Manually keeping track of your breeding records

The best way that I have found to keep records of my cockatiel babies and their information is by using a notebook. In this notebook, you have Form A and Form B. Form A is the page that you use when you set up each breeding. Each breeding has its own page. I number each breeding as follows: The first breeding of 2015 will be numbered 1-15; the tenth breeding of 2015 is numbered 10-15, and so forth. Refer to this example of Form A.

You will of course, have blank lines at the bottom in which to fill in the chick's band number, color, sex, hatch, and remarks. I ran out of room, so just imagine that there are approximately 10 additional lines at the bottom. (Note from the Online Editor. I may add these to the form within a few days of when it goes online).

The "PAGE NO." at the top is their breeding number, i.e., 1-15 or 10-15, etc. I use the "Expectations" area for their genetic possibilities. If you fill out the pedigree area, you will know at a glance what the lineage of each baby is. Fill out one form for each pair that you set up and don't throw it out if nothing comes of the pairing - you will want to remember who was set up together and what happened.

Form B is the complete record of babies, listed numerically by band number. You will find that entire clutches of babies don't necessarily get listed together. If another baby from a different clutch gets banded in between babies from one clutch, they will not be listed together. It is important to keep the listings numeric by band number otherwise you will have to hunt for a particular baby. On Form B, you list the babies band number, color, sex, hatch date, cock (father), hen (mother), and disposition (what you did with it, or who bought it). The last column "PAGE NO." is the reference number of the breeding record that the baby came from, i.e., 1-15, 10-15.

By listing your babies with their band numbers numerically, when it comes time to make out your report to the Health Department, everything is already in a list. (Colorado regulations demand that licensed hobby breeders send in a yearly list of all psittacines sold and to whom.)

By filling out these simple forms you can keep yourself organized and quickly be able to tell the lineage of a baby, who the baby was sold to, or who its parents are. It is far easier to do it this way than to hunt up the information from your psittacine sales book (another of Colorado's tedious regs.).

Set up your loose-leaf notebook so that each year is separated with dividers, both Form A and Form B.

In addition to this method, I also keep index cards for every cockatiel I have. This index card is much easier to carry around than the notebook and allows me to spread them out on the floor to plan matings. As I decide on matings, I paper-clip the two cards together and enter the mating in the notebook when I get around to it. On this index card, I keep hatch date, parents, band number (of course!), color, sex, show results, and a record of any illness or medication. I also use it to record their weight along with the date their weight was taken. I use them to place on their show cage when the go in it so I know who is in there and I enter the information on their show tag directly from this index card. I would be pretty lost without these index cards! 

Preparing to breed

The first thing that a breeder must have accomplished before attempting to breed is to have healthy, well exercised stock that has been fed a nutritionally balanced diet. Depending n the size of your breeding operation, it would be advisable to select a few breeders and have them checked by a good avian vet. Cultures, fecals, gram stains are but a few of the procedures that can be performed to access the overall health of your flock. Exercise flights are essential for rounding out a disease free, well fed bird.

Now, you have the healthy birds from which to choose your breeding stock. It doesn't matter whether the plans are to exhibit birds in shows or just produce a few to sell for extra money, stock should be selected based on the NCS Standard of Perfection. Granted, no one has the perfect cockatiel, but the standard was developed to improve the entire species. A pet bird does not have to be of inferior quality.

Select mates that complement each other and compensate for the other's short comings. Do not concentrate bad faults by matching two birds with the same problem. 

This selection has now taken place. Two beautifully matched birds are now placed into a breeding pen. If the birds are sexually mature and ready for breeding, there will be a noticeable change in activity. A vocal courtship will ensue.

The male cockatiel will begin a very vocal courtship ritual when the pair is compatible. The song involves a two note melody that is repeated over and over again.  With one breeding pair, the song is cute. With twenty pairs, the melody is overwhelming! The song is emphasized by a head bobbing and punctuated at the end by a silent chattering movement of the beak. The female will also do this silent chattering.

If a nestbox is available, the male will enter the box and continue to sing, as well as knock on the sides to entice the female into the box. In some cases, mating will actually occur in the nestbox. More frequently, however, mating will occur on a perch. In order to assure a higher fertility rate it is essential that the perch be securely fastened to the sides of the breeding pend and that the diameter of the perch will enable the hen to have a secure hold during copulation.

If the pair is compatible, they will form a loose bond. Bonding is a characteristic where a pair works together for the good of both. In some birds this bonding is lifelong. Cockatiels are however, conveniently monogamous. In other words, they aren't true blue to their first mate.

Cockatiels are like most other birds in that they love to be preened by a friend. A compatible pair will preen each other, but not without an occasional pluck!

