Chapter 3 - BREEDING AND HOUSING IN CAPTIVITY

An outdoor breeding cage for the larger Parrakeets would have to be about 20 ft. long x 6 ft. wide x 6 ft. high. For Parrots and Cockatoos the length should be from 25 to 30 feet, for Macaws a little longer. Six feet of the top and sides of these aviaries should be solid, to act as a shelter in wind and rain, and to keep their food dry. When constructing a breeding enclosure, length is the most important consideration. Plenty of wing exercise and the proper food are necessary to keep them in top breed­ing condition and in good health. Perches should be placed only at each end of the enclosure with clearance from the sides for the tail.   To compel the lazy larger Psittacines to use their wings more often, it is advisable also to build a solid 2 or 3 foot wall from the ground, all around the cage, instead of using netting in this part of the construction. Par­rots, Cockatoos and Macaws use their wings as little as pos sible in captivity, and this wall forces them to fly up or down to their food dish, rather than to crawl along the netting. By attaching 1 1/2to 2 foot sheet metal sections to the sides of the pen thru the center of which you place your perch ends, Polly has to fly to get anywhere.

Shelter	Flight                                Door/
Shelter	Flight                                    Door/
Shelter	Flight                                Door /
Shelter	FLIGHT                             Door/0'

Layout of a row of breeding pens.

The site for the enclosure should be considered before any construction is done, and this should be in a sheltered spot, out of strong winds, draughts or dampness. A south-east exposure is good, as birds like morning sun and bright quar­ters, especially in Winter. In Summer the aviary may be partly shielded from the sun's rays with vines.  Some Psittacines won't touch growing vegetation, but most will destroy it. In that case color and shade may be created around your aviaries by growing attractive vines, such as the various species of Morning Glories, Clematis,

Thunbergia, etc. In the South, Bougainvillea, Allamanda and many others are suit­able. Kudzu Vine, Dutchman's Pipe and the Ivies furnish dense shade but insignificant flowers. These vines may be trained over wire or string stretched across and fastened a foot from the cage netting to prevent their destruction by the birds.

A year-round outdoor aviary should consist of a closed dry shelter opening into a wire flight. The breeding en­closure with shelter previously described was a simple open type for use during mild weather or in the South. The di­mensions for a year-round enclosure may be the same, with the closed shelter 6 feet square. This should be constructed with tongued and grooved boards, which will give a draught-proof wall. For snug insulation, the inside walls and ceiling may have a half-inch diameter sheet of composition board, after which the whole interior should be whitewashed.

Whitewashing should be done at the beginning and end of each breeding season to keep the place spic and span, free of mites and disease. Finishing the outside depends on how much you care to spend. The cheapest method is to paint or creosote the walls and tar-paper the roof. The outside may also be entirely tar-papered or, if you wish to make a neat, attractive building, you may use the many styles, designs and colors of imitation brick or shingle siding which are available.

KEEPING OUT RATS AND MICE

If you build the solid 2 to 3 foot wall from the ground all around the outside aviary flight, your birds will be protected from cats, rats, mice and snakes above ground. However, you won't keep the enclosure free from intrusion with this wall only, as mice and rats burrow underground. It is necessary to dig a IY2 foot deep trench all around the outside flight. Y4 inch gauge wire netting tarred or painted should be placed around the flight cage base lx/2 feet into the ground. One edge of the netting should be  nailed  along the base with double pointed tacks (staples), or else embed this end in the cement flooring. A better method is to fasten the netting with laths. The other end of the netting should be bent at right angles away from the aviary and laid along the sides of the trench. The reason for bending it in this manner is that a mouse, burrowing down the side of the aviary, is discour­aged when it encounters the mesh leading away from the direction it wants to go. The specification of 1/4inch mesh is made because a very young mouse can actually go through the more commonly used 1/2inch mesh.

This has actually happened in aviaries where the baby mouse got in. It couldn't leave the same way, as its full tummy couldn't go through the % inch mesh. Many birds, even small ones, are not afraid of mice, however, their droppings are poisonous to birds and they will kill and eat nestlings. Thin galvanized or corru­gated sheet metal may also be used instead of % inch netting.

Flooring:
Another method of protection against underground bur­rowing vermin, if you have a dirt or sod flooring, is to cover the whole enclosure floor with 1/4 inch netting embedded a few inches under the soil. It will be too expensive to do this if you are building several breeding pens, and won't be neces­sary if you have the more desirable concrete flooring. The netting laid along the trench outside, should be used in either case to make your aviaries absolutely vermin-proof.

A floor of earth, even though turned over regularly, can be a breeding place for avian diseases which will wipe out your flock. The excreta of a sick bird remains in the soil. It is a fact that Turkeys are so susceptible to fowl diseases that they are raised in pens well off the ground, unless they are on an open range. Turkeys are kept well away from the hardier chicken, which should apply to cage birds also.

Concrete flooring should extend below the frost line, by being partly filled with a layer of gravel or cinders. In your locality, you may find out how much or how little you have to excavate so your cement floor won't heave or crack in cold weather. For easy cleaning and quick drying, a few drainage holes should be made around the enclosure with 1/4inch netting over them. At the spot where the holes lead into the ground, fill in a square-foot hole with stones for drainage. An occasional sprinkling of chlorinated lime powder will keep this hole free from odors and germs.

