When Conures mate.

Question

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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello Chrys, I have read some of your answers and tried to open your website at http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/parrots_page1.html.
Your answers are excellent, but I only see a blank page on your website.
Here is my problem and question.
I have 4 Conures and 2 budgies living in a 4x3x2 foot cage.
I am not trying to breed any birds but I saw 2 conures mating more than a few times.
Now they spend 90% of their time in a wine box I gave them to play with.
I give them assorted boxes to play in and chew up. They sleep in them at night.
I think the two Conures might have started a family.  I live in China, and there are no bird supplies here.  What can I do to help them?  I do not want to alarm them or disturb them by opening the box. IF they have started a family, is there a 'non-commercial' food that I can give them, or is there anything I can do to help them along? They love fresh corn, sweet peas, leafy greens, uncooked oatmeal, and millet seeds. They do not eat apples, oranges, grapes, or nuts.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thank You.
-----Answer-----
Hi, Paul.  Thanks for posting!

Thanks for your kind words!  You have my website address wrong...it's:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.

Another good website is:  www.birdchannel.com

Your conures probably already have eggs in the wine box or are about to lay eggs in the box.  If they've mated, eggs are soon to come!  The first problem you'll have with this setup is all the birds in the same cage.  You really need to separate the breeding pair of conures from the other birds into their own, separate cage.  You really need to look into the wine box and see what's going on inside there!  Don't assume...look.  It's OK to disturb the adults...you'll need to do this regularly if/when they have eggs/babies anyhow.  

You shouldn't change a parrot's diet when they have eggs/babies.  Changing their diet can result in stress or digestive upsets and they don't need that right now (if they have eggs, they are under enough stress as it is), so leave a diet change for when they aren't breeding.  Just feed them what you've been feeding them up to this point in time.  A bird won't eat anything it doesn't recognize as food (until the bird is convinced what you are offering is something to eat), so trying to change their diet right now could be fruitless.  Actually, your birds need to be on a healthy, nutritious diet all the time, not only when they are mating/breeding/laying/raising babies.  In order to produce nice, healthy babies, the adult birds need to be eating well all the time.  

Nothing you can really do at this point in time to help them along except to learn all you can quickly about breeding parrots and caring for their offspring.  You need to move them into their own breeding cage, however, this might put the birds into a different frame of mind and they won't breed or could have the opposite effect and they will mate and lay eggs right away.  Look into that box today and make your move BEFORE they lay eggs (if they haven't already).  It would be worse to no avail to try to separate them from the others AFTER eggs have been laid.

Come back with any additional questions or if you need clarification.

Chrys

Hi Chrys,
Thank You for your excellent reply.
Two things.
1) The web site was from a link on your web page. You might want to change that if it is wrong.
2) Separating the birds.
It has been a week now since I noticed the one Conure remaining in the wine box.  It is a sturdy box, not easy to open and the bird has much material, paper, corn husks, etc., in there.
Tell me 'again' if you think I should open and look in the box, and if I should place them in a different and smaller cage.
From appearances, everything seems to be VERY peaceful.
The other birds keep their distance, and do not seem to be inquisitive or bothersome.
The parents act normal, feeding on the food I give them, and washing in the water dish.
I assume it is the mother that stays in the nest 95% of the time, and the father who is in there 75% of the time.

I say tell me 'again' to separate them from the other birds because they all seem to be getting along so very well.
I do not want to cause them any problem if there is none.
I understand that I will have to look in the box sooner or later, but I am worried that sooner 'might' be too soon.

From your reply I believe they have started their family.  They did mate several times, so they should definitely have produced eggs.  I had no idea that they would produce eggs, but since that event has probably occured I want to do what is best.
I DO have a few regular small bird cages that I can move them to if you tell me to do that.
I am just worried that the new surrounding will be stressful for them.
They have been in that large cage for more than a year now.

So just tell me 'one more time' to open the box and look in to see what is happening, and to separate them into a smaller cage.

I just want to be 'sure'.

Thank You for your patience.

From Paul

Answer
Hi again, Paul.

When there are more than 1 pair of breeding birds in a cage, other birds in the cage, especially female birds, get jealous/curious and may try to take over the nesting box (eggs/babies) of the breeding birds.  This is especially true of budgies.  Female budgies will even kill other females or their eggs/babies in order to get their way.  You don't say what species of conures these are...perhaps they are large enough to fend off the budgies, but they shouldn't have to.  This is why you need to look in the box and see what's going on inside.  If the birds don't have eggs yet, I recommend you move them or the other conures and budgies out.  Of course, this decision is up to you.  However, take it from someone with lots of experience that colony breeding usually doesn't work...there are exceptions of course.  The breeding pair of conures shouldn't have the added stress of protecting their offspring from other birds...they are under enough stress as it is with a potential family.

You need to look into the box anyway to see if there are eggs because you want to keep track of dates eggs are laid so you'll know when to expect them to hatch.  When you do this, you need to make the box so that you can check it regularly.  If/when babies come, you'll need to be checking inside the box at least once per day, perhaps more often to see if eggs hatch and to ensure babies are OK.  If something goes wrong, you must be prepared to handle the situation immediately.  

If you leave your setup like it is and all goes well, then great!  However, once eggs arrive, be aware that you may need to separate out the other conures and budgies ASAP if fighting or other erupts.

Chrys