upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

My BH Caique broke my GCC's leg. The BH Caique usually loves other birds. The GCC was a baby, still being handfed. Caiques have been known to kill their own mates. Please do not risk injuring a GCC by putting it with a Caique. Like Kate said, they are far too rough to be trusted with other birds.

I also have a rescued WB caique and sun conure who shared a cage with their previous owner. As hormones surge, the caique gets little mean spurts and would chase the sun conure around the cage. I had to seperate them and put them in their own cages. They are still very best buddies and will sit on me and preen each other. But as they get sexually mature things change asnd many times they have little mood swings just like us adults.

I would definitely be very careful when they are together if you have one of each. Of course, that is true with any birds.

I heard the reason that some white Bellied Caiques have black or gray colored feet is because they are not "Pure" anymore, because they have been crossed with Black Headed Caiques. And a "true/pure" white bellied should have tan/white feet like a cinnamon GG does. Is this True?
I personally don't think BH and WB should be crossed. Since we are no longer aloud to bring in birds outside the U.S.... if we keep crossing them soon "pure" ones will be very difficult to find. What do you guys think? Have any thoughts?

"The only published report is for a single chick resulting from the very first breeding of caiques in captivity. At a time when caiques were nearly unobtainable in England, Lady Poltimore (1930) paired a pallid male (M. m. pallida) with a white-bellied female (P. l. Leucogaster). This pair hatched four chicks of which only one survived. This chick developed plumage the same as the male parent’s except its thighs were green and it had a more salmon color on the back of its neck. In private conversations with persons breeding mixed pairs, the green-thigh trait also seems to be genetically dominant when a green thigh is crossed with a yellow-thigh. Unfortunately, all these reports are for young birds, and we do not know what coloration changes occur as they age. I suspect that many more interbreeding has occurred, but because of the virulence of the avicultural community against hybridization, the coloration of the chicks has gone unreported." -This is from the Caique Manual.
I have never heard of the foot thing.

That's very interesting. However, look at all the pictures of white bellied caiques on all the web sites out there. Some do have white feet and others black. It doesn't seem to matter if they are six months old or six years old. They still have feet ether black or white. However, I've never seen a Black Headed Caique with white feet ???? Its a mystery!!!

Ok, I think I got it. The Green thighed white bellied Caiques have light feet, the other two have darker feet (light grey to dark grey).

In answer to your question, someone once bred a white bellied to a black capped caique. They ended up with chicks that looked like a mixture of the parents... however some looked more like dad while others looked more like mom. I don't know WHAT they thought they were breeding because they wanted to know what chicks they should pair up with new blood to make their offspring (thus 3rd generation chicks) appear more like one or the other of white bellied or black capped.

I think what they did not realise is that they allowed for hybridization to occur between two different species within one genus to occur, NOT a "breed" or "mutation" within one species (such as the various colors of budgies, or that all dogs are one species thus it's not called hybridization when you breed two different dogs together... you create mutts... which in turn were created from standardized mutts which were then classified as 'purebreds', if you think about it).

As far as the foot thing, well I couldn't tell you! It may be hard to tell a hybrid from a pure if they've got very little blood of the other species within them... and when breeding two different species together, there is something like 1/3 of a chance (probably less) that you'll get a chick that appears like one of the parents... such as some blue and golds, you can tell they are hybrids when they appear a little more green than they should, or the fact that they've got a bit of horn coloration on their beak... maybe their golden breast is a little more orange than yellow. Such as this catalina...



I've actually seen a hybrid B&G (in photos) that was sold as a B&G however I think one parent was a greenwing, thus it was a harlequin? (could be mistaken on what other parent was). However,the yellow coloring was nearly identical (if not identical) to that of a B&G, however the bird was a little greener around the body than it should have been and it had a bit of horn coloring. So in short, you may never really know if a bird is a hybrid if it appears like a normal.... and in some cases, hybridizations are done in order to create mutations in some species (that I've heard of... such as some eye-ring lovebird mutations and alexandrian parrots).

brimonster wrote:Ok, I think I got it. The Green thighed white bellied Caiques have light feet, the other two have darker feet (light grey to dark grey).

