Masked Lovebirds and Sunflower Seed

[Clawd]

I purchased two pair of masked and 3 pair of Fischers in January (housed separately).

The Masked are feed using a standard Peachface mix via a hopper and are pigs. Seed all over the place. Looking in the hopper, it appears that they do not like sunflower seed and may be creating the mess to get access to the underlying seed (maybe). Meanwhile, the Fischer’s are fine.

Is this unusual for Masked?

[jusdeb]

Welcome and I dont know if its normal but its oppsosite to my problem here ( mine are sunflower junkies ) ...Peachface mix is a basic small parrot mix but with extra millets .
Wonder if they are picking the millet out to eat .
Only thing I can suggest is to stop using the hopper and feed them in a tray for a while , this way you can leave smaller amounts in there longer to try and force them to eat everything offered .
Good luck.

[desertbirds]

I would try different mixes for them that dont contain so much sunflower.A tray as Jusdeb said would be good idea.Maybe the previous owner/breeder didnt feed so much of this seed.You may also find as the weather cools off they do eat more of it,this may also be the case if they are going to breed or have young ones.They might be looking for more fat in their diet at these times.I`ve also noted my long bill corella doesnt like the straight black sunflower but loves the striped one.A bit of trial and error may be required.Its always handy if you know what the birds were raised on.Im not a parrot person but i know that some breeders restrict sunflower during summer and non breeding times.

[jusdeb]

My Corella wont touch the black ones either , but will eat the Grey Stripe . He is such a good eater , he eats seed when there's nothing else , he would much rather fruits , vege and wholemeal toast than seed.
Wish they were all like that .

[Buzzard-1]

My Corella wont touch the black ones either

I can't understand why they are putting black sunflower seed in as they are grown as a oil seed to crush for Veg oil, even the wild birds hardly touch them when ripe. The grey stripe is grown and sold as bird seed. I guess it's because of $100 a ton difference in price.

[bleeding green]

Give them a mix that doesn't contain any sunflower. They don't need it, it's like a lolly to them. If you do remove it from the dry seed you can then try offering it as soaked or sprouted which is much better for them. Are they breeding?
PS, I'm glad you are housing them seperately.

[Clawd]

Thanks all for the advice.

The masked laid eggs after three weeks (one pair) however two weeks into sitting there is only one egg left.

The Fischers have been around a week longer and one pair is on six eggs.

I got the birds from a bloke nearby so I’ll check with him re their diet.

Definitely separate and made sure the birds were pure bloods. I also collect orchids and do not understand the desire to hybridise. Oh well, each to their own.

Regards

Clawd

[bleeding green]

People hybridise because they don't understand the consequences to the stock in australia or they don't care. I hate it when I see crosses in pet shops. It happens all too often. Expereinced breeders and pet shops should make it well known that crossed birds are no excepted.
On the missing eggs I don't have much of a suggestion except if you haven't already make sure they have plenty of calcium.
Fischers make very good parents so hopefully from six eggs you may get a decent clutch.

[Myzomela]

The problem is MUCH WORSE in parrots.
The desire to introduce new colour mutations into different species is the reason for this.
It is illegal to deliberately hybridise native species in some states eg Victoria.
However, in New South Wales it is rife- even promoted.
The proponents clain that once they are 31/32 pure then they are considered pure- says who???
They will always contain genes from the other species and so will NEVER be pure.
The lines become a little blurred when species are very closely related- we really need extensive genetic fingerprinting to sort this out.
My real beef is not so much in the development of the new mutation, but lies with intermediate birds polluting the pure gene pool.
ie hybrids being passed off as normals- just look at the lovebirds as an example.

There is a breeder who claims to have an extensive collection of Alexandrine parrot mutations. When you look at these birds they all have small heads and body size and variable wing striping- in other words they are nothing more than ringneck hybrids. Why bother??

No wonder the authorities never take aviculture seriously- seems we are too busy breeding mutations into everything we own, or else hybridising them- hardly the stuff of conservation is it!!!

I acknowledge the right for everyone to do as they like. But we need to be very careful about also keeping pure, normal lines going.

The top breeders of mutations always have a good, healthy strain of normal birds for outcrossing. We need to ensure that we keep good records of what we breed and hopefully people we buy from do the same. The problem is when birds are sold as a group to dealers or at bird sales that this information may not be passed on- or the buyers are inexperienced and don't know what they should be asking.

So let's all of us try to take on this responsibility and at least try to ensure that we inform buyers of what exactly we are selling them.

Then we can all enjoy aviculture whichever way we chose to practice it- and maintain our integrity to boot!
I'll get off my soapbox now!!!!

[Diane]

Ive started a new topic regarding the last few posts here

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=6217