FEATURE
had relatively few completely clear clutches.
Others report chick losses during the latter stages of rearing. I have only experienced this once – when the parents stopped feeding a six week group of four chicks just as they left the nest and all four died. Otherwise my losses have all been within approximately 48 hours of hatching. During years one and two I
experienced a high level of this. It eventually dawned on me that the birds losing chicks had all been exposed to each other while the successful birds had not mixed with these. Sure enough, post mortem on a chick revealed a heavy bacterial load, including two types each of which would have been fatal. Given the age of the chick this had to be transmitted via the egg. This group were kept separate and prior to year 3 breeding season given a 7 day course of Baytril in their drinking water. I have not had this problem since. My gratitude is due to Mr Best (formerly of Vale Vets of Portishead in Bristol) for getting this result from what he said was the smallest PM examination he had ever performed!
Ringing
I never close ring any of my birds – in principle I do not disturb nests.
BIRD SCENE 17
With Madagascars this is particularly important since the hen broods and defends the chicks so intensively. I ring the chicks only when I remove them from the adults.
Initially I used customised aluminium split rings as with my Mountain and Sierra parakeets. Don’t do it with Madagascars! Those that don’t remove the ring manage to close it up on the leg necessitating its urgent removal. I then tried colour – coded plastic split rings (size XB) but the incidence of removal was high.
I have now solved the problem.
Avian ID at Truro kindly supplied me with anodised aluminium split rings size M “shaved” to size L. These come in a wide range of colours (mine are also sequentially numbered) and are a much heavier gauge than the rings I used previously. In three breeding seasons I have not had one removal or “closing up” of a ring.
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