tame up well too, mine seems to be more outgoing and confident/pushy than our hand raised bird. I'd think it would be even easier if the parents are tame, as the youngsters will learn from them. I'll put that to the test if my birds breed.
Co-parenting could be another option, with the advantage of it being way less responsibility and effort for you!

[MissK]

I don't think he should hand feed them - lots of opportunity for trouble there, and I have read that parent raised birds seem to have less social troubles. As so many have seen, hand-fed doesn't equal hand tame. I mean he should tame them so they can have a fighting chance at staying in the first new home they find, and have an easy time of it, too.

[yellowring]

No worries, I will keep them all.
I have the space and the means, so it won't be a problem.
If I could not keep them, I would not be doing this.

I guess I'm going to have to play it by ear on how these babies are raised, if any even hatch.
I do agree with the fact that tame birds are much easier to deal with...

Any opinions on size of a future aviary?
I'm thinking somewhere in the 12'x6'x6' range....?

[Skyes_crew]

My personal feeling is that it is not a good idea to keep the parents in with all of the babies in an aviary that size. When they are young it wouldn't be much of an issue, but when the babies mature you may have issues...especially if any of the babies turn out to be hens. And if you separate the babies from the parents, then your issue would be to keep brother and sister from breeding. I would sex the babies, and separate the hens and cocks into separate aviaries. They of course can have socialization with each other...especially if you are hand taming them....but I wouldn't house them together unsupervised. Just my opinion

[yellowring]

Very good, that is what i need to know.
I have some planning to do with that aviary...

Thank you all for the great advice here folks

[Mikesringnecks]

Hi Yellowring
Just a simple point. It is not necessary to hand feed/raise birds to get them tame. It is entirely possible to tame parent raised birds after they have fledged and in some ways they make better pets than hand raised birds because they are less inclined to bite.
Kind regards
Mike

[PepperSprite]

Congrats on your new family I cant wait to see what you get out of those eggs

[Skyes_crew]

Any news on the eggs hatching?

[yellowring]

Oh hey, wow, thank you for asking for an update, I appreciate it
I just thought of it right now, I apologize for just asking a bunch of questions and then disappearing...

I got 4 eggs that hatched, 3 babies lived, and they were all yellow!!
Not sure what happened to the one that died, it was the 3rd egg, it just never seemed strong and only lasted 3 days, poor guy
I didnt have to feed the chicks, because my 2 birds did just fine.
I played with the babies every day since they were each 5 days old, and even got my wife to hold them and love on them!
The parents gave me no problems, they are very tame and friendly and had no issues with us and the babies, they almost seemed to appreciate when we would take them all for a few mins at a time...
The babies grew very quickly, and are just as friendly as the parents, i guess from not knowing any other way to be

Lol, its funny because my wife is really not a big fan of the birds, but her mom fell in love with the babies, so her husband and I built a nice big aviary on their patio using a window as a doorway into the house, where the oldest and the youngest chicks will live very comfortably.
The middle baby I am keeping, because that is the one I have the best relationship with, Im hoping it turns out to be a male because I just love the rings
Right now the family has total free range of the bird room, and the little ones are becoming quite the daredevils, they are perfect flyers and fearless explorers of everything, it does help that dad shows them all the cool stuff around the room.

We all had a really good time doing this, tho I realize we got lucky that an unexpected and potentially bad situation turned out so well.
Even the wife enjoyed her moments with the babies and did way more than I expected she would do to help out, so I got to give her a big thankyou for being a champ!

I removed the nest box, and rearranged some things in the bird room that could be potential small, dark nesting spots because even tho it was fun, once is enough and we do not want to have this happen again.

Thanks again for the advice everybody

[InTheAir]

Thanks for the update. That's a lovely conclusion.