# Breeding my Cockatiels



## hghosheh (Oct 20, 2014)

Hello Guys,

I am tying to make my tiels mate. They have showed signs, my male cockatiel Ash did the mating dance ritual thing and Misty my female cockatiel declared her nesting area. Ash inspects the nesting box and pecks on it. I leave them outside from dawn to sunset and then put them indoors and keep the lights so they can hvae 12 hours of light. I think they are not going inside the nesting box because it is too big. Can someone tell me if it is big or not because I have a smaller one and where is the best place I should place it? Thanks Guys


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## Ptolia (Oct 21, 2014)

It looks as though the box is inside the cage. If it is, I would say the cage is too small to house a nest box of any size. Hen's often have clutches of around 7 eggs and if they prove to be good parents and all the chicks hatch and survive, that is 9 birds in that cage. 

Usually a nest box for cockatiels is around 25cm (10in) square and about 30cm (12in) tall with a hole around7.5-10cm (3-5in) in diameter. 

Also, if you are moving the cage and nest box in and out each day this will deter the tiels from nesting because the earth keeps moving for them and that's not safe as far as they are concerned.

Think about how you have things set up from their point of view. Would you like a bedroom/nursery that used that much space in your house and lived on a fault-line where you had massive earthquakes twice a day?

I'm not meaning to sound negative, I'm just thinking about the well-being of your tiels and their babies. I'm sure you want what is best for them otherwise you wouldn't be trying to find out what is right...


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## hghosheh (Oct 20, 2014)

Hey Ptolia!
Thanks for your advice! I went and got them a smaller nesting box for about 5 dollars with about the same specifications you told. I also bought pinewood shavings and put an even layer in the box. I placed their cage in place where there is a lot of sunlight during the day. Thank god that here in Kuwait everything I need for my birds is cheap  I also add calcium and vitamins to their water that I got from the animal pharmacy. If you have any other tips please tell me.

Thanks !


http://imgdino.com/viewer.php?file=70982179946299396813.jpg


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

make sure your pine bedding is 2.5 - 3 inches deep (5-7.5 cm). My birds started to nest suddenly (I though I had boys) so I didn't have much knowledge by the time she started laying eggs, and I made my bedding not as deep as recommended. I had to add bedding material as they were incubating but this is not the best to do. 
Also, do they eat food other than seeds? They should be eating all sorts of food recommended for them, otherwise you may have a hard time training them to eat food when they need to feed babies. This is my another problem. 
Good luck!


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## TaelKHouri (Oct 31, 2014)

This is my first time using a forum, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I'm doing this right.

Anyway, I also have some questions regarding nest boxes. I brought home a male semi recently, Danny. As soon as they were allowed to cage together, him and Scootaloo, my female, started at it. She's a hussy apparently. She's 3 yrs old, and he's a little over a year old. They both eat their vegetables, and take their vitamins.

When they started mating I put in two different nesting boxes of different materials so they'd have options if my female laid eggs. Their cage is a very large, macaw sized caged, a little larger than those double door, stainless steel refrigerators (am I making sense?), so I can afford to put two. They're not lacking in space.

The two love each other very much, and my male immediately started working the nest box I put in for them. I gave them a few weeks, but she never did go in, though she acted like she really wanted to. I decided to take the boxes back out anyways, as I decided not to breed them yet. They stopped mating then, thankfully.

My question is, why was she so hesitant to go in the box? The hole was large enough, the bedding was shredded paper towels. The box was on the floor of the cage. Was it too dark for her liking? Did she not like the bedding? I'd appreciate any insight, so I can make a new box for her in the spring time. I'm not separating them, so I consider chicks an inevitability.

Also, my aunt is going to be teaching me how to incubate quail eggs, which have the same incubation time, and are the same size as tiel eggs. Hopefully I won't need those skills.


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