SEXING, MATING AND SHARING CAGES WITH OTHERS...

The year 2018 was full of health issues for my husband and me. Although recovering from surgery, I’ve answered questions sent to rosie.birds@gmail.com. Haven’t shared them on this website and should have. Here is a recent inquiry about Bourke Parakeets and my response.  Blessings all!

------------------------------

QUESTION

 I understand that Bourke's can be difficult to determine gender until they molt (I would assume most especially the Lutinos and rosies).  That being said, will two males or two females get along well?  What if one baby is a male and the other a female...will they copulate later if there is no nest box for them? –Dana

ON MATING:

 Once sexually mature, a male and female of any variety will want to mate when conditions are right for them, even if they’re brother and sister, or there is an age difference. We had a pair that bickered with each other all the time, yet still produced offspring. Once their mates were switched the bickering stopped. They didn’t like each other, but still mated. With new mates they were both happier.

 It’s long days that stimulate egg laying in all hens, and many will lay even when no male is present. The presence of a nest box helps stimulate egg laying, but isn’t always a requirement for an eager hen.  Eggs, of course, will be infertile. Chicken houses use artificial lighting to stimulate egg laying, and we do the same in our homes if lights are left on in a bird’s room into the evening or early in the morning. By extending “daylight” when normally it would be dark, hens react.

With Bourkes the male typically investigates a nesting area to be sure it is safe for the hen. Some Bourke hens ask to mate even when there is no nest box available, but most males won’t mate until there’s a safe place for her to lay her eggs. That is usual behavior in the majority of Bourke pairs, but occasionally may differ in some pairs.

We have one pair that are mating right now, but she’s not laying eggs. In another month or so they will get a nest box. I’ve tried to limit the number of hours of light they are exposed to and I believe that’s why she’s not laying yet. The fact that they are mating anyway is very unusual for birds. They are also a very young pair.

SAME SEXES IN A CAGE TOGETHER:

Putting birds together while young is the best option. Youngsters always accept one another.

That said, usually Bourkes get along well with other Bourkes and other varieties of small birds. However, placing a mature bird in with another mature bird needs to be done slowly by introducing them first.  One might decide to protect his or her home from the stranger. It’s wise to put their cages beside one another, but not put the birds together in the same cage yet. Give them several days or longer to get acquainted.

Chasing occurs most often during mating season when there is competition between birds. Hens will chase other hens away and males will chase other males. If there are only two of the same sex and none of the opposite sex in their cage, chasing isn’t likely to happen. In fact, Bourkes are happier if they are not alone in a cage. A companion, even of the same sex, is appreciated.

We kept a male Bourke and a male Linnie together. Both were tame and they became good friends.

SEXUAL IDENTIFICATION:

This is covered elsewhere on the blog. If you enter Sexing in the Search Box, it will find other posts. Briefly, Normal (wild-colored) brown Bourkes are easiest to identify once mature. Males have a tiny line of blue feathers on their brow above the cere (nostrils). Hens don’t have this, neither do very young birds.

Bourkes of every other color can be DNA’d by a reputable veterinary laboratory that does Avian DNA testing. Often Rosy hens will have darker faces than the males do, but this is open to a wide variation and unreliable. Or, sometimes the sex of the parent birds gives a clue to the likely sex of the offspring. This is not full proof either, but if the parents are two different colors from one another, it helps. Most baby Bourkes become the color of the sex of their opposite parent. In other words, a Rosy male is likely to produce Rosy hens. Likewise, if the mother is a Normal, she is likely to produce Normal sons. Again, this is not 100% accurate. Grandparents and other ancestors play a role too. Experience with past clutches verifies how well this works with a certain pair or birds.

Other than that, we must depend upon the behavior of the Bourkes to tell us their sex. Males will often do a “strut” by standing tall with shoulders back and wings slightly flared open at the shoulders. This is most often done toward other males. Hens will sometimes squat down, chests forward and tails up in the air, cheeping. However, I’ve seen mature, mated males do this in front of their hens as if to tell them what they want them to do. A few people claim you can tell a Bourke's sex by how it stands on the perch and will describe differences in how a male vs. female stands. I believe it's nonsense.

In all feathered animals the sex of the offspring is determined by the hen, unlike in humans where the father determines a baby’s sex. There is more on this in other posts as well.

Don’t fail to get a copy of my book on Small Exotic Birds. Below is a link to it on Amazon in the USA. It is also available from other booksellers in the USA, or from Amazon in the UK, and available from Amazon.com in most other countries.

CLICK OR TAP:   Rosie Bird's Guide to Small Exotic Birds

Peace and Blessings.

Reader Question on Naming Bourke Colors and More

QUESTION:

Hello Gail,  Last week, I acquired a pair of Bourke's.  The male is a dark-eyed Rosey, and I believe the female is a red-eyed lutino.  I've attached a picture of them.  What would be the correct terms for their mutations? 

