Hello

thank you DizzyBlue for expressing your opinion on that....To be honest through the years, i have noticed that greys are "weird" birds when it comes to mating/breeding and surely i can not tell whats going to happen with these two fellas...

I have to mention that it was a complete fail every time i tried to get another bird so that my previous CAG would mate...but he was almost 40 year old (hadnt encountered or got into relationship with any other bird)  and by the age of 45 i gave up, on trying....he wouldnt mate for any reason...

With these two I am so curious though....and I am really trying (but i am afraid i cant go on for too long) to stop petting them that much, so that only the one pets the other... I dont know if that  means anything or if it pushes forward the whole thing...frankly i dont...But When one looks at them they  can tell that these birdies have a very strong bond,sometimes the male will start feeding the female and she would ask for more and more  but that would be for some minutes and they just stop (usually the male flies away) ... i can not interpret what that means or what comes next i just observe and keep some notes..

They now are during their first molting  ( i was very surprised to notice that they started dropping lots of body feathers on December, some ,-but not all of them-tail feathers on january and  then a couple of flight feathers on februarry and  still this process is going on, pretty much on this order)...This is the first time i encounter bird molting like that.. EVen if their very  first molt is like that, is freaking me out- that takes them so long to get their "new clothes" done and ready for use...

I would be so happy if the mate and get some chicks...All the birds i owned in the past (pigeons,cockatiels,canaries) i did get youngsters and in most of them i had to use the co-parenting method because they wouldnt feed their youngs sufficiently, or they wouldnt feed them at all.... i would also get the youngster out of the shell using the sharp side of a long flight feather...

But even if they dont get to start a family , the main reason i got them paired, is for each other to have a lifetime fellowship and a  feathered companion..noone in the house (including myself)  can understand eachother more than these two can ...

Please forgive my english....Although ive spent time in this wonderfull land i still have to confess there have been ages since i last paractised them :(
 
Hi , your greys will have had a moult before now hun, they normally have their first light moult at around 8 months old......ok so my take on this is if you want them to breed it will be difficult as they are bonded to you...I have a pair of greys that I kept that were reared by me but their interaction with me was limited...they are bonded to each other and will happily come to the aviary for a scratch but nothing really more than that!


I hope they will be lovely steady breeders in time that will parent rear or at least rear a lot longer than my other greys do!


It sounds to me like your birds are pet birds that are bonded to you
 
Nikki, thank you for your reply. Is there something I can do? Should I stop petting them? No scratching or playing? Any suggestions? Your opinion guys means a lot :) thank you so much :)
 
Here is my take on this. I have a breeding pair who were hand reared by myself and lived indoors with me for 8 years. They are very, very tame. They had a love hate relationship with each other for a number of years but always loved us the humans. It was never my intention to breed from them but at the age of 8 years they started trying to mate in the house and the female would go on the floor and build a nest from newspaper and cardboard. When she laid eggs on the floor I decided to put them out in an aviary. They started using the nestbox immediately (they had never seen one before) and she laid her first successful clutch of fertile eggs ( aged 9 years) BUT she was hopeless when it came to feeding and the babies used to be covered in mucky food from where she missed their mouths. She was persistent though and she did get better and better at it. I used to help her out by hand feeding the babies twice a day while in the nestbox. They can parent rear but again there is a problem as they tend to pluck the babies so they are very scruffy babies when they fledge. I can still enter the aviary and interact with them and they still enjoy human company but are devoted to each other.

I then kept one of their parent reared babies and one from a different pair who was also parent reared. These two youngsters have been together since babies and have always lived in an aviary. They are 5 years old this year and are just starting to show signs of mating. I am hoping that this pair won't have the same issues that the hand reared birds had when raising their youngsters. I do honestly believe that parent reared birds become better breeding birds than hand reared birds.

So yes it is possible that your two babies will go on to breed but you will need to provide them with the correct environment to do so safely. I wouldn't worry about reducing the amount of time that you spend with them or the amount of handling you do. When their hormones kick in nature will take over. You have nothing to worry about for a few years anyway so just enjoy them.

