What Are We Up To Now?
Preparation for the breeding season
Created June 2010
June is always busy, as the breeding season is starting soon. This means getting the nest boxes all cleaned up. We use fresh sawdust from untreated timber as a nesting material. The nest boxes are getting sprayed with Coopex and dusted with Pestene. This is for the control of cockroaches, lice and fleas. The dark warm, dry place inside the nest box is a ideal breeding ground for these pests. Prevention is always better then Cure.
Breeding cage nest boxes.
Now that the nest boxes are in order, we are always checking our breeding records to see if any pairs need to be changed. Some pairs stay together for the life if they have great breeding results. Other pairs sometimes need to be swapped to find the right compatibility together.
Some young pairs are getting to ready to be shifted out of the holding complex to our breed complex. At the moment George is extending the breeding complex and making another 36 flights on it. The flight might not all be ready before this season but he made a good start at it.
Breeding cage slope and further construction underway.
More construction on breeding aviary.
Our MoveMoving house as a parrot breederCreated June 2010One of the difficult things that we have done in aviculture is moving our whole collection of parrots. We shifted from North Queensland “The Whitsundays” down to Northern NSW. This required lots of planning and organisation. It was accomplished by my husband going ahead to the new property and making a large holding cage to have somewhere to put the parrots in once we had moved. I wrote an article with photos in the Bird keeper called “the Move”. I won’t repeat the same words, but feel free to look it up and read my story. Now a year back our hard work seems to have payed off. Now as experienced parrot breeders we have setup beautiful aviary complexes which are more organized and allow us to more easily feed and maintain their cages. All of our first mistakes have been improved on. Our last property was on a hill and our aviaries were scattered in steps against the steep hill. Also we have escaped the terrible ordeal of the cyclone “Ului” that terrorized the Whitsundays. We could of lost many birds and aviaries due to the destruction cause by the fallen trees and debris. But life as a parrot breeder is full of challenges, nothing stays the same. There is always room to improve your aviculture skills.
BackgroundWhy George Chose Alexandrine ParrotsGeorge Van der Togt has established, through long perseverance, some outstanding colour mutations in the Alexandrine parrot here in Australia. This has been a childhood dream in which he has set himself a goal and stuck with it.
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George and Ida are taking orders for Hand-Raised Alexandrine Parrots, and can lovingly freight the birds anywhere in Australia.
Phone: 0408 204 802