They had two tiny fuzzy little dark-eyed chicks when I got them on the 26th of this month (picture taken today is attached).  I am assuming they hatched on the 24th and the 26th.  With my other parrots, their eggs tend to hatch two days apart.  Is it the same with Bourke's?  There were several other eggs, but some were not fertile, two were no longer viable, and I'm not sure about the other one.  I don't know if it's a DIS or not at this point, so I'm just going to leave it alone.

The father is doing a great job of feeding the mother millet, a safflower seed blend, pellets, and freshly-chopped veggies.  The mom comes out occasionally, but is in the box probably 90% of the time. 

I've raised parrots (green-cheek conures, parakeets, English budgies, parrotlets, and cockatiels) and even doves for years, handfeeding all but the doves.  However, as I mentioned above, I'm totally new to Bourke's, and I want to become educated on them.

Though I've raised parrots for years, I'm not at all good with genetics or being able to keep mutation names straight.

Will you please explain to me the difference between lutino and rubino?  I understand a rubino to be a cross between a rosey and a lutino.  And I understand that a rosey is another word or opaline.  Is that correct?  But what are the differences in appearance? 

What exactly makes a fallow a fallow?  Can you have a dark-eyed lutino or rubino, or are the eyes always red?  Can a rosey have red eyes, or will they always have dark eyes?  Can any of the offspring between my pair be a normal Bourke's, or will they definitely be rosey or lutino or maybe even rubino? 

I saw in a video of yours that you band on approximately Day 9 (or when their little eyes open).  With all of my birds, I tend to band on Day 8, but 9 works for me if you think that's best.  I've read elsewhere that the English budgie/parrotlet/parakeet band is appropriate.  Do you agree?  I just so happen to have this size as I've raised may of those chicks.  Thank you in advance for sharing your expertise!  - Dana

Dana's mated pair.

Dana's Lutino and clutch.

ANSWER: 

Hello Dana, 

Wow so many questions, all good ones though. All Lutinos or Rubinos have red eyes. All fallows have red eyes. To be fallow, a Bourke will have gray edged wings instead of black, and red eyes. Gray can be very dark or very light. Bourkes that are fallow can be any shade of rose (even dark rose), or any shade of pink, but will always have lighter wing edges and red eyes if they are fallow.

Lutino and Rubino are really the same except that to be named Rubino, a Bourke must have rose or pink all the way down its back to the beginning of its tail. Like the bird in your picture, a Lutino can have some pink on its back, but it doesn't reach to the tail. Instead part of the back or rump is yellow. Some Lutinos are all yellow from back of their head to their tail, others like yours have more pink.  

A Rosy (my preference for spelling, although maybe I'm being out-numbered by Canada and Europe who write Rosey with an "e") ... A Rosy Bourke always has dark eyes, otherwise it would be a fallow. A Rosy Bourke always has dark-edged wings. 

The color of your babies could be normal if the male has a normal parent or grandparent. Odds are better that they will be Rosies. Note that normal babies in the nest develop dark feet, whereas a Rosy will have light colored feet. Occasionally, a Rosy will have feet that are not pink, but slightly between the dark color of a normal and a Rosy. Those, I believe, are Rosies that are split to normal. 

Bourkes with dark eyes, cannot be Lutino. However, your hen could produce Lutino males. She can only carry the gene for her own color. She decides the sex off all the offspring, as you may know from raising other birds. Birds are different in this way from mammals. In birds, it is the female that determines the sex, not the male. Your male, however, could possibly be split to another color beside his own. Only male Bourkes can be split for another color. If you know the color of his parents and grandparents, that helps... 

With bands, you can use either Budgie or English Budgies sizes. I have only used the smaller Budgie sized bands although the site I get them from (L&M Bird Bands in San Bernardino, CA), says that English Budgie bands work too. My Linnies used Parrotlet or Lovebird sized bands, and those would not have worked for my Bourkes. Although I band at 8 or 9 days, I'd keep checking your babies. That timing works best for clutches of four, five or six. When there is only one or two babies, they grow faster as they get fed more, and might need to be banded earlier. :-)

I highly recommend a copy of my newly published, "Rosie Bird's Guide to Small Exotic Birds."  In that book I tried to answer most of the questions I frequently get. It also has a chapter on egg binding and what to do in an emergency. There is also a chapter devoted exclusively to Bourkes, my favorites.

Here is a link to it on Amazon in the USA, but it is also available from Barnes & Noble and other booksellers, as well as Amazon in most other countries. Please do a review ... I will greatly appreciate it. Thanks!    

Rosie Bird's Guide to Small Exotic Birds by Gail A. Lewis

Peace & Blessings,

Gail

www.amazon.com/dp/198676348X/

Question on Why Eggs Don't Hatch...



Using a book light to candle eggs.
Checking to see if they're fertile or not.

We've covered this topic before, but it's worth addressing again. The question below arrived in email today, and is copied here just as it was written.

