TO BREED WITH THE KAKARIKI

My breeding experiences with the Kakariki.
In the summer of 2002 I obtained two couples Kakarikis.
One couple   (goudgeel) and one couple  (goudgeel) x pied.

Both couples were placed in the aviary end of august.
Since I was told that these were young birds, I didn’t expect much. Everything was ready and the nest boxes were suspended.
One of the couples was interested pretty quick in one of the nest boxes.
This was the goudgeel x pied couple.
This couple had pretty quick there first nest of eggs. A total of no less than 9!
Of these 9 eggs there were 5 fertile eggs. That is very good. From those 5 eggs, 3 birds hatched and the other 2 eggs were expired.
The eggs hatch after an incubation period of approximately 20 days and the young stay about 50 days in the nest box before they fly out and don’t return in to the nest box.
The birds like it very much to take a bath. They even do that when they have young and then go back into the nest box soaking wet.
After a period of 20 days after the young have hatched, the mother starts a new breed in a second nest box.

I never experienced this so I was very curious how this would work out.
Well, the male took his tasks very serious and fed the young very good.                     He also had to take care of his female who was breeding in the other nest box.
The second breed turned up 8 eggs, of which 6 eggs were fertilized and finally 5 young hatched.
There was a difference of only 4 days between the first and the last young which indicates that the female starts to breed very late.                                                         These young also grew successful and after a period of 48 days they left the nest box.
The young raised by this couple are 8 in total. The relative pitch male/female is three male and five female.

31-01-2003
 The female laid her first egg in her nest box after a thorough       inspection.


 

08-02-2003
The female is apparently ready with the laying of the eggs. The nest of eggs is not larger than 3 eggs, which is apparently very small for the kakariki. A normal nest of eggs exists from  5 to 12 eggs.
The female is not yet really breeding, because she leaves the nest box very easily.

27-02-2003
The first 2 eggs hatched this week, but 1 young lay dead in the nest box the following day. The third egg expired. The young that came through is very

lively and is fed well.

02-03-2003
The young is growing well and receives all attention from his parents. This of course is a sheer of good luck when there is only one young in the nest box.

09-03-2003
Today we put a ring on the bird with a closed ring from the NBVV. The female is having interest for the other nest box, which is a bit early. The male is very protective, because he immediately sticks his head in the nest box entrance when I open it.

 
16-03-2003
The young expired. It had a full crop, but we have had a few cold nights and I think that the parents spent the past night in the box. In the mean time the female already laid two eggs in the other nest box.

23-03-2003
The new breed from the female are 6 eggs which is normal. At least 3 eggs are fertile, since they are already              doorbloed?

30-03-2003
At least 5 out of 6 eggs are fertile. They will hatch just about end of this week or early next week.

10-04-2003
Today 3 young hatched.

14-04-2003
The fourth young hatched and the last egg expired, because it got damaged.

20-04-2003
The last young expired two days later. I expect that the difference was to big between the first three and the last young. The other three young have been ringed already after 7 days.

27-04-2003
The young are growing well and the first yellow feathers are beginning to show. The back of the young are still covered with white down.

30-04-2003
Everything is going successful. The young are growing well and there is a significant difference in the size of the beaks. The way it looks right now it are 2 males and 1 female.

04-05-2003
We have in fact gone out the whole time of that we had to do with two pure yellow birds but now appears that one of the parent birds a split is for the pied or the cinnamon since there a few green feathers start to show.

26-05-2003

 

All three young have left the nest box and have already been removed of the parent birds. It is now end breeding season and the birds get the necessary rest.

Observation: Use no newspapers under on the floor of your cage

the chance exists, as it happens, that if these newspapers become wet, the ink might come free and since the kakariki gladly scratch on the floor and grabs everything it is possible that he swallows ink as well. The parent bird might not notice it, but the young will and maybe not the first breed but the second breed for sure will sense it.

 With all impact of serve and these are not pleasant because then a complete nest generally dies. I personally experienced it one time at my agapornide which also dragged of everything in the nest block including the newspapers which were split up on the floor layers and al.

The first breed reduced very well 4 young, 4 raised. The second breed on the other hand had also 4 young but none raised. Therefore I searched for information and got above story.

Therefore: you all are warned. But on the other side of developments in the breed one learns also.