Breeders in Europe Unfortunately the situation with Brotogeris in the UK is they are virtually non-existent. The same is true in Europe and the US. Apparently before the import ban some Brotos were quite common which must be why they were always in my local dealer’s flights. It’s strange that in the US Plain Parakeets are virtually non-existent and Cobalts are rare; it’s a complete reversal on these two species’ availability in Europe. I was gutted I could not locate any here in the UK so I turned my attentions towards Pionus and from there a big love and respect has grown towards these awesome parrots which I now breed as well. But back to the Brotos… I was living in Germany for a while and, when looking through a popular bird selling site from the Netherlands, I saw an advert for Brotogeris cyanoptera or Cobalt Winged Parakeets. I messaged the seller immediately and found out these were four siblings, all male and hand reared. I knew that Brotos make amazing pets from US articles online and my own little ‘live’ experience. I consider myself half pet owner and half breeder so this was perfect; I always like to have hand reared birds as I like the interaction with the birds. I have heard some breeders don’t like HR birds for breeding but my experiences have been nothing but positive.


44 BIRD SCENE


I quickly found out from breeders that Cobalt and Plain Parakeets are the only Brotogeris available freely. Four other species are available but very rarely and also for much higher prices. I don’t know of any breeders in the UK but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I arranged with the Belgian breeder to save one for me while I planned a trip, and as luck had it a few days later another advert appeared again from Belgium with many young for sale. I found out this breeder was breeding with five pairs of Cobalts so there were plenty on offer from him as he has much success in breeding them every year. I asked for three birds, one male and two females to make myself two pairs with my HR male. When the trip came around it was


fascinating to see how the Belgians were keeping their birds. I picked up the three first; they were the parent reared so were a little nervous. This breeder could not speak any English and was not internet savvy so his friend who had lived and worked in England when he was younger translated all. Then I set off to collect my HR male. This breeder had only one pair of Cobalts but many other parrots of different species. I’m not sure why he chose to HR these birds as it didn’t seem his normal practice but it could be that the parents stopped feeding the babies or some other parent issue as this happened to me on my first brood I bred.


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