Conference 7.286::pet_birds

    re: 784.0    agaporinis / love-birds
    
    The first egg is come out at 6 april, this is after the 22st day
    after they start to brood.
    I hope the rest of the eggs will come out soon.
    
    
    Johan.
                              
    

    Johan,
    
    What variety of Lovebird are you breeding?  I find that they are very
    prolific little breeders.  I had a couple of Peachface normal pairs
    that I had to remove the nest box or they would have continued to
    reproduce forever!
    
    Right now I have 2 Lutino Peachfaced hens that I am looking for mates
    for.  Once I locate them I will set them up for breeding.
    
    I was taking care of a pair of green masked lovebirds for our club
    recently and they had a clutch of chicks and reared their young
    successfully, then went back to nest and one of them started to
    eat their eggs.  I thought it was due to a lack of protein and 
    increased the protein in their diet, also increased their
    vitamin dosage.  That didn't help, so I started feeding them
    Ce'De eggfood, hoping that that would suffice, but to no avail.
    they continued to eat each and every egg they produced!  These
    birds were on a very well balanced diet, fresh veggies daily
    (corn, broccoli, spinach, carrots).
    

    Hoi,
    
    I'm breeding whit a couple of Blackhead Lovebirds or the latin name
     Agapornis Personata.
    
    At this moment they have 2 youngs, the 3th young died after several
    hours coming out the egg, 1 egg must come out last monday but didn't
    and the last one must come out today.
    
    The 2 youngs growing well.
    
    Yesterday I started to feed them CeDe egg feed, normaly I give them the
    normal food, and every morning a litle piece of brown bread, and also
    every days frech twigs cut in pieces, and dayly a frech bad so the
    hen can take dayly a bad to keep te egg at the right dampness.
    
    They are living in a cage standing on a 1.60 meter high case in the
    kitchen, the cage is 70x40x70 centimeters and a breeding block of
    25x20x20 centimeters an a hole in the left above corner of 4,5
    centimetes.
    The hen bild it completly full whit twigs and in the right under side
    she bild the breeding room.
    Its very beatiful to see how she do that, it look like this:
    
    -----------------
    |-()-------   \ |
    |         /    \|
    |         \    /|
    -----------------
    
    I think the problem off eating the eggs will comes that they maybe have
    not enough lime.
    May be you can solve it to hang a limestone/sepia (seashell) in the cage
    or use special bird sand for under in the cage.
    I hope this helps.
    
    
    Johan.
    

    RE: 784.2
    
    At this moment I've 2 young Blackhead Lovebirds / Agapornis Personatas
    the 3th young died several hours after coming out.
    The last 2 eggs where not fertilized.
    
    Johan.

    Update 784.4
    
    The two little Blackhead lovebirds are growing well.
    
    Several days ago I saw that the little once have different colours.
    The oldest one is a Blue mutation Blackhead lovebird and the youngest
    one is coloured as in the wild (green,yellow,black).
    
    When I bought the couple they were in a cage with Blue mutations.
    The couple I bought where both coloured as in the wild.
    A little difference between the Male and Female is that the Male has
     a lighter colour head ( it looks more Brown as the Agapornis Nigeris)
     as the Female (she had a normaly Blackhead).
    So I believe that the Male is out a nest of Blue mutations Blackhead
     Lovebirds.
    
    Can anyone tell me more about this Pleace ?
    Because this is the first time I'm breeding with this kind of
    Lovebirds.
    
    Thanks   Johan.
    

    If both your parents are colored as in the wild and you got a blue
    mutation, both parents are carrying the autosomal recessive gene for
    blue...it takes both parents to make a visual blue mutation.  Or...
    when they were in the flight, if another male bird is actually the
    father, he had to be "split to blue" as we say here to mean carrying
    the recessive gene.  The next time you breed your pair, you'll still
    not know for sure, because if both your parents are indeed split to
    blue, they will give you only 25% blue babies over time (either males
    or females), 25% split to blue (either males or females, and you won't
    know if they are true splits to blue until they are correctly mated
    to test this), and the rest genotypically and phenotypically green
    (carrying no recessive genes--pure "wild" color birds).  Brantermann
    and Lockerman have written a good book on lovebirds called "The World
    of Lovebirds" -- if you want more details, such as the ISBN number if
    that would help you order the book, pls. reply.  The book costs about
    $20 U.S. /Linda

Earlier in this note I mentioned a book which one of the noters asked me
to give more information on:

	The World of Lovebirds - Authors Jurgen Brockmann and Werner
        Lantermann, translated from the German language by 
	William Charlton, publisher T.F.H. Publications, Inc.,
	Copyright 1990, ISBN 0-86622-927-2, hardbound, 192 pages,
	color photo plates, indexed, about $20 U.S. dollars
	most places.

Excellent section on genetics, which you can apply to other species
besides lovebirds.  

/Linda