Breeding Question

[Cupid07]

Hi Maggie,

I have two questions. A friend of mine told me about this gal she works with who has a grey. He is 8 years old. Anyhow, she just adopted another 16 year old grey from someone who came in to her store looking for a new home for her two birds. She said this 2nd one is a female so she has thought about possibly breeding them if they like each other. I guess my friend said she noticed that the bands on both birds start with the same ID letters so she actually thinks they may have come from the same breeder. I told my friend if they did, there could be a chance they were siblings and I would think this would be an issue if she tried to breed them. Is this true? Wouldn't breeding sibling greys be an issue for the offspring? Or am I wrong about this? I told my friend that she may want to have this gal try to find out if they are, in fact, realted before she tries breeding them. She isn't an actual breeder but thought it might be nice to see if the two of them are even interested in each other. I would hate to see this person try to do this and then have the babies have health issues or worse because they are "inbred". I know in many animals this is a big no no. There is a chance that the fact that their bands start with the same letter combination doesn't mean anything I suppose. Ironically enough, the bands start with the same letters that Cupid's band did. She doesn't know how to contact the breeder either. My friend already asked for me.

My other question is, how often will greys hatch babies or lay eggs? I'm not sure of the correct terminology. Is this a once a year event or do they reproduce more than once a year?

Other than the two questions, I am hanging in there and slowly dealing with my darling little Cupid being gone. It will be two weeks on Wednesday since I lost him & this Sunday is the two year anniversary of when I brought him home. I still hate the silence but I'm getting there bit by bit. It's going to take a long time before I feel I have healed from the loss. I had to pick up his ashes over the weekend which was more difficult than I anticipated but at least he's home again in a way. I think eventually, having him here will help give me some closure. At the very least, it made it more final & made me really see that he's not coming home the way I expected he would. I've noticed keeping busy helps and I'm still trying very hard to find this breeder, Ed Lubens, he came from with little success. It's too bad because I really would like to have his true hatch date for his plaque. I've even tried to figure out a registry or organization that breeders have to report their vaccination/testing results to by the band number but I'm thinking that doesn't exist either. And I truly have enjoyed reading the postings of other grey owners, your responses and hearing some of the stories they tell. Keep up the great work!

[Maggie-]

My answer to you is WHY does your friend want to breed the Greys? Although some say they are a little easier to breed than some parrots, I do not agree with that. They are "slow maturing" parrots, which means it takes longer for them to grow up. We theorize that in the wild, they stay in the family group for at least one year before then joining other adolescents. But in captivity, they are thrown at their human flocks at 3 months, sometimes younger. I believe that is the key reason why so many become nervous and even phobic. They lose great gaps in their development. So, my reaction is why does she want to do this?

Also, it is difficlt to feed and socialize. So many things can go wrong. There's an article written on it in the public article section.

But your friend's two Greys certainly could be in the same home. I would never recommend that they are put in the same cage together, unless it is their idea.

I don't know what would happen if you put siblings together to breed, but I cannot imagine that it is a good idea.

Greys in Africa have two breeding periods. They lay 3-5 eggs in the clutch and sit on them from 30-40 days.

I'm STILL so sorry about Cupid! I also think about him. For anyone reading this post, you can read about Cupid in the MEET section on this membership board.

I'm glad you are here and involved with the membership section.
Mag-

[Maggie]

Please read the following article:
http://www.africangreys.com/articles/be ... byfeed.htm
Maggie-

[Guest]

Hi Maggie,

Thanks for the response. This person isn't a friend of mine. She's someone that a friend of mine knows so I'm getting my info through a 2nd source. I don't know exactly why she would want to breed them other than the fact that she thought it would be something nice to do. I do know she has handled and fed baby birds to some degree as she works in a pet store that sells birds but as for the full extent of her knowledge, I am not sure. I told my friend I was going to ask you about it when she told me about this gal. I just thought if they had the same band initials then there could be a chance they were related. And at the least, I didn't think breeding siblings would be a good idea. I do know she said it was obviously up to the two grey's if they even showed interest in each other. And it wasn't something she was definitely going to do but something she was considering down the road. She currently does now own both greys and one is 8 & the other is 16. Because of the age difference, I'm not sure if it is possible they could be siblings as I don't know how late in life they can breed so the age gap may mean they came from different parents but possibly the same breeder.

Thanks also for the info on the breeding cycles. That was my own curiosity as the subject came up recently and I wasn't sure of the answer.

Thanks again for the response. I will pass this information along to my friend and she can talk to this gal she knows. She may decide not to try this at all.

Off to work I go....

[Maggie]

They could be from the same parents but obviously different clutches. But that is probably unlikely, given the amount of time between ages. But yes, from the same breeder. BUT...but...but (LOL!)

Interestingly, my Merlin and her older brother Domino met. Althougfh they were two years apart, they seemed to KNOW each other when they met....and became very close. That made my friend Eva and me discuss the breeder and parents. By golly, they were the same! Merle's "big brother" now lives happily in Germany, but they communicate when Eva and I speak on the phone.

Maggie-