Saud's Aviary

Bird keeping can be more rewarding with record keeping. Record keeping for bird keepers is maintaining information about each bird, each pair, each clutch & each egg. Furthermore it's about recording your actions related to bird set up, diet, medication etc and the results they produce. Getting Started A few things that you need to get started The first thing you need is the ability to uniquely identify each bird. You must be able to identify every bird listed in your records. If you have only a few birds and their physical appearance makes it straight forward to identify them then you need not worry about this. However, if you have dozens of birds that closely resemble each other you may need a way to positively identify each bird. This process is made easy through the use of leg bands or microchips. A leg band assigns a unique number to a bird which can be used to identify that bird. Microchips may also be embedded in larger species which can be read by an electroni...

This post relates to my Alexandrine Mutations Project. If you are new to my blog you should start reading about this project  here . A quick summary,  I bred two hybrid males split to ino and blue and a hybrid female split to blue in April 2012 from a pairing of a pure Alexandrine male to an Albino Ringneck hen. The two G1 male birds were setup for breeding this season and paired to two pure Alexandrine hens.  After some initial skirmishes, both pairs bonded and started  visiting the box .  Pair 1 The hen in this pair is a 2 year old,  former pet and is semi-tame. She started spending a lot of time in the box during February 2014. She would assume a mating position on the cage floor when I visited her during feeding time. The male would attempt to mount her but once on the back he didn't really know what to do next. I found a broken soft shelled egg on the cage floor on Feb 28th. I immediately started her on liquid calcium but found another soft shelled...

The G1 males are now nearing 21 months of age. Both have been paired to adult normal Alexandrine hens for the last few months.  Pairs have nicely bonded. Hens are visiting the box but no eggs yet. Males are very vocal and excited. Here are some fresh pics taken on 15/12/2013. Pair1 Pair 2 Male 1 Male 1 Male 1 Male 2 Male 2

The G1 males have almost completed their annual moult. The wing patches have improved a lot and are now clearly visible though they are still a little broken in appearance and not as bright as a pure Alexandrine. Neck rings are also clearly visible and look very similar to the Alexandrine neck ring rather than that of a ringneck. The length of the bird is also very good approaching that of a pure normal alexandrine. Both males are split to ino and split to blue. I have noticed that their tails have a bluish tinge on the primary tail feather when viewed from behind. My pure alexandrines show primary tail feathers that are yellow and not blue. Is the blue tinge in the tail due to the split blue in the birds? I am not sure but it would be interesting and also useful to explore this possibility. I will be pairing these males to pure Alex hens soon. Half the chicks from this pairing will be split blue. The tail color might offer a clue to which chicks are split blue. Obviously, the pr...

This post relates to my Alexandrine Mutations Project. If you are new to my blog you should start reading about this project  here . The G1 chicks are now almost 13 months old. The head and body size is distinctly bigger than that of a ringneck. The shoulder patches are still quite faint. The birds have not undergone the annual moult yet. Perhaps the patches may improve after the moult is completed. An important question was whether the birds would mature in 2 years like ringnecks or 3 like the alexandrines. During the season, I observed a female chick crouching in the mating position and a male displaying to her. This suggestes that the birds may be ready for breeding next season. Here are a few fresh pic of the birds.

Nov 03, 2012 One of my breeding objectives this year was to breed some well marked pieds. I have an own bred hen who was one of the first chicks I bred from a pied pair I obtained from Lahore in 2009. She is very well marked and has previously been bred with split pieds and not so well marked birds. She is a good experienced breeder but has not produced any chick with a pattern as good as her own. The cock The hen The male I chose for her this year is a bird I purchased from the Liaquatabad market in July 2011. He was young at the time of purchase. He has an almost equally good pattern as the hen. Last year he bred well with an experienced hen who is the mother of the hen mentioned above. These two birds were paired up on 17/09/2012. Since both birds were experienced good breeders, I was expecting them to get down to business within 2 weeks. They showed some initial signs of bonding but then the male lost interest. Pairs around them started to lay but they seemed un...

First of all you need to pick the right cage. Ringnecks require a minimum cage size of 24in x 24in x 48in. The front of the cage should be 24x24 with feeding stations. The depth should be 48inches with the nest box installed outside at the back of the cage. There should be a perch about 1.5-2in in diameter 6-8in from the back wall and just below the opening to the nest box. The logic behind such a setup is that the nest box should be farthest from human approach during feeding times. Birds feels secure in such an environment and are more likely to breed. The illustration below shows this setup. The mesh used for the cage should be rectangular weld mesh and not expanded metal mesh as shown in the picture. The nest box should be filled with white pine shavings 3in deep. The cage should be protected from direct wind and prolonged exposure to sun. While sunlight is great for birds, a shaded area in the cage should always be available to them. Once you have the setup in place, you ...