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Hello~
I am looking to start up a small hobby breeding avairy of cockatiels, conures, and lineolated parakeets here in about four months and was wondering what the size requirements would be for cages for a single pair of (in each cage) sun conures, jenday conures, and pyrrhura conures. The room I'm using as the aviary is not terribly large so I can't really go with the biggest cages for them (but I wish I could of course), so I'm wondering about the minimum size requirements and I'll look for something a little larger than that. I was looking at a stackable breeding cage and each cage is 20" by 20". Someone told me that was way too small and someone else told me that it was ok. What is your opinion on that? Also, looking for the size requirements for nestboxes for the conure species I listed above. I'm not a great woodsmith so I was wondering if someone could give me info on some nestbox dealers/websites? And if anyone is wondering, I have 8 years of experience with conures and am also an experienced hand feeder. Thanks!!!!

~Amanda

Why cockatiels, conures, and lineoated parakeets? Why not start with one species, learn it inside out, then gradually and add another? Will the sounds of the suns, and jendays effect the tiels breeding cycles? Will the powder from the tiels effect the conures in a room that is not terribly large? As far as cage size, I would rather have less pairs in comfortable cages, than more pairs in small cages. 2x2 would work, but why? My pyrrhuras are in 2wide x 3tall x 4-6long flights and use nestboxes from this site http://www.nest-box.com/FlyHome.html Usually they double clutch, sometimes they triple. I like to think it is because they are comfortable, and in good physical shape (because of their enclosure). I don't know if they would have the same results in smaller cages, don't care to find out. When I began toying with breeding, and pairing birds up, the hardest thing to accept is that I cannot and will not breed large macaws where I live. I can't because I live in the city, and am already pushing my luck with amazons and mini macaws. Realize you limit/space and work with it. The www.nest-box.com/FlyHome.html will help with figuring out what size box to use. How did you gain experience hadfeeding? If you have a source for babies, ask what type of setup they have, and see what they recommend for your situation.

Thank you for your help!! I wasn't planning on starting with all three species at once actually, although I did not mention that in my post. I would like to start with conures first. I'm throwing around with what species of conures I want to start with as I have experience with both Sun Conure and GCC behavior. I do plan on starting with one species first and then working with others. You do have a point on the cockatiel dust being a factor....I had planned on getting a good HEPA filter for the room regardless of whether there'll be cockatiels in there yet or not, but I'm not for sure how much the filter would knock down the amount of feather dust. Thank you for bringing that up. As for the Linnies: I've always liked them and would love to be able to work with them in a breeding scenario. Linnie breeders are rare in my state, so I'm pretty sure I would have no problem finding good homes for them.
I have gotten my hand feeding skills over time. Before I brought my TAG home, the breeder showed me how to handfeed him in case he revereted back to wanting formula after he weaned. NOTE: I brought him home weaned. After this, I watched many, many professional hand-feeding videos just because I was interested in the subject. I then was hired by Petsmart when they still hand-fed baby parrots. After watching the horrendous way they did it (they just shoved it down into their crops, sometimes coming in from the wrong angle, and did not use proper sized syringes), I did an over-haul on it and taught the associates the RIGHT way to do it. After that, the babies were no longer scared of the syringes or feeding time. After that, I bought an 5 week old hybrid macaw and hand-fed him....he abundance weaned at 21 weeks.
Thanks for the nestbox site also!!

GCc's are great to begin with. They are not as sensitive with their breeding environment and can reproduce after a yr or so, although I prefer to not let them breed till they are at least 2yrs old. In my opinion, they are a good choice to get started with because one of the hardest things to learn in breeding is patience. These guys will satisfy the "fix" of wanting babies. Also, learning the color combos, and how they work, and working your way up to producing your own "pineapples, split to this, split to that, etc... " is fun. The bird it self, is awesome, just my opinion. No matter what birds are in my living room as pets, I believe I will always have at least 1 or 20 Gcc's as pets. J/K
I've made it a point to only breed bird I like. That way, when they decide to take a yr or so off, It doesn't bother me so much to do their chores. It sounds silly, but I've meet a few people who will buy cretin birds because that is what will sell the most. Then complain because they are not producing and costing them money.
I've never breed Linnies or tiels, so I can't say much with them. Good luck, and I'm glad you are researching.


My biggest problem is I like them all.