Recent Inquiry. Some emails result from Rosie Bird Videos, and possibly not from this blog.
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| Rosy Bourke hen and her chicks. |
QUESTION:
Good morning,
Please can you answer a few questions for me? I have recently acquired a pair of Rosie's and have not been able to get more info on them:
What seed do the eat? They don't seem to eat the parakeet seed but are in the budgie seed.
What supplement, veggies or fruit can they have?
Can they be put together in a cage with show budgies?
Do they have to be separated from other birds to be able to breed?
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| Grit, oyster shell, white mineral block, cuttlebone, nestling food and brown rabbit circular salt block . |
ANSWER:
Bourkes primarily eat budgie seed, but can eat finch seed and some things in cockatiel seed. They like vegetables. I give mine cooked corn, peas, green beans and carrots. Fresh broccoli and/or kale are both very good. Mine won't eat fruit ... a few will try apple, but not fond of it. They should always have at least cuttlebone available. Other good things are mineral block, oyster shell and rabbit salt blocks (for the vitamin D in them).
When breeding I give mine egg food (boiled egg, including shell and bread crumbs blended together).
Bourkes can be housed with other birds in an aviary of adequate size. Larger birds may harass them, however. If you have a mated pair, the males will usually chase one another, and hens will also chase the other hen (an exception might be siblings, but more often than not, they will still be aggressive to the competition). Housed in an aviary, always provide more nest boxes than you have pairs. A budgie or cockatiel box is fine. In a smaller cage, it's okay to put young birds together until mature during breeding season. Then there may be problems if both sexes are present. I've had no trouble housing just hens, or just males together. Mix the sexes, however, and there will be problems when there's plenty of daylight (or artificial light) to simulate breeding season.
Please go to my website and enter "breeding" into the Search box. Many early posts will come up on this topic. There's even one on egg food. Here is a link to one of them:
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| Lutino Bourke hen. |
Peace and Blessings!