Abstract
I am an aviculturist first because I
enjoy birds. Getting them to breed is
also very fulfulling, and I hope to
help aviculture as a whole by working
with and supporting endangered
species. Space, feed, housing, equipment,
time and the birds themselves
are expensive, especially the rare or
endangered ones! Money is one of
the controlling factors in the kind
and number of birds we can keep. A
high percentage of aviculturists have
to make the birds pay for themselves
as they cannot take that amount of
money from the family budget. Purchasing
birds from a family with a
history of high productivity can
make the difference between success
and failure.
Working with a nonproducing pair
of birds for three or four years often
leads to discouragement and giving
up, especially when an avicultural
friend has a pair of the same kind producing
in one or two years. I feel that
there are two, maybe three things to
look for when purchasing birds, from
the standpoint of productivity dealt
with in this article. 1) The tendency
to breed at a young age. 2) To have
multiple clutches. 3) Clutch size,
though I have found that often the
last egg or two may be infertile, also
if the last egg hatches too far behind
the first, the baby may not get
enough food and be small or die. It is
my belief that these things are hereditary.