06/01/2020
Some common questions
Tony Silva
Instagram
Every day I receive messages from across the globe. I make an effort to answer every question I receive. Here are three of the most common questions asked.
QUESTION. I bought a pair of ### two months ago and they have not nested. Why?
ANSWER. My answer usually starts with a variation of the following. Do you think parrots are that easy to breed? If they were they would be as common as chickens and worth the same price.
When you become an aviculturist one of the first characteristics that you must acquire is patience. Next comes observation, which will indicate how the birds are adapting, if their needs are met or if there is a problem. I learned this when I was a teenager, when I visited renowned Amazon parrot breeder Ramon Noegel. He inculcated in me to listen to my birds, that they would tell me what they needed. I was naïve and did not understand the importance of those words, but after discussing the matter with my grandfather I realized that the words had a true significance.
Parrots communicate with their owner using calls, subtle or very distinctive behaviors and more. The aviculturist must be astute enough to understand. As an example, I have a female Scarlet Macaw Ara macao that laid eggs in the front corner of her cage. She ignored three nests that were suspended at the top front and back of the cage. They were attached to the cage in the hope was that she would accept one. She did not. She was telling me that she wanted a nest on the cage floor. When it was provided, she nested almost immediately.
By understanding the needs of the pair, one creeps close to a successful outcome.
QUESTION. My pair has been mating daily for the past month but there have been no eggs. What can I do?
ANSWER. People must understand that virtually all parrots will mate to maintain the pair bond. Even two compatible birds of the same gender will mate, performing the ritual in exactly the same manner as if they were a real pair. Mating does not indicate that eggs are forthcoming, though it is a sign that the two birds are compatible. Mating in a male:female pair along with increased activity, sometimes aggressivity, visits to the nest and an increased food consumption are signs that breeding may be planned. I state may because some pairs may go through the process several times before they actually nest.
QUESTION. Can you give me a tips to induce breeding?
ANSWER. Again if parrots could be induced to breed so readily they would not be worth more than chickens. The best tips that I can give is to provide a healthy diet, which includes vegetables, a little fruit (because parrots as a whole have not evolved to digest the sugars in ripe fruit, especially the commercial varieties that are so sugar laden), nourishing pellets, some seeds and greens, a proper nest and aviary and a compatible mate. Next acquire a dose of patience. I have waited as long as 10 years to get a pair of birds to nest. Nothing that I did stimulated them. They nested when they were ready.
If you meet the described requiremen the birds should nest. Just acquire patience.
FINAL COMMENT. If you ask for my help, I will always try to provide answers, but if I give you answers do not argue with me. I am giving you an answer based on decades of experience. As a classic example, I was recently asked about adding medication daily to the water to deter bacterial infection. When I stated that husbandry must be based on sound care and not a medication, which will eventually create a resistance and will only stress the birds’ system, the person asking the question stated that a friend used medications daily with great success.
For the record I do not want to hear that the antibiotics are used by a breeder in your area. That person was basing his husbandry protocol on very flawed science. More importantly I asked “Why are you wasting my time when you seem to have all the answers?”
I have a family, a high demanding job and my birds. If I do not answer immediately do not start sending me messages with a ‘’?”. Firstly, I am not charging for my time. I am donating it to the writer because of my passion for aviculture. Secondly the writer is not the center of the universe. My family and birds are. Thirdly and finally I may be traveling or may not have access to the internet. Send me a message DEMANDING an answer and you will be blocked.
When you write me, make sure you look at your birds from their perspective first. If the cage is filthy, the water is dirty, the birds are forced to nest in those despicable ceramic pots (from whence chicks fledge whose toes and nails are commonly encased in dry f***l matter because the pots are not porous and are difficult to keep clean), or the diet is terrible, nothing that I can say will help until you address those issues. Understand that the birds do not deserve to be kept dirty, and have only foul water, a filthy nest and a poor diet available. If you are instructed to practice better hygiene, and contact me again some weeks or months later with the same problem because you were too lazy to practice proper hygiene expect a nasty answer. I want to help every person that contacts me to be successful, but to be so you must commit to practicing proper husbandry.
Have an awesome 2020. May aviculture continu
Witfontein Aviaries are breeders of quality Parrots 
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