# Australian parrots



## mycatsandi (Apr 9, 2013)

Hey guys!
My husband brought in 4 pairs of australian parrots about 2 months back. THey have a huge cage that has sections for each pair. We have also placed the necessary pots and everything that they need to breed. Now, this one pair laid eggs about a month ago, but one fine day we see mama parrot throwing out 4 eggs from her nest. i have no idea why she did it?

so my questions are:

1. how did she have 4 eggs? :S i heard that they hay 2 at a time? 
2. the other pairs are not breeding, like, i dont even see them going inside those pots that they build nests in. why? are they uncomfortable?
3. how soon would mama parrot be laying eggs again?

Any information would be highly appreciated as this is the first time we've brought in birds. oh also, we have cats at home who seem to try to harass the parrots all the time. are they causing trouble?


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

How big exactly is this cage that you've managed to squeeze 8 birds into? What kind of parrots are they? 

Brids only breed if they have a decent amount of space - keeping birds in a battery type arrangement, like those awful 'breeding' cages you can buy which I wouldn't even put a hamster into, to just produce babies is far from ideal!! Unless in a very large aviary that has been divided up.
They need to be stress free - if your cats are harrassing them then they will obviousluy be stressed and insecure, hardly an environment they would want to breed in!! They need to be in a room where the cats have no access, will be safer for the birds too incase a cat catches one through the bars! 
They need the correct feed to bring them upto breeding condition as laying eggs takes a huge amount of resources, I give my little cockatoo a calcium supplement in her water when she lays eggs - but they need a UV source, either a good quality parrot UV lamp like the arcadia ones or straight sunlight, not through glass though, in order to be able to produce vitamin D to to then absorb the calcium or you risk your birds dying. 

Your bird will have chucked her eggs out as they were either infertile or she has not sat on them properly ie. your cats could have made her get off them for too long and they've died. The incubation period for most parrots is roughly 30 days depending on species, it could also be they are young inexperienced birds and therefore the first few years may not get the idea, or if they are hand reared they may never make good parents! 
How old are the birds, were they paired when you bought them, have they bred before?


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## mycatsandi (Apr 9, 2013)

My guess is that my cats are harassing them way too much. We are inexperienced in terms of birds so I guess its best to ask. These are the parrots that I have (the ones in the picture aren't mine, just wanted to show you what we have): 2 Pairs of Australian Parrots For Sale in Lahore

Also, that's just the type of pot we have for them to lay eggs in, i really dont know what its called. Their cage is big, just like the one you've described 'large aviary that has been divided up'. We just give them their regular food, i think its called Millet in English. That's what their breeder told us to give them. Just one pair (the one that lay eggs) had previously had eggs.

I'm not really interested in making them breed actually, I just want to make sure they live as comfortably as possible. I have no idea what to give them (like the calcium thing you just mentioned), cuz well, the breeders here dont bother with this stuff so they never told us :S think i should head out to a bird shop and ask?


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## AlexArt (Apr 25, 2010)

Ah they're budgies. You need a mixed seed for them not just millet, and a good quality pelleted food too, just having millet would be like us just eating one type of food forever, they need a varied diet to get as much vitamins and minerals as possible so fruit and veg as well.

Here is a good site for finding out how to house/feed etc your budgies - Pet Budgie: Feeding Your Budgie (Parakeet)
I'm sure there are plenty of sites on the net about breeding them, read as many as you can, but I'd maybe leave the breeding for the moment and if they start to lay replace the eggs with fake ones, or hard boil them and put them back - they'll soon get bored of sitting on them.

They are smart little birds so need lots of toys etc to keep them busy, they should also be fine living in a flock in your aviary rather than split into smaller spaces. They also need plenty of time out of their cages everyday to stretch their wings and have a good fly around - just make sure your cats are not in the room and all windows and doors are shut!
Calcium supplements may not be needed if you can get hold of cuttle fish bones to help keep their beaks in shape as well as for calcium - a budgie breeder should be able to give you better advice. 
Also make sure you get some nice wood perches for them - the wood dowling or plastic ones which come with cages are not suitable - just cut some branches off some trees in your garden, make sure they are not poisonous species!, and make perches of different sizes and textures. 
Any pics - they are such pretty little birds!


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## mycatsandi (Apr 9, 2013)

Alright that's lots of work to do. Basically the breeder we got them from just told us to give them millet, a bowl of water, and rock salt (i forgot the reason why). we placed the rock salt in their cave and ive noticed them licking at it quite a few times. they dont really have any perches so yes that's something we need to add. we dont let them fly as well, how would we get them to go back inside? :S

toys? hmm, that's something i need to look into. any ideas?


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