FEATURE


FEATURE


why they do it but some do. I have read the problem can be genetic but this pair I bred both their parents and grand parents and they did not pluck. I read the article by Les Rance in the May issue on page 7 where he wrote ‘Although feather plucking of babies by their parents is rarely a trait seen in Australian Kings it is worth mentioning here that if you experience this problem I have found that by removing the lid from the nest box during the day it reduces the amount of feather plucking that occurs. I suspect that this is because the adult birds do not spend


so much time in a box which allows light to enter, but I might be wrong with this assumption! It is however a trick worth utilising as badly plucked youngsters are horrible and it takes them a long time to get over this experience’. He was talking about birds breeding in aviaries but I may well experiment with this tip, I must just make sure that this pair are housed in a cage at the top of the breeding block and have a nest box with a top on it that is easily removed during the day and replaced in the evening. Also a problem I have found is when


BIRD SCENE 43 09 25


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