There is no set means by which to breed cockatiels and a wide variety of styles can be found among the NCS members. I'm sure that most breeders do use a nestbox. The material making up the nestbox is not as important as the size of the box or the diameter of the opening. Wood boxes are impossible to disinfect and plastic is expensive. Several breeders in my area of Texas use cardboard nestboxes that range in size from 12"x12"x12" to 12"x12"x16". They are inexpensive, store flat, and are disposable. The opening averages to be a 4" square. But keep in mind, if you are doing something different and it works for you, don't change it!

After the singing, dancing, knocking, preening, and peering into the nestbox all you have to do is wait! Soon eggs should appear and then all you have to do is worry about fertility, incubation, development, and on and on and on! But all of this comes later.

Good luck in your setup for breeding and we will talk about all the other worries later.

Breeding Stats

BREEDING AGE:  An absolute minimum of 12 months. However many breeders prefer to set up pairs between 18 and 24 months to allow for full maturity.

ONSET OF EGG LAYING:  Most pairs will produce eggs within ten to fourteen days after being placed in a breeding pen with an acceptable mate, nest box and conditioning diet. If the pair do not produce in a few weeks, try re-matching them to different mates or check their condition or or breeding environment, including photo-light period and humidity. 

INCUBATION: Eggs hatch between 18 and 21 days, depending upon when the hen first begins to sit the clutch. Virgin hens, in particular, may not sit until the second or third egg is laid.

BANDING:  Closed, coded, seamless leg bands serve as permanent identification and are available through national organizations. Depending on the bloodlines, chicks may banded between 10 days and two weeks of age, around the time the eye slits are opening. Very large chicks may need to be banded earlier.  Pet quality (smaller size) birds may even be banded a few days later.  (Check the chicks each morning to be certain the band remains on the leg). 

FLEDGING: Chicks leave the nest between four and five weeks of age. They are fully feathered except for a short tailand are still dependent upon their parents for food. They will learn from their parents to pick at food and return to the nest box at night to sleep until fully feathered. 

WEANING:  Chicks are fully weaned anywhere from seven to ten weeks (eight may be average) when parent-reared; or eight to ten weeks or even later when handfed.  Chicks which continue to beg for food and do not have a full crop should continue to be fed. Formal studies at U.C. Davis have demonstrated that chicks will wean when they are developmentally ready to do so and not before. Providing a water dish helps in the process of weaning when hand-feeding birds.  Stop feeding only when the chick's crops continue to be full at night, for several evenings,  showing they are capable of eating on their own.

CARDBOARD NEST BOXES FOR COCKATIELS

By Nancy Kizuka, Former NCS Judge


For several years now, we have used cardboard nestboxes in our cockatiel room.
Cleaning and disinfecting wooden nestboxes is such a demanding chore. Many people recommend drying nestboxes in the sun (next to impossible to do in Michigan in March - NO SUN!). Also, I could never figure out how to keep insects and droppings from wild birds away from the boxes. After reading and article with the suggestion of using cardboard boxes, Craig and I decided to give it a try.

We found a "container" company in the Yellow Pages. They manufacture the boxes, so we were able to buy them direct at a cost of 57 cents per box, purchased in bundles of 25. The boxes are 12x12x12 inch cubes. Craig has to put the boxes together. All done by folding and taping. Before taping the top shut, we put in three pieces of cardboard for the birds to chew up. We learned this the hard way. One or two layers of cardboard aren't enough to keep the birds (or eggs) in the box.

To attach the box to the breeding unit (cage), we use a piece of toe-molding with two screw-in cup hooks pushed through 2 holes at the top of the box. The molding is placed inside the box and the hooks come through the holes at the top of the box.

We cut the door, sides and bottom and fold it up. The birds often modify the opening so they can look out while they're incubating.

Cardboard nestboxes are great. The only drawback is the birds chewing through the cardboard and escaping or the eggs falling out. Three layers of cardboard usually prevents the latter. We only lost part of one clutch of eggs, BUT.... we lost one Whiteface Pearl male who left his nestbox, managed to get out of the birdroom and flew into the great outdoors when Craig was taking the trash out!

The advantages are numerous. The nestboxes are inexpensive. We just throw them away after each clutch. The molding with the hooks can be re-used. There is no cleaning and sterilizing to be done.

The boxes can be used for budgies, cockatiels, and grasskeets. Anything larger and the boxes would be reduced to nothing quite quickly.

It only takes about 10 minutes to put the nestbox together.

The tape we use is brown paper tape with glue on one side that is made wet with a sponge just as it is applied to the cardboard. It sticks just as quickly as an envelope flap.

The males are able to modify the entrance hole quite easily and seem to enjoy the ease of chewing the cardboard.

We still use wooden boxes for our amazons and conures. I sure wish there was cardboard though enough to withstand their beaks! We don't have to store a dozen or so wooden boxes now. We can buy the cardboard boxes at the start of each breeding season and out with the trash at the end.

Nancy Kizuka is a former NCS Panel Judge and has bred and exhibited many Champion cockatiels.