"Your website along (with your MOST AMAZING, DROP DEAD COCKATIELS I HAVE EVER SEEN) is awesome! I cannot believe there are actually cockatiels out there that look like this." - Joey, Ontario Canada
"I am just in awe with the wonderfully colored birds you have... Just wanted you to know how fantastic your birds are." - Debbie, Indiana
"You have one of the best web site and THE most beautiful Cockatiels I have seen. " - Adriana, Dallas Texas
"Don, The birds are just absolutely great! The one pearl pied and the normal felt like Turkeys when you hold them! THey are very full in the chest and solid birds!!" -Linda, Laguna Hills CA
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Many of my better pairs of birds stay together while resting after a long breeding
season. The bond they share after spending time in a smaller cage, with only each
other for company, can often form a partnership that continues long after breeding is
finished. I love seeing my choices for breeding partners manifest into a full blown
love affair and this also makes for very good parents to boot!
But, that's another story - and NOT this one...
Ares and 415 are what I call "a pedigree pairing". They look good on paper and their
chicks are remarkable - but, when the time comes for them to return to the main
flock, they immediately go their separate ways. Ares prefers the solitary role in the
aviary anyway. He courts ALL hens and picks fights with most of the boys, so he
stays pretty busy. 415 usually tries to find 412 (another beautiful hen) as quickly as
possible and the two band together for some fun in the sun.
Ares is one of my Foundation Greeson birds. A half and half Linebreeding on pair
#129, he is out of pair #238 - which are some of the largest birds ever produced in
the Greeson aviary. Het throws size, head and big puppy dog eyes onto his kids, but
these big babies can also tend to be on the short side, too (they need to be paired to
long birds to correct this).
415 is from Ree Maple and a granddaughter of her pair #54 cock, 55G-826-95. She
is very wide in the chest and not at all short - PLUS she has the MOST beautifully
perfect deep orange cheek spots I've seen on any bird! These she also gives freely
to her progeny, and that's just the icing on the cake!
The two don't love the babies, though. They sit very well and are attentive to the
eggs - but only while they're eggs. When the babies hatch, they feed sporadically
and have even attacked and killed their own chicks! I learned all of this the hard way
during the 2007 breeding season (their first together). They will probably continue to
be set up each year, because the babies truly are exceptional - BUT, I will begin by
replacing their fertile eggs with clear eggs and let another accomplished pair of birds
raise their babies.
This year, I have some GORGEOUS babies from these two. Again, I promise to post
photos as time allows.
All the best,
:)Don