Unwanted Breeding

Hi Sandee,

Hopefully you can offer some needed advice. I recently adopted a bonded pair of parrotlets from a rescue here in NC. The two birds (5 &6) have had several different homes over the last 5 years and I knew that I could provide a stable place for them. The day after I got them home I had an egg. That was about 10 days ago. Now I have 5. I don’t want to breed the birds and was told by the rescue to “addle” or “shake” the eggs vigorously to keep them from hatching.

Here is my dilemma: Up until yesterday only the female was exhibiting cage/food aggression, now it’s both of them. When the male is out of the cage he is good for a while then will just bite down hard for no reason. I am not reacting, just putting him down. I don’t take him out of the cage, he comes over to me. I’ve been practicing positive reinforcement but he seems to just like to test the waters. Usually it’s my fingers he goes for. He’ll just walk right over and “chomp!”

Question 1: This nesting/hormonal/aggression should end after the hen has gotten bored of sitting on the eggs, right?
Question 2: I don’t want to separate them, they’ve been together for years and sleep next to each other, preen, chat and get along fine. I don’t want to cause other problems. Help?
Question 3: Is there a good chance that this will only happen once a year? Or, even better, stop?

PS: I don’t have a happy hut, nesting box, cuddle toy, anything like it. The hen decided her food dish was a good spot. No, it wasn’t empty.

Thanks for your input,
Kim

Dear Kim:

Thank you for your email. It sounds to me like these birds are acting perfectly normal for two Pacific parrotlets that are a bonded breeding pair. Parrotlets are very territorial and aggressive especially when they are a bonded breeding pair. You have to understand that Nature designed these birds to protect themselves and their offspring from predators. Pacifics come from a very dry, desert-like area and they have to compete for food and nest sites not to mention everything preys on them including other birds. I always say parrotlets have to be tough because they come from region where spiders are bigger than they are. Just because we humans take them into our homes and ‘love’ them like feathered kids doesn’t mean they give up that instinct. They are not domesticated birds like budgies or cockatiels but are still very much wild animals. That is why offspring have to be pulled for handfeeding and imprinted upon. Otherwise they would be just as wild and unhandleable as their untamed cousins in the wild. Even if they are hand-fed and imprinted, unless they are placed in a pet home upon weaning and constantly interacted with by humans they revert to their wild natures. Again, it is how they were designed to help the species survive in very harsh conditions. Even hand-fed socialized pet parrotlets are aggressive and territorial with their cage – that behavior never changes. If these birds were pets, would act this way in defense of their territory.

Parrotlets are either pets or breeders. They are not both. They either imprint and bond with humans or with other parrotlets. These birds are half way finished with their lives and are a bonding breeding pair doing what Nature designed them to do – procreate. While anything can happen, I would be money you will never be able to tame them, never be able to handle them, never make them into pets as we humans define them. They can live perfectly happy lives breeding and producing offspring as God and Nature designed them to do. I never can understand why people think that is such a terrible thing. Had we not interfered with them, that is what they would be doing. I think its appalling a shelter would allow them to keep breeding and then kill the embryos rather than placing these birds in a breeding environment so they can do what they were supposed to do. As for your question about stopping them breeding, short of separating them, that isn’t going to happen until they are physically unable to produce.

Wish I had better news for you but to me, it really is about the birds. They can live the rest of their lives quite happily without any human interaction other than feeding and cleaning going on to produce offspring as Nature intended. The question is can you live with that. If not, I would recommend placing these birds with a breeder who can attend to their needs and make them comfortable until they are no longer able to produce chicks.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you and your birds.

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.
The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com
Join the International Parrotlet Society, – the World’s Largest and Oldest Parrotlet Organization www.internationalparrotletsociety.org
A Chattering Bird Builds No Nest.
Camaroonian Phrase
________________________________________

Green Rump Pairs

Hello Sandee,

I recently lost my conure at 18 years old. This is the first time in my life I haven’t had a bird and we really miss the presence of a feathered friend. I am contemplating a pair of green rump parrotlets. Is it true they are the gentlest of the parrotlets? If I got them at a young age, would they continue to be close with each other? I knew someone who had a pair of Pacifics and the female decapitated the male so I just want to make sure that doesn’t happen. Also, do you have youngsters from different lines just in case they did breed at some point? It’s not a goal of mine (finding homes is a chore), but certainly a concern that any offspring would be healthy.

Thank you in advance,
Tiffany

Dear Tiffany:

Thank you so much for your email. I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your conure.

There is a big misconception about Green Rumps that they are ‘sweeter’ or ‘more gentle’ than Pacifics and that just isn’t true. They are very timid, very shy birds and many people misinterpret that shyness as being sweet or that they make better pets. Also, as a lifelong bird owner, I’m sure you must be aware that all birds – just like people – are individuals and while one can make generalizations about certain characteristics, the bottom line is that how a bird is imprinted, socialized and trained is a much better indicator of how a bird is going to behave as a pet. That being said, I do have to state that I am not taking reservations for Green Rumps anymore since my waiting list is more than a year long.

