Greencheeks

[ed]

I have a pair of greencheeks who are jumping in and out of nest boxes and laid a batch of eggs during mid winter in one nest box and appear to have given up on the first lot , now they are starting another batch of eggs in a second nest box.

When is the breeding season of the greencheek? Is it normal for them to lay in Jun-july?

[C.F.Admin]

Hi ed
Green cheeks will go down any time from now till about April you must have the right conditions for them.

I hope this helps

cheers

[ed]

What do you consider as "Right Conditions"?

Pls comment on

Cage- size, positioning, what direction it faces, etc
Next box -size, positioning, etc
Food- What foods do u give 'em, how often?
Who shares the aviary/cage?
Age

Any other factors?

The first year I had these greencheeks, nothing happened, this would be the second year, I'm getting eggs but they don't seem too keen on incubating them, If this lot gets abandoned than I'm going to build one op those incubators on the DIY section of the website. (but I'm not keen on feeding the babies every hour)

[C.F.Admin]

Hi Ed
when I say you must have the right conditions your cage size must suite the pair you must be feeding them the right foods.
Do you feed A small parrot seed ?

The cage size can be a 900 wide 1.8 high and 1.8 long.
I would face the aviary in a northly position so the birds can get the morning and arfternoon sun.
The recommended nest box or log size is 0.8 m long with a 20cm internal diameter and a 7cm entrance hole placed in a corner in the sheltered part of the cage.
Do not face the entrance hole of the box or log towards the front of the cage as conures do like there privacy it is best to face the entrance hole towards on of the sides.

You can give your conures and mix of fruit and veggies diced up and mixed together and placed in the cage every second day.

I would not have any other birds in with green cheek conures as they can be very aggressive.

There could be a few reasons your GC are not incubating there eggs
1) they may be young birds as some conures take up to 2 years before they do breed
2) Do you have another box for the GC to sleep in ? as conures sleep in a nest box at night.
3) I hope this is not in youe case but have you had the pair DNA sexed ? you may have 2 hen birds.

[ed]

Thx Fred,

My Conures were sold to me as a breeding pair but I doubt if they have ever bred before, I'm thinking they are a young pair which are only just maturing and what I'm seeing is their first feeble inexperienced attempts at starting a family.

They are sharing with Gouldians. The aviary is an 80cm wide alley way behind the garage at the height of the fence (so looking from the neighbers who are on lower ground they don't even suspect that there is a bird cage next door, Length woiuld be 4 meters)

All the nest boxes are at the far end but last week I built a shelf in the middle and placed 2 parrot nest boxes there, The intention is to remove the parrot boxes from the far end and force them to use the middle of the aviary. But right now I have these 2 next boxes at the far end full of eggs so I need to be sure she won't incubate them B4 removing those nest boxes.

The Gouldian nest boxes will all stay at the far end, I'm hoping this way I can beed both Goudians and Greencheeks in the same aviary.

[C.F.Admin]

ed
I would not have gouldians in with green cheeks
they might seem to get along at the moment but you may find all sorts of problems when there are young ones as the green cheeks will kill the young gouldians.

I find green cheeks to agressive to be housed with finches.

[ed]

Thx for the warning mate,

At the moment I have all the finch nest boxes turned facing the wall. The greencheek nest boxes have been relocated towards the front of the aviary. It's a long 4 meter aviary built in the alleyway behind the garage.

I might see if I can screen off the finch area with bars wide enough only for finches the get thru.

[C.F.Admin]

I think that might be worth a try
please keep us posted with just how they get on ed