FEATURE ARTICLE BY: GREG SHAW


Infertility in parrots and cockatoos is something we all have experienced at one time or another in our aviaries. It always seems to happen with that special pair of very expensive birds that we have so wished would breed for the last couple of years. The eggs are laid we wait with anticipation and excitement then we candle them to check that they are fertile and then realize the bad news, that they are not. Disappointment is something none of us enjoy dealing with infertile eggs are just par for the course people say. But surely we should be questioning why we have a clutch of infertile eggs?


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very pair of birds of a particular species is unique to some extent. Just because several pairs find a particular situation acceptable does not mean that every new pair will also react in the same way. We all need to take the trouble and know our birds, watch, try and understand what makes them happy and what upsets them. Nine times out of ten, unhappy birds don’t lay fertile eggs. In the wild most birds are opportunistic omnivores they eat almost anything available. This type of natural diet is impossible to replicate in captivity although many aviculturalists try their best


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