THE NATURAL CHOICE: Challenges With Tiffany and Tsar

Abstract

This baby's name is Lucinda. Ishe is a gorgeous female Eclectus roratus roratus who sleeps in her basket under the sleeping bag with me when nights are cold. There is no heating in the cabin here; I guess raising handfed psittacines without benefit of a brooder has its advantages after all.

Lucinda is seven weeks old today, and she represents the latest in a long line of challenges breeding Grand Eclectus. It is always harder raising these chicks singly. They seem to sleep and even to grow better with a sibling to lean on in the tub. They stay warmer, support each other's pudgy weight, even incite each other to feed with begging noise and response.

But, once again the parents, Tsar and Tiffany, succeeded in hatching and raising only one bird from a clutch of eggs-the third time since I have kept them.

Tsar and Tiffany came to me two years ago from a breeder friend who had experienced two years of their infertile egg-laying after years of prolif- ic production. It turned out to be a classic case of "breeder burnout"-the hen immersed in a dysfunctional cycle of egg laying and nest box setting, while the male feeds her faithfully, but never quite gets into breeding sync. Nosearching for a nesting tree, no scav- enging for nest food, no greenery toshred all equals no courtship, no cop-ulation, no fertile eggs.

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