IndianRingNeck.com

Hi,

I was just wondering, I am in Australia and I need to know when to put a breeding box in . This is my first time breeding and im not sure how to go about it. I have awlready got mates and they look preety happy together, the girl still gets abit fiesty around him but can they still be together. I dont know what the procces is when they get the box put in, can anyone explain what I can expect ? I mean there behaiviors and how long it will take for them to have chiks ETC.

This is my experience, but I have only had one season with my pair, so others may know more than I do.

breeding season begins around August here in Australia, but this could depend on your state also, not sure, I am in Victoria. So just wack a nesting box in at the beginning of August.

You will see the couple begin to display behaviours such as, the female clucking and resting her head back on her wings, and the male will do a dance where he arches his head pins his eyes, shoulders out from his body and somtimes jumping around the female.

When mating begins, the male will grab the female on the back of the neck and gently play to temp her into the head back position before he mounts her, pulling back harder on the head to make her lift her tail so he can wrap his underneath.

My IRN kai and mickey attempting to mate.


Once you notice this behaviour which may also be accompanied with feeding each other, regurgitating and you are pretty sure they are mating, eggs usually are laid around 19 days or so later.

During the mating period you will notice the female investigating the box, she will even stay in for length working the box, kicking material around inside the box. You can get some good nesting material from bird/feed supply stores, I used a bark/chip material rather than shavings, which a breeder friend of mine gave to me.

When you notice that the female rarely comes out of the box, only for a feed, then you can safely say she is probably laying eggs, Check on the box every so often , once you notice the first egg, she should lay an egg every other day until she has a clutch of around 4 eggs give or take one or two, incubation takes around 23 days, mine began hatching around day 26 from the first egg laid.

During breeding season, keep up the greens like bean and give other extra's such as soaked milk arrowroot biscuits and corn

For more pics and vids on my eggs and the babies and hand feeding the babies
http://www.dropshots.com/mickeykai

hope all this helps

P.S. watch out for your male if they do begin the mating process it can be a very dangerous time for him, the females can get rather viscious.

Kai and mickey were well socialised with a cage between them, allowing them to kiss and coo at each other through the bars, before I put them together in their cage with the box. They just both seem to hit it off right from the get go and kai is very attentative towards her, caring for her, calling for her, feeding her (generally looking after her) and she seems to relish his attentions and rely on him, but this is not always the case.

THanks for that. I am in the NOrthern end of aus so I have been told to put it in abit earlier, thanks for all of your help

N.P.

Great tips and facts from Kyria.

By the way, how old are the birds and are they proven? What size is the cage? I have better success putting up nest boxes sooner rather than later. The presence of nest boxes somehow stimulate some pairs to breed. It also increases the chances at a double or triple clutch although most new pairs only do one clutch on their first year.

A seasoned breeder friend of mine puts up nests in late October and breeding season supposedly starts in January here in California. I put mine up in December. Since my birds are in outside aviaries, the nests provide shelter from the cold for the pairs that chose to work the nests early.