Colour differences in IRN's

[teiltown]

Hello.

I have a pair of Indian Ringnecks, which I hope to breed next year (2007) for the first time (Myself and my wife are breeding this year so we are limiting the birds to the lovebirds and perhaps one pair of cockatiels).

The pair consist of a Blue cock of 5yrs and a normal hen of 2+yrs. I have read that some birds will not accept another mate if they are of different colours. Has anyone experienced this problem?

One of the reasons I am asking this, is that the cock bird continually searches for places where he can see his reflection and does the bobbing of the head routine and chirps away to himself, whilst paying no attention to the hen, or chases her away.

I'm currently searching for a copy of the Indian ringneck breeders handbook, which maywell have a lot of questions answered within, but until then, is there anything I should be doing to encourage the two to bond (given that I have a season to work with them), or could it be that the hen is not quite sexually mature. They are living indoors at the moment and don't have access to a nesting box, the male will tolerate being handled whilst out of his cage, whilst teh female has been hand reared, but is not cuddly tame.

Any advice and help appreciated.


Kev

[Cliff Wright]

From your Blue Cock bird paired to a Normal Hen all young will be Green but will be split for Blue. The Blue is a recessive and splits paired to normals will produce Blue and Green / Blue. If your Green Hen is split for Blue you should produce Blue and all Green young will be split for Blue.