Breeding Parrots: What Owners Should Know
📝 Summary
Parrots breed from October to June, raising 3–4 clutches of 4–7 eggs, each incubating about 18 days with chicks independent at around 40 days. Before breeding, supplement the hen with liquid calcium and vitamins in her water, add egg-food to about 10% of her diet, and set up a clean nesting box with 3–5 cm of bedding. Rearing can be by hand or by the parent; if you don't want chicks, separate the sexes and cut oily seeds.
1 Preparing for Breeding
Add liquid calcium to the hen’s water daily through laying; low calcium causes soft-shelled eggs and egg-binding. The small amount in ordinary food isn’t enough for a pet parrot.
Add vitamins too — they aid calcium uptake — also in the water, through the chick-rearing stage.
Mix in egg-food (rich in the protein a laying hen needs) at about 10% of the main diet.
Once both birds are in condition, set up a nesting box: clean and disinfect it, line with rice husks for comfort and warmth, use 3–5 cm of bedding, and mount it outside the cage so you can change bedding and check eggs easily.
2 Rearing the Hen
Choose hand-rearing or parent-rearing. Hand-rearing means taking the chicks at 20–25 days and feeding them formula by syringe and tube each day; parent-rearing lets the hen raise them, then separates them after weaning.
For hand-rearing, have a reliable formula and a thermometer to keep the feed at the right temperature. Parent-rearing needs only ample food and water.
3 If You Don’t Want Breeding
Hen: house her apart from the cock, cut oily seeds (or switch to pelleted maintenance food), and offer more toys.
Cock: house him apart from the hen and handle him less, with more toys. Watch for frequent vent-rubbing that reddens the area; if so, treat the cloaca promptly to prevent a worsening infection.
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