New Parrotlet Mom & Dad & Sibling

[hollyhawkz]

Hi Parrotlet Folk!

My hubby Andre and I have two new parrotlets! Initially we were looking for a second conure to hang with our sweet Wawa, a black capped conure/pyrrhura. We thought about breeding, but didn't want to loose our beloved pet, then we though about an aratinga conure, then we thought about a breeding pair of black capped in addition to Wawa, then we thought about noise... then we went throught the whole process again several times... my head was spinning.

I ended up hooking up with a wonderful breeder in Vancouver, which is a hour and a half a way. Linda was bringing in two black capped babies to finish off hand feeding. Well, Linda also breeds parrotlets.

So... We started thinking about parrolets, and she had breeding pairs for sale! 2 Green / blue pairs for $180 and one blue / blue pair for $225. A very good deal. We were going to head in tomorrow to see them and the black capped babies until a woman emailed me back from a week ago. And the woman only lives 15 minutes away and her sister lives about 8 blocks away.

She had bought 2 pairs off Linda at a local bird mart, and her sister had bought one. Well she decided that two pairs were too noisy and her sister bought an amazon so she did not want the parrotlet any more.
She had one green pair and one blue pair, but had just changed them around because the blue male was very aggresive to the blue female, blood battles and all. She had the blue male with the green female for two weeks and they were lovey dovey. The green male was with the blue female and they are fine. She would have changed them back for me so I could have two blues, but I didn't want to be the cause of any bloodshed.

Anyway I bought the green male / blue female pair for $50.00 and her sister gave me her green male for free. I thought my friend may want one but no . I gave the free male to another great woman, Marci in Chilliwack, that breeds them. She will find him a good home for me.

I know the babies, if they ever breed, will be green unless by miracle the male is a blue split but I doubt it.

They have not been given names so we were thinking of Forrest and Sky, ideas for names are welcome.

The male is dying to come out for cuddles and human contact and gets it every chance he can LOL (they had little to none as they were being used for breeding pairs only) and the female is skittish. I am hoping she will at least get used to my hand in the cage.

So far they are not touching their fruits or veggies. The previous owner said they would not touch them. I will keep putting them in the cage every day if it takes a year. They went nuts over the millet spray, and the beak block and today I introduced them to soaked/sprouted seeds. So far only the female has eaten them. I am keeping my fingers crossed. The male's colour is pale, perhaps a juvenille thing, but I am hoping with sprouts it will go deep green instead of the greyish colour he is.

Any and all advise is more than welcome!

I don't have a camera...wish I did.

[UnPoquito]

Lucky you! I can't wait to see photos!!!

[ndeben]

Take the millet seeds and put individual seeds on fruit and veggies, they might get a taste and like it. I also put whole wheat pasta with fruit and veggie bits. My newest Buddy is new to foods, he was only fed seeds before our forever home. I also eat in front of him, and give him a seprate piece to try, (human saliva is bad for birds) he used to look at me like I had 2 heads. He is getting much better, the other to hogs, have no problem eating everything served.

[Amaranita]

If your male is grayish, he probably is a Lucida. It is a subspecies. Bigboy is a lucida . I was told this by Sandee Molenda. She is THE parrotlet maven. I will try to post a picture of Bigboy so you can see his coloring to compare to your Forrest. Bigboy will be 4 years old next month.

[hollyhawkz]

Hi Amaranita!
Yes, he looks exactly the same! Could you please explain what that means? Is it a color mutation? Or a different species? Both males looked like that. I will try the internet in the meantime.
Thanks

[Amaranita]

Hi, I got this info from the Parrotlet Alliance site. Hope it helps:

Pacific Parrotlet (Forpus coelestis)

Also known as Celestial Parrotlet or Lesson's Parrotlet
Distribution: Pacific side of Andes from West Ecuador to Northwestern Peru.
Length: 12-13 cm
Subspecies: F. c. lucida
Description: Forpus coelestis coelestis:: The male is green with cobalt blue flight feathers and a narrow blue streak that runs from the eyes to the back of the neck. The female lacks the blue under the wings, and has a lighter blue (mostly blue/green) streak running from the eyes towards the back of the neck, but is not the length or width of the male streak. Both have blue rumps, but the blue rump on the female is not as dark or defined as the male. Their eyes are dark brown, beak is flesh-pink, legs are pale pink, and the tail is very short.

Forpus coelestis lucida: The lucida Pacific parrotlet has most of the same characteristics and colors as the nominate (F.c. coelestis), except as noted: although mainly green, lucida males and females both have blue color on the underside of their wings and on their rump. The males' blue coloring on the rump is dark cobalt blue and the blue markings around the eye are darker than the female, which is similar to a male Pacific (nominate). Also, both male and female have a gray wash over the green coloring on the wings, and the male's underside also has a gray wash.