Chestnuts

[Jayburd]

Are Chestnut Breasted Mannikins hard to breed?

[finchbreeder]

Sexing them is the biggest problem. The intensity of the chestnut breast is supposed to be a good way of telling. But don't trust me I got it wrong and wound up with Chestnut Bengo crosses. The last of which has just died of old age.
LML

[mickw]

Quite a few people breed 'em ok these days.....but traditionally they havent been bred well.......largely because they have always been cheap and arent sexy to look at ........so most of them were held by inexperienced breeders who would just buy replacements (ie, me, when I was a kid )......I'm talking mostly about pre-1986 when we used to get a fresh supply of wild-caught birds from WA each spring.....I think now, the birds held in captivity are many generations domesticated, which improves captive breeding potential......on top of that, for 15 bucks you can get them dna sexed these days ;) ......saves a heap of guesswork and heaps of seed feeding two males .......

I a had a pair in the 80's......for 6 years in an overcrowded, mixed collection which included a Crimson Rosella, a pair of red-rumps and a pair of quarrions ......and stars, and longtails, masks, painted etc .........they bred for me in the 4th year & for the next 2 seasons .....immediately after I put spiney-as-all-hell grevillea brush in the aviary.....nothing could get close, they loved it

Give them a go, great bird, very worthy from a conservation perspective in NSW......they are considered as being super abundant but numbers in the wild around traditional haunts (ie around here) have plummetted.......again, no-one really bothers about this species compared to say Gouldians..........so population decline goes un-noticed

My Summary........They're not easy, but not super hard to breed, but not expensive.......a good challenge good practice for Pictorellas or Yellow-rumps ...........but dont keep in a mixed collection with other Mannikans....interbreeding...you know the drum ;)