What I meant was the Green thighed subspecies has pink feet while the other 2 White Bellied Caique subspecies have dark colored feet. Both subspecies of Black Headed have dark feet.

If anyone ever finds out the awnser let me know. I own a pair of sun conures that could be hybreds, but then maybe not? They are being called Red Factors. Some people tell me they are a cross between Suns and Jendays, while others say they are a redder mutation of suns. The big people have been debating over whether to classify them as a sun mutation, a new type of Artinga, or a hybred. Whatever they are, they are BEAUTIFUL! I've never seen such pretty sun conures with such great dispositions. They don't look like the pictures I've seen of Sundays. They are probebly my most favorite pair of birds I own. I don't know how you put pictures up on here or I would...but you can see them on my web site if you go to www.SoaringWingsAviary.com. There is a picture of them on my Articals page.
I get to pick up my very first caiques "ever" tonight at the airport, and can hardly wait to see them. They have White feet I'm told (LOL). They are a very tame, six year old, proven pair that have very orange heads. Wish me luck!

The white bellied Pair I'm getting tonight have white feet, yet thier thighs are yellow not green. Does this mean somthing? I'd like to write an artical on this subject for my web site. It's so interesting.

The normal white bellied caiques that are found for sale have yellow thighs... it's very rare actually to find the green thied subspecies.

Yellow thighed


Green thighed


However, looking at the Lexicon of Parrots I can't even find a "green thighed caique"... so this is actually quite interesting since you can't get green thighes from yellow thighed birds.

As for red factor suns, they are more than likely just a mutation. It IS possible that they are hybrids but without konwing their family history there is no way to know for sure... especially since hybrid sun/jendays can appear so much like one or the other. On one hand we have red factor suns (could be just like red factor african greys) and on the other we DO have some VERY yellow suns (not as easy to find but there out there).

There's only ever been 4 different yellow conure species (discluding the golden conure) with similar appearances... they include the sun conure, the jenday conure, the carolina conure (and subspecies) - now extinct, and the sulphur breasted conure.

So the red factor suns are either mutations or hybrids...

P. l. leucogaster is the Green Thighed. For some reason the Lexicon of Parrots does not say this, but that it the subspecies with green thighs.

I totally know that I need to be responsible for a bird. I don't want to bring home a bird(like a caique) and find out it is not the right bird for me, that's why I'm asking people and posting on this forum and i don't have a bird yet. I do like caiques but i feel I need to stick with a little less, well what's the word, energy in a bird. Before I try to own a bird like a caique, I need some experience. I'm sorry for not posting. I was on a field trip for six days then got stuck at a hotle/airport for the seventh. I am looking into Grey cheek parakeets, i think that's what their called.

Grey cheek parakeets are not very common... you'd have better luck looking for a canary wing, and even at that they are still hard to find. You may want to go with something a little more 'common' so to speak.

Well, I got my 6 year old pair of White Bellied Caiques. They are not very friendly and now they hate me because I clipped their toe nails and beaks. I felt bad doing it, but several of their toe nail were so long they had curled around to form a complete circle and one nail on the female was forming a second circle. The male’s beak was an inch away from his neck. He had to eat with the side of his beak to get food. Poor birds! When I put them in there new cage they kept rubbing there beaks all over everything, especially the concrete perch I put in there cage.
So now they hate me! But I’m not sorry I did it! I just wish they could understand I was helping them. Every time I put my hand in the cage to give them fresh fruit and veggies and to change the water, the female eyes dilates, she puffs up, and goes after my hand like a Green Cheek when it's on eggs. Bit me good twice too…. and the second time I was warring heavy leather gloves. She bit almost right through them. You guys are right, not even my sun conures bite that hard. Caiques are very strong, well built birds. I’m hopping they will forget what I did to them once they have had time to get comfortable with their new surroundings. The female always wants out of her cage and Whistle a couple different things and says “Pretty bird” all the time. The male keeps saying something too, but I can’t understand the words. Any suggestions on how to make friends? I've tried just sitting next to there cage and talking and singing to them while feeding them bits of fresh bannana. The male will take it out of my hand, but the female is only interested in eating the flesh off my hand.