Jonathan W wrote:What does everyone think of this? I personally think it'd be good, because then I can handrear a bird without it having to be illegal as Ellie says it would be
lol... I really am quite the ogre!
Just to clarify, I'm pretty sure that in Australia it's not illegal for you to handraise a bird but it is illegal for a breeder to sell you an unweaned bird. Autralian breeders, is that right?
Jonathan, that's a long term plan you've got there. I suggest you run it by your parents and see what they think as ultimately they are the ones that have to think it is a good idea.
When I was about thirteen years old, my grandfather (much to my father's annoyance) gave me my first pair of peachface lovebirds. These two birds attracted a third one which we caught (we knew lovebirds weren't native so it had to be an escaped pet so we thought catching it would give it it's best chances of survival). My dad hated having birds in cages so he was very open to the idea of helping me save for an aviary. My memory's a little hazy on this now but I think I saved the money to buy the aviary and dad cemented the rat wall and paid for the extras required to set it up. Over time I bought a few more lovebirds for my aviary and eventually they began to breed but it took a while.
I must admit I wasn't the most responsible pet owner and I'm pretty horrified at how seldom sometimes I would change their water, etc. My parents had to rescue them a bit. I got less responsible as I went off to uni with my parents having to pick up more slack. I had to travel over an hour each way to uni and it was difficult.
One year we had troubles getting the nestboxes out because we had so many breeding pairs in the aviary so one summer I chose to handraise the remaining three babies so that we could give the females a break from breeding. It was hard. The very first day I had them I could hardly get them to eat at all. Luckily someone with bird rearing experience came over and was able to get them eating for the first time. Then it was all okay.
So that was my first experiences with birds and I was about your age when I started. I commend you for your enthusiasm. I would encourage you to think carefully about your level of commitment. Your life will change you as you get older, so you really need to have your parents on-side with your decision. When you choose to look after birds, they are in a cage and are completely dependent on you to make their lives fulfilled. I hope that you do better than I did.
Also, FYI, with IRNs, during breeding season, you can only have one breeding pair per aviary section.
Best wishes.
Ellie.
