Breeding African Grey in 6 months

Hi everyone,

I actually have a pair of African Grey and i successfully bred them in 6 months. So i thought of sharing my knowledge gained and my experience on how to successfully breed African Grey Parrot.

I am actually a novice parrot keeper. Close to end of last year as i was serving net i got learn about African Grey Parrot. And when i went down to one of the breeder's place to purchase a chick i saw his set up and everything and found it very interesting to keep and breed parrots. Due to my army committments i didnt purchase the chick. So a week before my ORD, i got myself a pair of adult African Grey Parrots. This was the first time i even kept a pet. haha so it was quite exciting to try and breed. I will segment the article for your to understand better.


Birds: Firstly you really have to make sure you are purchasing a male and a female bird. For african grey you can see the difference slightly. The male are more darker ash color and the female are lighter ash color. It is very obvious to see when you have all the female seperate from the males. Then next thing is to get an adult pair. Of cos it is best if the person you are buying from knows the birds age. If not you may look at the bird's eye. For adult African Grey, their eyes are surrounded by dark yellow ring. For young birds it looks rather white or grey. Now how to choose a compatible pair, i actually used abit of logic to do this part. I actually chose a dominant looking male, a male which growled when i approached and was rather brave with chest up and feathers fluffed. And also make sure the male was standing on the perch and not on the bottom of the cage. This is to get an alpha male and also hmmm a manly male i guess haha. Ok for the female bird i actually got a shy hen, a hen that would tuck its head down when i approached, not aggressive and very subtle. It is very important to match the characters of the birds. If you get two dominant birds its going to be problem. So make sure you understand the hmmm laws of character chemistry before choosing.

Cage:
I actually got my birds a 3ft by 2ft black metal cage. Its not very high though. Its quite cheap

Nest Box:
I actually used a cabinet drawer and made it into a nestbox on my own. Its quite easy, just create a hole in the front

Food:
Ok my birds are super fuzzy, they only eat Fuji apple, almond, sunflower seed, sugar cane, oil palm seed and peanuts. All other foods have been tested and gone to waste. So you may have to get to know your birds and their diet. Since my birds are picky and only choose a variety i add in multi-vitamins in their diet. For that also they are damn choosy, i have tried so many multi-vitamins and they rejected the food. The only one they accept is Hagen PRIME!


ok now here is a short journal of my 6 months....

Dec 2007 I got the birds home, they refused to eat for two full days. Not even drink water. I was worried sick. I kept apple, grapes, and corn at the bottom of the cage. But they din eat. So on the third i shifted the tray to the side and replaced with sunflower seed. Thats when i realised that my birds din eat cos the food was placed on the floor. And till this day they have never stepped on the cage floor. haha always on the perch if not hanging from the top. So day 3 i moved the food and water to a place nearer to them. Then i gave them sugar cane which they loved. Slowly they started to eat. When i got the birds home i covered the entire cage with cloth. And i would peep from below to look at them. After a week i realised that they started to bite and tear the cloth that was surrounding the cage. (covered the whole cage to not stress them on a new environment) So as the weeks went on, they started to tear more and more of the cloth. Till the back, top and front half was gone. But only the bottom half of the front remained. And i realised they wanted the bottom half to remain to give them privacy from me peeping at them. Ok i forgot to mention, I have actually placed my cage on top of my cupboard. So the top part of my cage is actually like 1cm away from the ceiling. haha i placed on top of my cupboard to make them feel safer and awar from human. And also realised that if they leaved the bottom half of the cage covered i cant see them and they have their privacy. And with the top half gone, they had a gd view of what's infron of them. Smart birds eh. haha ok

2 months passed by and the birds never entered the nestbox. they wld only stand at the perch. And i just had to wait patiently. Usually they wld sing abit in the morning and at night. Not very loud though. They are my morning alarm clock! haha ok after two months i started to hear noises of them biting the nest box. and whn i try to peep i can see the hole was getting bigger. And nearly after 3weeks of making the hole bigger the two birds entered the nest box. Ever since then, whenever i entered my room, they will rush in to their safe zone. So i wld usually indicate my presence my knocking on the door and they wld take their time to go in.