Whether you are building one breeding enclosure or sev­eral, a quick and thorough cleaning of the pens may be fa­cilitated through the following suggestions: The concrete flooring may be graded in three ways to enable water, ex­creta, etc., to flow off freely and dry quickly. It may be either slanted slightly from a raised center down to the side drainage holes, or else the floor may be raised slightly on the sides and rear, and graded to a depression in the center form­ing a groove leading to a drainage hole. Still another method would be to raise the flooring in the rear and grade it down slightly to the front, where water will run into a groove lead­ing to a drainage pit. Where a row of breeding pens are laid out, all the flooring may lead to a single groove for drainage.

Using a hose either alone or with a broom once or twice a week is sufficient to keep the above laid-out cement floors clean and quick drying. You may also sprinkle sand or saw­dust on the floor to absorb droppings.

PLANTING GREENS IN THE AVIARY

With most Psittacine Birds it is a waste of time to plant shrubbery in their aviary. Certain species of Australian Par-rakeets such as Bourke's, would never destroy plants but most of them do. Psittacines do need greens and it would be a good idea to make a two-foot square space in the sunny end of the enclosure with wooden forms before setting the con­crete floor. Plant mixed grass and grain seeds in this space, making a raised cement border around so it won't be flooded every time you hose down the floor. They will eat some of this growth, and when it's long enough and you spray it on a sunny morning, Psittacines who don't bathe in a water pan will greatly enjoy rolling in the wet grass.

INSTALLING WIRE NETTING

When building the flight sides, it is unnecessary to use the small 1/4inch mesh netting used for mouse-proofing underground. A larger mesh used may be 1/2 inch for small birds such as Loriquets, Parrotlets and small Grass Parra-keets, Starlings and Love Birds. For Hill Mynahs and larger Parrakeets one inch mesh will suffice. A very heavy gauge 2 or 3 inch mesh will hold Parrots, Cockatoos, Crows and Macaws. The regular 2x4 board may be used in framing the roof and sides as studs. The netting may be fastened to the wood framing either with staples, or a better job can be done with battens over the netting, nailed down every foot. In this latter method, the netting can be stretched better and looks better. The 2x4 studs should be placed on the corners and at about 6 foot intervals around the sides. The netting used should be galvanized. It is not worthwhile to paint netting, when you keep birds that are constantly clambering around, unless the wire is not rust-proof. Hot water, washing soda and a scrub brush used occasionally on the netting will keep it clean.

Some Psittacine Birds, especially if closely related, will have fierce fights through the wires if one strip of netting makes a wall for two cages. Although one wall between two cages is more economical in constructing a row of breeding pens, it may be to the fancier's advantage to put up a sep­arate netting wall for each pen; spaced 6 inches apart, which allows for cleaning feathers, leaves, etc., between them. I've known of my own Hill Mynahs, kept next door to a flock of Canaries, pulling off a leg and a wing from them. It was thought that somehow mice did the damage, till the Mynahs were caught in the act. The Canaries did not realize the dan­ger of hanging onto the netting.

DOORS   AND   WINDOWS

A narrow full-length door should be made between the inside shelter and the flight cage. This may be left open all the time in mild weather, and closed with the birds inside the shelter on cold nights. When open it permits the birds to fly the length of the whole enclosure.

At one corner of the outside flight, double doors should be installed for your entrance to the aviary. This is neces­sary to prevent the escape of your birds which could otherwise get by you. Instead of making a porch entrance for this purpose, space and material will be saved if you build a door at one corner. Across, at an angle inside this doorway, install an inner door. A closing spring on the outside door will further make your enclosure escape-proof. This double door section can be used as a trap for catching up your birds. (See illustration below.)

Windows may be placed on the three sides of the inside shelter. If you wish, a window may be put in the wall sep­arating the shelter from flight. Cello-Glass, Vita-Glass and ordinary glazing lights, if used, should have netting over them as the larger birds might go through. A better material in every way, made by two companies is "Plexiglass" (Roehm & Haas) and "Lucite" (duPont), obtainable in 50 inch by 20 inch sheets, and in sheets 3 feet by 4 feet—1/16 inch in di­ameter. This plastic glazing permits a greater percentage of the ultra-violet rays of the sun to penetrate. The 1/16 inch thickness is sufficient to hold your birds, as wire netting over it is not required. This plastic has strong resiliency, and a bird will bounce back when flying against it, with less chance of having a broken neck than when flying against glass.

Layout of a breeding or flight enclosure.

NESTS

Hollow logs or large barrels make the most satisfactory nests for the larger Psittacines. They may be hung upright or horizontally. Some birds prefer them to be hung in the open flight, while others prefer the inside shelter.   In the upright position, the eggs are less likely to roll around and get broken and chilled. If a long hollow log is used, the end may be embedded in the aviary floor. When breeding the larger Par-rakeets, it is better that pairs of a related species are not kept close together. Tame birds are not the best breeders; the wild ones breed the best.

Among Psittacine Birds signs of breeding condition ap­pear when one or both birds become more active than usual, are attentive to each other, and fly back and forth a great deal in the aviary. The cock will also be seen feeding the hen with food regurgitated from his crop. Attempts to breed birds in cold winter weather should not be made, as the hens are liable to egg-binding.

HOUSING

Parrots, Macaws and Cockatoos, may be tethered to stands, or confined in large enough cages or outdoor aviaries. Stands should have wooden perches, the ends of which should have metal caps to protect them from the bird's gnawing. A block of wood or a piece of branch may be tied near the perch, as these birds all like to whittle away on something. This exercises their constantly growing bills, trimming them; and helps to prevent feather-picking.

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