Dreams of a Parrotlet Breeder

To people uninitiated into the world of bird breeding, it may seem that you place a male and a female bird together, and suddenly you have baby birds. While it may be this simple for some bird species, like society finches, parrotlets provide a bit more of a challenge to the hobbyist breeder. This doesn't mean that parrotlets are hard to breed. These tiny birds will begin to nest and rear chicks with the best of them, once they know how. To give you an idea how precarious the art of breeding birds is, I'm compiling my notes from my first pair. Enjoy!

August 23,1998

At our bird club's fall fair, I purchased a beautiful female. I put her in with my male, LittleHawk, and he took to her instantly. LittleHawk must have thought his dreams had come true, after all, he'd been bugging me for months that he wanted a girlfriend. SheBear, as I called the female, settled right in, exploring the nestbox and preening her new mate.

September 4, 1998

After three days of looking like she was going to lay, SheBear finally laid an egg. I, of course, jumped up and down and yelled my joy from one end of the house to the other. My first egg (not counting my society finches), and I was excited.

September 8, 1998

SheBear laid a total of 4 eggs. The ends look dark, but the rest of the eggs were clear. I'm afraid this clutch isn't fertile.

September 30, 1998

I moved the pair to a new cage without a nest box for some "dating" time. The first clutch of eggs was infertile, and I had a new pair coming in that needed the nest box.

October 6, 1998

Apparently, SheBear and LittleHawk still want to raise a family. I saw them copulating several times over the past few days, so I gave them a new nestbox.

November 11, 1998

SheBear laid the first egg of this clutch on October 21. Over the course of about a week, she laid a total of five eggs. As she incubated them, I noticed two eggs turning grayish, almost black. Apparently those chicks died in the shell. However, today is the day that all bird breeders dream of, the first egg hatched.

November 12, 1998

All my hope turns to sorrow as the first chick dies. I speak with some veteran bird breeders in my area, and they say that it sometimes happens with the first clutch.

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