And the months started to fly and no signs of breeding. I was wondering how long i had to wait, i heard of ppl having to wait 5 years before a clutch arrived. And i also read up alot on breeding behaviour, and i noticed that the birds will not breed till they are activated. And how to do that is to have more food given to them. You see, in wild the birds will experince the 4 seasons and there will be a pt of time food will be lesser and they dnt breed then. They only breed whn there is plenty food. So i started to give more apple, more peanuts, almond and so on. And i also started to do some research and food in take. And i realised they needed to have some form of natural oil supplement in their food. So i bought this potency oil thingy and my birds refused it. Then one day i was studying at a studying area and i saw a wild moustach parakeet. And it flew to a palm tree and did this moon walk to the top and plucked a palm seed and flew away. Then came another and it did the same. Then i saw some scattered palm seeds on the ground and the mynahs were eating it. Thats when i realised palm seeds provided rich natural oil and no wonder these birds can thrive in wild. So i plucked a few oil palm seeds for my birds and they accepted it readily. And i started to notice their poo was getting oily too. And i guess the oil palm seeds played a big part in getting them to mate. Cos the female started to make a collection of palm seeds in the nestbox. probably to eat it whn incubating the eggs.

Thn in May the mating began. The first time they mated was early morning abt 4am and i thght actually my bird was dieing. Cos i heard a noise of breathing hard and having difficulty breathing actually. So i peeped and to my astonishment the birds were actually mating and moaning. I was very surprised that they actually moan. I am not sure how many of you experienced this but my birds moaned when they made love. So for like 3 weeks i had disturbed slp. And they wld only make love at 4am plus-6am. During the darkest hour of the day.. just before dawn. And after the mating weeks, i realised the female din stand outside the nestbox. Cos i wld only hear 1 bird enter the nestbox. so for the next 1 mnth they wld hve incubated the egg. i totally din disturb them and din peep how many eggs and so on. i just left them alone and let them do their thing and i continued to provide good food.

Then early july i heard the welcoming sounds of the chick. chirp chirp.. wow felt so excited. but then again i din open and check and i waited patiently for 3weeks. And on the 3rd week i pulled out the chicks wow.. there was baby bonus. 2 chicks. All along i only thght 1 cos i heard only 1 chick making noise. So the other looked like 5days younger i guess. And the way i extracted the chick was also hmmm different. I din put my hand in and take. And anyway the parents din leave the nestbox at all. So wad i did was to slowly dig out the wood shaving from the bottom back of the box. i designed my nest box such that the bottom you can open slightly. and soon i saw the leg of the 1st chick and i slowly digged it out. the parents still din leave the nestbox. upon digging furhter i saw another tiny chick. wow so happy and i took it out the parents left the nestbox immediately. and they din make any noise or growled or shout. afterwhich i covered the nestbox hole wid a piece of wood slotting from the side. And throughout the process the parents din see me. And ho, before i extracted the chicks, i placed a big sugar cane for them. So after i took the chick out i cleared the nestbox and there were so many palm seeds. So i really think the palm seeds triggered the breeding. Ok anyways i took the chicks for my first handfeeding and it was quite an experience. my hands were shivering and shaking actually. haha felt like a proud dad actually. it was fantastic. And the next day i placed new wood shaving in the nestbox and i realised the parrots were making a hole in the wood i placed to cover the hole. So i removed it and they went into the nestbox readily. After that they have been behaving normally. Eating and the same habbits as per before breeding.

It was truly an amazing experience and i am glad i shared it with you people. I got to find out later that for a first time breeding birds to have laid fertile eggs is quite an achievement and to have both the laid eggs hatch and the parents rearing the chick for 3chicks is a great achievement. The person actually told me either i am lucky or i have taken care of them really well. I really hope it was both.

haha.. ok people thats all for my experience breeding grey. Please do feel free to ask me any questions and i will be glad to answer.

Take care
Santoz