My name is Pat Fielding. I live in Southport, UK.
I acquired my first redrumped parakeets about 12 years ago. I had three normal pairs given to me. I attempted to breed them in an aviary together. I soon learnt the hard way that they prefer to be one pair per flight. I did not breed anything successfully. Any young that were reared were killed by rival cocks. When we bought the house in Southport we reconstructed the original aviary so that it was split into three independent flights with a small safety porch. By this time I had lost a couple of the original birds. I bought in a further 5 birds which included a European blue cock, a dilute split blue pied cock, a blue pied hen, a normal split dilute cock and a normal hen. We then constructed the stock aviary to house surplus stock and any young I might be lucky enough to breed. The stock aviary comprises of 2 large flights with an entrance porch between the flights. Food trays slide onto a shelf half way up the back of each flight. Cocks are kept in one half and hens in another.
The birds that were paired up bred quite well and before long I had really got the breeding bug. Another breeding flight of the same design as the first was constructed. This meant I could breed each year with six pairs. I moved the stock birds into an avairy attached to the budgerigar room and now use the original stock flights to breed in. I now breed each year with 8 pairs
It was soon apparent that the blue pied birds and the European blues were of poor quality in comparison to the normals and dilute. Many died before they reached adulthood. I tried pairing the birds to normals in an attempt to improve the quality and extend their life expectancy. By doing this I hoped to increase the numbers of these colours in my aviaries. Unfortunately the three that were produced the season before last died by the time they were three months old.Over the last few years the blue family have all but died out. I have one blue cock remaining which I will continue to try and breed with
A few years ago I swapped 2 normal cocks for 2 UK olive pied hens. One of these bred quite well whilst the other never bred at all. In 2004 I bought in a lutino cock, a lutino hen and a split opaline cock. Later in 2004 I purchased aN opaline cock. I hope to develop a family of lutinos and opalines within my redrumped parakeet stock.
I feed the birds a small parakeet mixture on a daily basis. Three times a week during the breeding season I feed Cede egg food for Parrots ( contains dried insects), chick weed and sprouted seeds. Millet sprays are made available especially at the time the young leave the nest. The birds are given Moorgold (Stock Nutrition) in their water at twice a week, multivitamins once a week, probiotics once a week and plain water the rest of the week.