They look to be in fabulous condition so your doing well with them.
 
very enlighting comments from both of these wonderful ladies...I cant find the words to thank you both for taking the time to write down your experiences and comments and post them here.....I honestly am very gratefull.....

So if i choose to pet them and tease them and kiss them and bite them (just a little) they somehow get a bit confused as far as their sexual orientation concerns..But  nature will eventually take over (maybe in two three five ten years from now)  and sooner or later they will breed. their breeding though may be problematic but it may get better and better..

On the other hand, If i stop petting them (i wish i could at least keep the gymnastics session at which we fly so that we retain our great body ody ody) they will be  devoted to each other sooner and they can start their grey familia sooner :) ....

i really do not know, it breaks my heart to know that from now on i am just watching them, not being able to pet them, but there is a voice inside that screams a big "NO.... you can not let those birds think that you are their mate... Not for a single day" (after dealing with so many behavioral problems three decades now with my single male CAG) ....the sooner they realise that i am human and they are birdies the better for their mental and physical health...

I need to tell you though.....i first bought my little and delicate girl....among others it was the only young bird that i couldnt take my eyes of... i immediately asked the breeder to get her to me and so he did...She would calmly sit on my finger without trying to escape or get frightened...i felt that she was as excited i was....I immediately paid and left right away with the bird in my hand (i was just holding tenderely her wings down), i should say that i was actually running to the car especially when the breeder offered me a plastic bag (a supermarket's bag) to put the bird inside...Yes, he was about to do that..

i brough her home and kept her alone with us for 10 days and realised that in the future i will face the same problems ive been facing over the past years. She would in the long run mate with me and she would break my heart watching her askin me to feed her (since she is a girl, she would also lay eggs out of the bloo,too ) .So i decided to find another breeder and get her a healthy and big and handsome (but shy) man...

the reason i am bringing this story is that i believe (?) that those 10days which my little girl spent alone with me (without the male) made her softer and made her fancy my petting alot...On the other hand, this devil "guy" i got her, he has never spent time alone with me, from the very first minute he was with my girl...He never enjoys me petting him...Its been 13 months now since i got them and ive managed to scratch him only twice? he would only let me scratch him  when the female is also in my hands and he would scratch her too so i get the chance to scratch him...and if the female flyies towards me and asks for a scratch, he would immediately fly to us too and start scratching her while they both sit on my fingers...He acts like a competitor, like he doesnt like her to be petted by me...Like he is whispering to her "Come on.....my scratch is better than his...." and of course i eventually live her to him..... but setting the scratching thing aside, he enjoys a lot playin with me and turns upside down and let me open his both wings and flap them and generally doing lots and lots of silly things....

I do not know if that makes sense to you, maybe it is nothing at all and i am just "loosing my mind" with these two cuties
 
They look so devoted to each other. I would continue to handle them regularly just avoid any petting down their backs stick to the head and neck only. The reason they take longer and aren't such good parents isn't so much because of the bonds they have with us but more to do with the fact that they didn't get the opportunity to learn from their parents.
 
Goodmorning people...

I was wondering, when your little birds breed, are they "locked" inside the aviary? No freeride outo of cage? is it big enough so they can excersice inside? How you people deal with that?

Also, when an owner chooses not to pet his greys, when those pairs breed and lay youngsters, do they still let you check upon the nest?

Could you also put the little youngsters out of the nest and offer them a human feeding?

How would the parrents react then? (I mean would they get pissed or stressed? They wouldnt abandon the youngsters would they?)
 
I cant help with breeding at all but just wanted to say such a cute video! whats he saying?
 
"My lord",my love,what's up guyz?,my birdie,water?nice water, My heart. These are the words at that video. Fortunately he was not in a mood of talking those bad bad words he has picked
 
not that angelic face talking naughty words! :nono:  bless very cute, its lovely to hear them talking in another language but I always like to know what they are talking about!
 
Beautiful birds, I'm glad you stayed here as I'm looking forward to seeing more of them as they continue to grow :)
 
Back
Top Bottom