As for two birds staying close, that really isn’t something that happens with parrotlets. Parrotlets are either pets or breeders, not both. This is probably what happened with your friend’s Pacifics. You have two healthy adult well-fed birds of the opposite sex kept in a cage together and if they are not set up for breeding, then hormones get out of control and mate killing can happen. I also know that just because the bird was ‘decapitated’ it does not mean that the hen did it. If the dead bird’s feet were chewed up and there is blood all over the cage and perches, then the hen is the culprit. If not, the bird died of something else and the hen mutilated the body. Parrotlets often cannibalize a dead bird – this is an instinct that helps them survive in the wild, both to keep predators away and to consume energy. It’s not pretty but Mother Nature rarely is. It’s what has helped the species survive for millennia in very harsh conditions. In captivity, this instinct is not necessary and is one that often is very upsetting to owners but there are ways to prevent it. Pet parrotlets are best kept as single birds unless they are kept in separate cages. One bird will often become dominant over the other and ‘share’ is not a word in the parrotlet vocabulary. The dominant bird will keep the other from eating, perching, playing, etc., and while they may preen one another or sit next to each other on a perch (again, survival instincts but not ‘love’ or ‘affection’ as many people think) then injury or death can occur. That is why I always recommend that pet parrotlets be kept in separate cages.

I have bred parrotlets for almost 30 years and have written 3 books on them as well as give seminars on parrotlet care around the world. I have always sold unrelated birds to people regardless of whether or not they intend to breed them. I learned a long time ago that instinct is what governs birds so make sure that any pairs sold are unrelated, whether the birds are going to be pets or breeders.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.
The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com
Join the International Parrotlet Society, – the World’s Largest and Oldest Parrotlet Organization www.internationalparrotletsociety.org
A Chattering Bird Builds No Nest.
Camaroonian Phrase

Color Mutation Parrotlets' Personalities

Sandee-

I read that the blue mutation of Pacific Parrotlets have gentler dispositions than original greens, and that the yellow Pacifics are particularly feisty. Do you find that the color mutations have any identifiable personalities traits linked to them? Or do you think people are taking experience from maybe one or two Parrotlets they have known, and making a generalized statement?

Thanks for your help,

Kathleen

Dear Kathleen:

Thank you so much for your email. This is an excellent question and I really appreciate you asking it.

I’ve kept and bred parrotlets for almost 30 years and have bred hundreds and seen thousands. I preface my answer with that fact because I do believe the less birds you have the more ‘sure’ you are of their behavior. The longer you keep birds and the more you have, you realize that they are all individuals and that, just like with people or dogs, you can’t make generalizations about individuals based on generic information. Most people who have a bird and its sweet will make that statement about all of them that are like that. If you have a blue or a dilute (formerly yellow) and it’s a wonderful bird, it is human nature to attribute its pet quality on physical characteristics. That really isn’t true. The best pet birds are the ones who personalities lend themselves to enjoy the company of humans, whether or not they have been strongly imprinted (i.e., ‘socialized’), how they are trained and how they are kept. Those things have a far greater influence on behavior than species, sex or color.

I do believe that is part of why people think that certain mutations are ‘sweeter’ than normal birds (although good luck trying to find any Pacific parrotlet that doesn’t have some mutation gene in its background). However, I do have a theory that mutations are often considered ‘sweeter’ because in the wild they do not survive long enough to develop much of a survival instinct. They are aberrations of Nature and it is inherent in Nature to have survival of the fittest. A blue or yellow parrotlet is going to stick out like a sore thumb in a place that has predominantly green foliage and therefore are much easier to prey upon than a normal green parrotlet. That is if the parents don’t kill them when they are in the nest. Therefore, I don’t believe these birds survive long enough to either develop a more aggressive nature which is needed to survive in the harsh environment where Pacific parrotlets are found nor do I believe they have much of an opportunity to breed even if they make it to maturity. After all, in the wild, like breeds with like. If you are green, you are not going to gravitate naturally to a yellow or blue bird. Nature doesn’t design birds that way – if so, hybridization would be rampant in the natural world. In captivity, of course, those instincts go out the window when mature, adult, healthy birds of the opposite sex are paired together. Just ask anyone who has a male and a female as pets and they end up breeding. Nature designed the need to perpetuate the species first and foremost.

So, to answer your question, I don’t believe, based on my experience, that color mutations per se are sweeter or make better pets. I just believe the statement is attributed to human interpretation of a very limited personal experience and the fact that Nature didn’t give these guys the instinct needed to survive in the wild. That doesn’t make them ‘sweeter’ it just makes them less inclined to use survival skills (like biting) when being handled.

Hope this makes sense and thanks again for the question.

Sincerely yours,

Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S.
The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com
Join the International Parrotlet Society, – the World’s Largest and Oldest Parrotlet Organization www.internationalparrotletsociety.org
A Chattering Bird Builds No Nest.
Camaroonian Phrase