Turquoisine Parrakeet

[cupoftea]

Wow, she's gorgeous!! What a lovely bird.

 

[Anne & Gang]

She sure is pretty...I think some toys for her to play with would be nice too.

 

[solo]

she is so beautiful

 

[Cyreen]

Thanks Cyreen! What part of Alberta are you in? I am in Edmonton.

Me too. There are a couple others wandering around here too!

 

[Brendajean71]

She sure is pretty...I think some toys for her to play with would be nice too.

I have a whole bag of toys that she doesn't pay any attention too...she just likes to eat!!

 

[Brendajean71]

Me too. There are a couple others wandering around here too!

Oh awesome!

 

[Brendajean71]

Stormcloud, do you have grass parakeets like mine in a similar living situation or in an aviary?

 

[Steve Weir]

I would be very doubtful if you will be able to tame her much more than she already is. The fact that she doesn't take flight away from you is amazing. Turqs are part of the neophema genus with also includes scarlet breasted, bluebonnets, rock parrots and blue wings. Bourkes until recently we thought to belong to this species but they have been re-catagorized. The neophemas are usually very timid flighty birds that in the wild move in flocks. That's why they do better as aviary birds.

 

[Steve Weir]

I would get her a mate and set them up in an aviary and breed them.

 

[Brendajean71]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your input. My little Sweet Pea and I are getting along great. True, there is no cuddling going on, but she will let me scratch her chest, play 'nosies' with her, and I can kiss her on her forehead too. Last month I bought Sweet Pea a room mate - another female Turq. I really love these birds. True, I originally wanted a little bird that would sit on my shoulder, but the spirit of these birds is so peaceful and beautiful. Here is a picture of Sweet Pea with her buddy Buttercup.

 

[Brendajean71]

Also, I would love to set up more of an aviary situation, but I live in an apartment. This is the best I can do for them:

They sleep together in the cage on the left. Whenever I am home the door is open and they are out and about, but generally they always hang out on or in or between one of the cages. Sweet Pea finally has all her feathers and she is a great flyer around the apartment, but will go back to 'homebase'.

 

[Brendajean71]

Buttercup out and about. Isn't she beautiful?

 

[Steve Weir]

Brendajean

They are nice birds. As I said in a previous post I bred Turqs for many years. They bred like rabbits ( in the right conditions ). That was 10 - 15 years ago. Since then I haven't had much to do with birds my ex wife wouldn't agree with me having an aviary an birds. But my second wife Lin is encouraging me to breed birds again. And now we have built our new house we have a perfect sized backyard for my aviary. This time I am going to breed Scarlet Breasted Parrots, Regent Parrots, Cockatiels & Bush Budgies. All in an outdoor mixed aviary. The aviary itself is going to be quite large. I will give you dimension in feet. 15feet long by 10feet wide by 8feet tall. It is going to be a habitat aviary so there will be huge Eucalypt stumps in there as well as native seeding grasses. I am lucky because I live in Australia all the natural vegetation and seeding grasses are readily available in my local area. And I also live in a semi rural area so that makes life easy.

 

[RadhaVallabhi]

Sweet Pea and Butter Cup are Beautiful! (Buttercup actually kind of reminds me of Vrindarika my yellow parrotlet)

 

[Brendajean71]

Hi Steve,
Your aviary sounds like it is going to be wonderful...I wish I could give my birds that kind of home. But I just sort of think of my whole apartment as their aviary, which Sweet Pea is exploring more and more now that she has her whole wings back. So what happens when it is Winter where you live? Or does it not really get that cold? I have often wondered what people do with their birds, who live in an outside aviary, in the Winter.

 

[Steve Weir]

G'day Brendajean

The winters aren't that cold where I live. It doesn't snow or anything. The trick here in Victoria Australia is ti position your aviary so it faces due north. Her in Australai the cold winds come from the south and south-west. Plus Australian Parrots are used to our climate. Although other than Tasmania Victoria is the coldest state in Australia, and some of these parrots like Regents and bourkes are from the warmer parts of the country. But if you buy your birds from a local breeder they have aclimatised to our weather. So no need for indoor aviaries here. Victoria has extremes in temperatures. Winter can get as cold as 12 degrees c / 53F and summer can get as hot as 42C / 108F.

 

[Brendajean71]

Nice. It gets as cold as minus 35 degrees C here in the Winter, so no outdoor aviaries! Good luck with getting yours up and enjoy!

 

[MyAussieFriends]

They look so adorable! My heart just melts for all Australian keets. They are just so kind natured.

Have you thought about maybe buying them a flight cage? They aren't super expensive, and the birds reallllly appreciate it.

This is my set up. I also live in an apartment, so space is limited. But I make the most of it! It's really nice to have all my guys out and once, and they have areas to play and do their little birdie things

 

[Brendajean71]

Nice. My birds get out a lot and fly about...they fly back and forth between cages so that is like a flight cage...without the cage.

 

[Steve Weir]

I can't wait to build my aviary. I have been dreaming up plans in my head. In the flight which will be 4 meters(13 feet) by 5 meters ( 16 feet ) I am going to have a tall dead eucalypt stump in the middle with stainless steel tubes screwed to the side so I can provide the birds fresh eucalypt & Bottle brush branches so they can nibble at the flowers leaves and bark. And on the bottom of the flight I am going to plant native seeding grasses. It's going to be a habitat aviary. I will be using hollow logs for nesting just like they would use in the wild. I had a habitat aviary when I bred Princess, Turquiosine, and bourkes parrots years ago and had great success. I am also going to install a shower watering system on top of the flight for those extremely hot days we get here in Australia in summer. It will serve two purposes 1 it will provide the birds with some relief and it will water the grasses in the flight. And I am also thinking of installing a reticulating water system so they can bathe and drink and I won't have to change the water. I am all about low maintanance