 

"Hi There, I have a pair of bourse hen lays eggs try to hatch but no babies come out this is her second clutches. Please let me know the reason and its remedy. Thank you"

 

Our Answer:

 

Hello Jenny, Are you sure you have a male and a female Bourke? It takes two. Sometimes two hens might act like a pair, but they won't have fertile eggs. Or, sometimes a young pair fail to mate successfully. The hen must stand very still, and the male must balance adequately on her back. He carefully bends his his tail under her for their vents to make contact in order to be successful. Some males have to expand their wings for balance, so potential parent birds should not have their wings clipped. 

 

If you have birds of each sex for sure, then maybe with more practice they will eventually succeed. If you are certain the eggs were fertile, but still did not hatch, perhaps they got cold. Or, maybe the hen doesn't have water she can bathe in. Hens have to be able to adjust the nest's humidity, especially if the weather is hot and dry. A place to bathe in is important, but do NOT spray or mist a hen yourself. Let her decide how much humidity is necessary.

 

Less likely is that the babies inside the eggs have some genetic defect, but that is only likely to happen with one bird, not all of them. 

 

Those are some of the most likely possibilities. If you have two birds of the opposite sex, and the male is feeding the female, then eventually they will probably succeed at mating. Meanwhile, don't remove infertile eggs until the hen actually abandons them herself. Hens learn from the fact that their eggs didn't hatch, and are more likely to have fertile eggs in the future. Removing them yourself is not wise. Eggs are due to hatch in 18 to 25 days, but only after they've been warmed by brooding. If she's frightened off the nest too soon, they could get cold and not hatch. She should be allowed to abandon them herself, usually after 25 days for a Bourke hen.  Good luck.

 

 

CLICK HERE and Link to the Book with all the Answers! Smiles.

 

 

Our experienced mother hen, a Rosy Bourke, named Rosie.

Jewel, a Splendid hen.





Male Bourke, Sunset, a blue-edged Cream and his mate,
Starfire, a Lutino Bourke hen. Their first clutch in 2018.
 





 

 

 

CLICK HERE: LINKS TO ROSIE BIRD ON AMAZON.COM

 

 

My Novel, CAST ME NOT AWAY, is Now Available

Link to Amazon:  CAST ME NOT AWAY

Historic Facts: In 1939 a secret program, Aktion T4, was instigated by the Nazi’s designed to rid Germany of all children deemed unworthy of life. Later, it expanded to include mentally or physically handicapped adults. It is estimated that over 275,000 died under this edict and it set the stage for the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, Catholics and other enemies of the state.

Through it, the Nazi’s determined that death by gas chamber was more efficient and less costly than lethal injection. Hitler’s Nazi Party was horrible and cruel to millions ...

but let us not forget that it first began with the children ...

 

SYNOPSIS of CAST ME NOT AWAY:  Fast forward to a time and place where the future meets the past, and the abortion/euthanasia movement reaches its inevitable conclusion. Family size is strictly regulated everywhere, not just in China. The unborn are routinely aborted and unwanted children are labeled as useless, and sent away to be gassed and their bodies incinerated.

In this time of darkness, Mira Hastings and Grayson Stevens join a cadre of other brave individuals who stand against this mountain of evil by putting their lives on the line to rescue ill-fated children from certain death. In a bold attempt to bring down the beast, they publicly expose the greed and corruption that drives the system. Declared enemies of the state, Mira and Gray are forced underground as they flee the wrath of a vengeful government. On the run they encounter danger at every turn. But, with the aid of a network of supporters, they also encounter hope, joy…and love.

God Bless our Children. There, but for the Grace of God, go we.

 

Peace & Blessings,

Zara (also Rosie)

For Zara Heritage Books Website, Click Here

 

 

 

Exotic Bird Update From a Busy Writer Behind on Blogging

I can't believe the entire month has gone by and I've not posted anything. Going to squeak in a post on the last day of January just so the month's count won't be zero.

 

I'm busy editing two books. Cast Me Not Away should be perfect by the time it reaches print ... can't believe how long this book is taking. Began it in Nov., 2009. It's written, but being chopped and edited like crazy.  Zara Heritage is my pseudonym ... my real name belongs to so many others.



Potential Cover



Potential Cover

My Small Exotic Birds book is on hold until the novel above is finally done!  Which cover do you like best?

 

Meanwhile, all my breeder pairs want nest boxes. It's been sunny and warm as it usually gets every February on the Southern Oregon Coast. It's happening a little early this year. However, I'm making them wait a while longer. All our hens were allowed three clutches through Spring and Summer  and need a good long rest. Rosie raised 12 healthy babies last year, more than any of the others in 2014. We shall see what happens this year.

 

I've added a Lutino Bourke hen and am eager to hopefully see babies from her. Isn't she pretty? So is the mate I hope she will accept. Sweetheart is 3 years old. If 18-month-old Sunny absolutely refuses him, I do have a handsome male hatched early last summer, but he's still young.

Sunny and Sweetheart. Hopefully to become a mated pair.

Everyone have a wonderful 2015. May all your birds bring you joy, and if you're raising exotic birds, may all their eggs hatch and their offspring become beautiful, healthy birds.

Peace and Blessings for 2015.