The natural Approach to successful aviary management
take a closer look at some choices you will face sooner or later. At TopTiels, we
breed our Cockatiels two different ways and for two different purposes.
Colony Breeding:
We have a wonderful collection of Cockatiels to choose from when we begin
setting up our colony to breed. "Setting up" in a colony situation basically
involves the introduction of different birds from different aviaries, the subsequent
installation of nestboxes, an increase in softfoods (such as vegetables, sprouts
and sweetfeed), an increase in both showers and daylight and an increase in
calcium supplements.
Colony breeding not only promotes a bumper crop of babies at almost any time
of the year (except our hot summers) but it also affords the tiel owner the chance
to view Cockatiels at their finest. Our main colony is in a large enclosure that
measures 25 feet long, 15 feet deep and 8 1/2 feet high. It has a roof and two
skylights and is fully sheltered on the north and west top half. Full access to the
morning sun is available from the south and the semi-protected east side warms
the birds after a cold winter night.
Birds that breed here all spend time in this aviary and bring us an endless
amount of joy. We can sit and observe their complex community behaviors at any
time and (over the last year that our main aviary has been completed) we have
learned a great deal about their general habits, likes and dislikes by watching
them over our morning cups of coffee. The aviary currently houses about 35
pairs of tiels. We have a beautiful mix of DYC, WhiteFace, Cinnamons, Normal
Pearls, Pieds, Lutinos etc..
Inside the aviary, there are large Lemon and Eucalyptus trees in pots that our
flock loves to strip the bark & leaves off of. It's a morning routine for them to feed
and bathe in the sunshine and care for their young. We feed twice per day here
and morning feedings are all fresh foods. Our pairs anxiously await their sprouts
and vegetables everyday, but particularly while feeding their chicks. The
changing of the guard (when the hens leave their nightly nestbox responsibilities
and the cocks take over brooding) results in a "day aviary" consisting mostly of
females, so it's a little quieter in the mornings than in the evening.
This aviary produces big beautiful chicks for pets. We do not attempt colony
breeding while producing pedigreed and linebred birds. Birds housed in this
aviary are allowed to chose their own mate. We do not interfere in these choices
and we find that (under most circumstances) our pairs remain bonded throughout
their lives regardless of who we decide to temporarily pair them to. On occasion,
we do notice that chicks reared from a certain pair cannot possibly be a result of
their matings, so we have established that a hen can mate with more than one
male without the original mate's knowledge and can still successfully lay, hatch
and rear the resulting offspring with no ill effects from the original male. In fact,
after the males and females go about their mate swapping they typically rejoin
their original mate to raise the hen's clutch.
The only neighborhood drama in an established aviary comes between the
males and is usually over choice nestboxes. Ours have approximately 40
nestboxes to choose from and they each have their ideal location to secure. We
use wood nestboxes that measure 12 x 12 and these are filled with Aspen
shavings, cleaned and sanitized after each clutch has been removed for
handfeeding.
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