Parrot chick development: Awesome Priced Advice, Breeding, Tips
Parrot chick development – By: Rafael Zamora Padrón
Scientific Director
Loro Parque Fundación
The time to evaluate the results of the first clutches is now. At breeders’ meetings, the first question usually asked at this time is: how are you doing with the breeding, many fertile eggs? And the answer can be positive or negative and there are even predictions of a bad or good season if the majority agree on a high infertility rate or a low birth rate or vice versa.
There really is a difference between eggs from which chicks hatch and those in which no embryo has developed. This is why it is so important at this stage of the season to check the results of each pair because in many cases there are still things that can be done to improve them.
Seeing the inside of the eggs that did not hatch will give us a lot of important information. Above all, it gives the opportunity to get to the source of the problem that needs to be corrected.
Offering a new nest to a pair may be enough to ensure that incubation is correct and that the pair is more harmonious.
Changing the diet
Changing the diet or adding a particular vitamin supplement may achieve fertility of subsequent clutches of eggs that occur thereafter.
This is also the period to observe the history of each pair, which sometimes has not produced results for many years and the cause must be found in order to decide whether to form new pairs with the members or to temporarily discard some of them for reproduction.
In this section, it is necessary to know how to decide depending on the age of each specimen. If, for example, a male macaw is very young and is in the fertility stage, it often needs several years to achieve success and we must wait if we see that everything is normal and that the pair is compatible.
Within this framework of necessary analysis, we must pay attention to couples that have chicks and are about to leave the nest or have already done so.
The floor of the aviaries
It is also important to check the floor of the aviaries at this time as there are juveniles that jump out of the nest for the first time in the late afternoon. And it is advisable that they have the option of climbing a branch, even a low one, avoiding roosting on the ground. This will increase their chances of survival and give the parents the option of taking better care of them first thing in the morning, even guiding them back to the entrance or to the vicinity of the nest.
When the chicks are at the nest entrance it means that the parents start to stop feeding them as often and their demand increases. The caretaker should consider that this is normal and that the chicks must lose some weight to start flying and develop fully.
Juveniles that are still in the nest
For juveniles that are still in the nest and are already advanced, it is important to check them first thing in the morning. If their legs are well, if their development is normal and if they are free of parasites or anomalies in the body.
At Loro Parque Fundación while we are ringing parrot chicks, we are excited to see species that had made a breeding pause in recent years, and yet in these months, they have managed to do so.
This is the case of the Slender-billed Cockatoo (Cacatua tenuirostris) of which two specimens have hatched so far and which we are watching closely.
Pyrrhura hoematotis
Foto: M.Weinzettl/LPF
Other Parrot chicks have achieved amazing fertility rates, as is the case of the Red-eared parakeet, Pyrrhura hoematotis, which has laid 7 fertile eggs. An interesting fact about this species is as it says a lot about its reproductive capabilities when conditions are favorable.
Featured image: Chick of Slender-billed Corella, Cacatua tenuirostris Foto: M.José /LPF
If you found this post, Parrot chick development, helpful, you might also like: https://www.wwbirds.co.za/dir/strengthening-our-parrots/
