White capped breeding question???

[isma945]

How do you know if your pair is ready to breed because i have read that males get really noisy around breeding time and in other sites have read that there eyes and feet get really orange. so which is true?

 

[Fuzzy]

I dunno - I'm not a breeder. But I do know that some WC Pi's are way more orange than others all year round. Personally I would read the behaviour rather than the colour. Hopefully Jan will come in with her expertise.

 

[isma945]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Jan]

Hi there! Actually, I've never known my males to get extra noisey but they do act very territorial and very protective of the female. If the female is ready to go to nest then you will see her entering in and out of the box or even staying in it for a period of time or constantly if she is serious and going to lay. Also, if the female is not quite interested in going into the box, the male will try to entice her to go in by him going in and coaxing her to come in to it.

Yes, it is true some White Caps feet and eye rings do turn a coral like color, orangish like. The color gets deeper from what is normally is.

I'm not sure what your area is like where you live for this time of year but maybe you have them in doors and in a controlled enviroment but like here at this time of year, mine do not breed.

Anyway, I have 3 pairs of White Caps and all 3 males are always giving me a bad time and the females do not bother me or harrass me at all.

Has your pair been sexed?

Hope this helps or if you have other questions, please ask!!

 

[isma945]

Well I am in Los Angeles CA. I am really not sure if should even have them breeding but since i couldn't find much info i just decided to put in a nest box. No they have not been sexed but they do appear to be male and female ill post pics later. I did want to ask how you have them set up size of cage, placement of nest box what you feed them ect. thanks for the info. As far as males noise it might be something else because he is extremely noisy and this started recently. He is very aggressive so he might be looking to breed.

 

[Jan]

Ok, the thing is, do not always go by they act like male and female because it can sometimes turn out to be two of the same sex and yes, they can act like opposite sex. I once had got a pair of White Caps and soon afterI got them they laid eggs... there were 4 eggs and then both White Caps were sitting on the eggs... okay this told me, I had two females because the males in Pionus do NOT incubate eggs! So then I sexed them and sure enough they were two females!!

I am like about 80 miles from you then, and I am at a higher altitude like 4,500 feet and my birds just do not think about nesting in December, but sometimes in January or February if we get a good warm spell, it will promote them to want to nest. I did one time have a pair of Blue Heads go to nest in January and laid eggs and was even fertile but then the cold coming up through the nest box like it does and the hen can not regulate the proper temp, so therefore the eggs did not hatch. If your birds are indoors then you could stand a chance of them incubating eggs properly.

My caging for my breeder pairs has always been wire caging. My box sizes were the Grandfather style boxes and was 12" x 12" square x 24" high. You can use a boot style box as well. I've used both types, and were wood, I did have two metal boxes as well. I have like 4 of my Grandfather style boxes which are in very good condition as I bought them only a year or two before I got out of breeding in 2009. I always made it so they could not chew up their nest box except for around the entrance hole and had wire mesh around it. I have photos of how I did it for the wire caging if you want to see them.

Food was basically their normal diet but up the protein a little and I'd give them like Soak & Cook Mix. Be sure to offer extra calcium in cuttlebone form if a hen is in the egg laying mode.

 

[isma945]

Ok in that case i guess I am going sex to them. It would be awesome if you could show me so pics of the cages.

 

[Jan]

So here are some random photos of mine showing some of my nest boxes. All shown are using the Grandfather style boxes with the exception of one which is a boot style in which happen to be for one of my pairs of White Caps, my other two pairs of WC's had a Grandfather style box. Hope this gives you some insight, I do have soem images that I have where at one time I had a couple of my Dusky pairs set up in the house for a short while just to see it they would spark up interest in breeding at that time... but then came summer and they went outside to the aviary. I have a few images of a box attached to a normal cage for in the house but I have to look for them on my PC.

 

[isma945]

So here are some random photos of mine showing some of my nest boxes. All shown are using the Grandfather style boxes with the exception of one which is a boot style in which happen to be for one of my pairs of White Caps, my other two pairs of WC's had a Grandfather style box. Hope this gives you some insight, I do have soem images that I have where at one time I had a couple of my Dusky pairs set up in the house for a short while just to see it they would spark up interest in breeding at that time... but then came summer and they went outside to the aviary. I have a few images of a box attached to a normal cage for in the house but I have to look for them on my PC.

awesome um exactly how big are your cages. (Dimensions)

 

[Jan]

Ismael - I had some cages that measured 30" x 30" x 30" and some cages measured 67" long x 30" wide x 30" high. Now that I have less birds most of them have double the size caging and I am soon going to tear out caging in a section and let it be more less a commumity type area for some of the birds, not all but when I do that then the ones that are in the smaller size will have a larger size when I get done. I am no longer breeding my birds and have sold at least 1/2 of my breeding stock and just need to sell about 3 other pairs I have that I can sell and the rest will just basically be aviary residents!! These would be breeders that no one wants because perhaps like one male plucks himself and like another pair where they eat the chicks if not pulled before hatching, nesting habits are not perfect and such. I did have about 20 breeding pairs of Pionus total before and 3 pairs of Blue Front Amazons and I have one pair of Blue Fronts yet that I want to sell.