Long-tailed parakeet: Malayan Long-tail, Breeding, Feeding
Long-tailed parakeet or Malayan Long-tail (Psittacula longicauda) This is a very good-looking bird, as can be seen from the photograph. I have chosen a photo which shows the full length of the tail of the mail.
Long-tailed parakeet introduction:
The tail is, of course, the distinguishing feature of the specie, as can be clearly seen from the photo. What also can be seen is that the length of the tail of the female is quite different. It is a pity that this specie is not better represented in Aviculture.
Although enough Malayan Long-tails were imported into South Africa well before 2000 to establish a captive bred stock, they have proved to be extremely difficult birds to breed and multiply. In fact, this is the case, not just here in South Africa, the same applies to Australia and England according to the books and articles. I have no doubt that it is the same for the rest of Europe and America as well.
When speaking to experienced South African breeders, who have bred these birds, we find that it was impossible for them to increase the numbers in captivity even though they regularly bred them. Birds of different ages would simply be found dead in the aviary without showing signs of being sick.
Long-tailed parakeet in our aviaries:
It has been reported by a well-known British author that newly imported birds would die of starvation in the midst of plenty, either because they would not eat, or were to stressed to eat. It was also reported by the same author that these birds seem to be stressed by many of the activities that take place in the aviaries.
Also, it was noticed that they ate a very restricted number of food items in captivity and this may have led to nutritional deficiency disease. Finally, post-mortem revealed that some of these dead birds has filarial worms in the air sacs.
However, the problem may not be just one of stress. It is possible that there is also a nutritional component to the problem that we may not be aware of, not just one of a poor selection of food items. Some of the young birds bred in captivity and fed a diet that is normally sufficient for breeding other Asiatic parakeets, have no better survival rate than their parents that were wild caught. Maybe there is something missing in the diet of which we are not yet aware of. To solve the problem, we need stock to work with and there lies the problem, there is none!
As I have never personally owned these birds, I approached Louis Bothma, who has owned and bred these birds, and asked him about his personal experience.
By: Louis Bothma
Long-tailed parakeet Distribution
The Malayan Long-tail parakeet has a wide distribution that includes the Malayian Peninsular, Borneo and dozens of islands in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Long-tails are common in the areas of their distribution. They like low lying tropical forests close to the sea and are often seen in Mangrove forests. In agricultural farming areas within their distribution range, they are a serious pest.
Feeding
In nature Long-tails eat a lot of fruits, greens, flowers with their nectar and pollen as well as green buds, and other plant material. Nuts are also eaten but their intake of dry seeds is minimal. If we take these facts into consideration, we can understand why they do not thrive in our aviaries.
Personally, I do not agree with the reason usually given for Long-tailed parakeet not thriving in our aviaries. The theory that they “starve amongst plenty” is simply not true. If this was true, then no Long-tail would come out of a South African quarantine station alive. My experience was that the birds that died were in excellent condition, actually too fat rather than too thin.
My experience with Malayan Long-tails
I bought my first Long-tails from an importer in 1976. Although more Long-tails died than ringnecks that were in the same consignment, the live birds that I bought were in excellent condition. During 1979 I bred my first chicks and although they did not breed nearly as well as the ringnecks, I did not find them to be unwilling parents.
The real problem was keeping them alive for a reasonable length of time. Feeding must surely have played a large part in this lack of success. Because in nature they eat such a lot of fresh plant material and few dry seeds, it is possible that the large number of dry seeds we fed them could have led to cardiac diseases, and this could then have led to a stroke or a heart attack. Even captive bred birds seldom lived longer than 5 years. Amongst other things, I found that ringnecks were excellent foster parents for Malayan Long-tails (Psittacula longicauda).
