FEATURE
Many factors are constantly regulated and the room is kept as sterile as possible, as pathogens can be a very serious danger to the birds. The temperature as well as daylight are artificially controlled, the water used is specially filtered and a sprinkling system especially adapted to the needs of the hummingbirds regulates the air humidity.
successful copulation improves with age, eventually they will get it right. In this case removing the nest box for a couple of weeks and letting the pair rest then placing the nest box back in the aviary and letting them try again is all that it takes.
Sick and unhealthy birds usually
don’t breed and if they do the chances of infertility are usually high. Internal Papilloma Disease causes wart-like protrusions from the vent area of both male and female birds, often resulting in infertility. In severe cases, an avian veterinarian can burn off and remove these warts, allowing the eggs to be fertilized. This disease may still be carried by the parent birds and the pair should not be allowed to hatch and feed their young. Instead eggs removed from these pairs can be given to foster parents or incubated. Alternatively the female may have blocked tubes, ovulation problems, or a hormonal imbalance. The male can have a low sperm count or immature sperm incapable of fertilization. Marginal illness in either the male
or the female can be responsible for infertility. If the female has laid several clutches of infertile eggs in succession, she is probably well. The male should therefore be examined by an avian veterinarian to eliminate illness as the cause of the problem.
Some mature breeding pairs fail to produce fertile eggs, clutch after clutch, year after year. Often when this happens we start playing musical parrots and start swapping the cock birds around and around. This seems to be a trend in South African aviculture but it can also be a quick-fix made out of desperation which does not always bear fruit. It may result in some success but it is not the best way of solving the problem. Are we doing a clever thing by splitting up well bonded pairs particularly if the split up pair can still see and hear one another from another aviary? Often the birds sit and scream across to their mate showing no interest in the replacement partner. Although there are a few exceptions, parrots and cockatoos are monogamous, taking a long time to get
BIRD SCENE 19
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